Weekly Roundup: March 27-March 31, 2023

The 12 tricks to getting things done, from ‘deliverologist’ Sir Michael Barber. A self-confessed ‘deliverologist’, Barber understands how to get things done — a skill that is fundamental to good leadership. Barber is most famous for setting up and running Tony Blair’s Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit. It’s a function that was later copied by governments across the world. After spending time at McKinsey, Pearson and in elite sport advising Team Sky and England Football, Barber has written a book sharing his advice called ‘Accomplishment: How to Achieve Ambitious and Challenging Things’.

USAID shifting modernization focus from remote to hybrid. he United States Agency for International Development, like many other agencies, is focused on its modernization efforts for employees to have the best experience in the hybrid environment and the workforce. Still new to the agency, but with experience in IT leadership, USAID’s Chief Information Officer Jason Gray said it was refreshing to see the agency embrace technology and modernization.

DoD Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office Launches Hack the Pentagon Website. The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) Directorate for Digital Services (DDS) has launched a website (www.hackthepentagon.mil) to accompany their long-running program: Hack the Pentagon (HtP).

DOD Makes Headway on Cloud Computing. The Defense Department is moving ahead quickly on the adoption of cloud computing and implementation of a “zero trust” computing environment, the Defense Department’s chief information officer told lawmakers. “At last, the department has access to enterprise cloud capabilities from four world-class U.S. vendors at all three security classification levels from the continental United States to the tactical edge,” said John B. Sherman. The enterprise will help the department advance its Joint All Domain Command and Control effort and will further enhance efforts involving artificial intelligence and machine learning efforts, software modernization and cybersecurity.

Despite initial challenges, DoD on track to finish deployment of new EHR by next year. The Defense Department is nearing the finish line in deploying its new, multibillion dollar electronic health record around the world. But the program executive office DoD stood up a decade ago to manage the project isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. After all, as the saying goes, software is never done. MHS Genesis is now live at 75% of DoD’s clinics and hospitals, with 160,000 users and 6.1 million beneficiaries in the system so far. The department is on track to finish the project, including the addition of its overseas military treatment facilities (MTFs), by next March, according to DoD’s 2024 budget submission.

DARPA Official Warns Against Generative AI Impact. A top Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) official said this week that generative AI – like ChatGPT – will alter the threat landscape by making it easier for adversaries to produce high-quality phishing capabilities and ransomware campaigns. DARPA’s Director of the Information Innovation Office, Kathleen Fisher, explained that as AI evolves, the technology will advance to allow people with less experience to create more cyberattacks.

Don’t let Perfection Hinder Good Data Management. The perfect data management approach doesn’t exist, according to government experts. And because nobody’s perfect, they advised organizations to stop striving for perfection in data management and instead settle for “good enough” to reach effectiveness. Experts explain how a dreamy data management utopia is not a reality, and data scientists should focus on achievable outcomes. “Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the ‘good enough,’” said Hengyi Hu, chief data analytics officer at the U.S. Product Consumer Safety Commission. “And sometimes a ‘good enough’ is a 20 percent solution – it’s just to get your feet wet.”