IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council announced Monday that IT project management will be recognized as a career discipline within the government, a move that officials say will make it easier for the government to attract and retain IT professionals to run a growing number of technology projects. Traditionally, project managers have not fit easily into the job selection and reward criteria of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). As a result, a formal government-wide system for selecting and rewarding project managers does not exist except in some agencies within the Department of Defense, officials said in making the announcement during the Industry Advisory Council's Executive Leadership Conference here. The council provides a forum where the federal government and IT industry officials can exchange ideas about IT, and the conference is an annual event where they interact face-to-face.

Currently, recognizing IT project management as a career disciplined is not "ingrained" in the government, said Ira Hobbs, deputy CIO of the Department of Agriculture.

"What you find is good people who are project managers, and in order to keep them you have to promote them into something they are not," Hobbs said ahead of a press conference to announce the new policy. "There's never been a definition to the work that they do, and now we are providing that definition. This will help the government tremendously both in terms of recruiting and retaining IT project managers."

Hobbs, who is also co-chairman of the Federal CIO Council's Human Capital and Workforce for IT Committee, said the recognition doesn't mean IT managers are in for a pay raise, but it means they will be able to see clearly where they stand on the ladder for promotions, and managers who are seeking IT project managers can publicize that information when they advertise those positions.

With hundreds of e-government programs already under way, there is a huge need for the new recognition in government, Hobbs said, noting that the cause of failure in IT projects is often a lack of project management leadership skills.

Quelle: Network World Fusion