Why You Need an Open Government Program Management Office

Categorized Under: IT Solutions, Performance Management, Program Management + IT Management

This ICF white paper examines the challenges of complying with the U.S. Open Government directive and applies lessons learned from the previous administration's Electronic Government initiatives to recommend an approach to successfully implementing Open Government. The Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government calls for a new era of open government—defined as a government that is transparent, participatory, and collaborative.

Federal agencies have been tasked with registering high-value data sets, assigning a high-level official for data integrity, launching a web page on open government, providing a web page or other mechanism for public feedback, and providing an open government plan. Results are posted prominently on a dashboard. This new directive received much acclaim, and early success stories have demonstrated that the benefits of Open Government are self-evident. However, the directive leaves the details of how to accomplish those goals up to each agency.

Authored By

Jeff Baker
Senior Technical SpecialistICF International

Jeff Baker is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Six Sigma Green Belt (SSGB). He specializes in IT strategy; IT governance; IT project, program, and portfolio management; and enterprise architecture.

He has held leadership roles on multiproject software development programs for commercial and federal clients and has managed a program management office for electronic government initiatives. His governance experience includes the design of governance models comprising organizations, processes, performance metrics, and tools to ensure effective management oversight and control of the projects, assets, and resources. Mr. Baker received an M.S. in Management of Information Technology from the University of Virginia.