FITARA 8.0 – No News is Good News

In place since 2014, the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) has aimed to provide guidance and checkpoints for agencies' modernization efforts. Over the years, the compliance status of the agencies has had its ups and downs.

The latest report card, issued in June 2019 showed fairly steady performance when it comes to meeting FITARA goals and mandates. This 8.0 report card was the first to include a cybersecurity score that focused on FISMA (Federal Information Security Modernization Act) compliance. This report also took out the score for Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) as the majority of agencies are holding steady on that score and/or it is complicated by technology interdependencies.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) looked at the agencies that received high FITARA marks and found some commonalities:

• Support from senior leadership
• Creation of a program focused on FITARA implementation
• Defined FITARA performance measures for all agencies/groups within the organization
• Appointment of a "FITARA executive," accountable for performance at each agency/group.

As agencies look to continue the improvement of their FITARA scores, there are a number of events that could inform strategy and tactics.

• CDM Central: Navigating the Cyber Roadmap (October 10, 2019; Washington, DC) -- This conference will discuss how CDM is accelerating Federal IT's journey towards improved mitigation of today's cyber threats and leading agencies along the highway of success. Topics will include what agencies can expect in the Federal CDM Dashboard revamp and what impact .govCAR, EINSTEIN, and TIC 3.0 will have on future CDM efforts.
• FCW Summit: IT Modernization (October 10, 2019; Washington, DC) - This summit will explore how agencies have navigated the policy developments, the workforce challenges and look at who has delivered the best transformation efforts in cybersecurity, shared services, secure cloud and next-generation networks and how technology made that possible.
• ICIT Fall Briefing: The Intersection of Leadership, Transformation and Security (October 17, 2019; Arlington, VA) -- During this ICIT Briefing, experts will discuss government-wide efforts around modernization, security, and data analytics, and offer first-hand insights on how to improve success through better leadership, operational execution, and implementation.
• Cyber Security Conference and Expo (November 14, 2019; Washington, DC) -- Digital Government Institute's 12th annual Cyber Security Conference will explore today's cyber threats and offer an opportunity for those supporting government security initiatives to collaborate on how to detect, protect, and respond to these challenges.
• AWS re:Invent (December 2-6, 2019, Las Vegas, NV) - This event provides an opportunity to be immersed in what the cloud has to offer as a modern infrastructure. Sessions will include a hands on look at implementing cloud in a variety of environments and applications.

Let us know what events you've found that help not just with FITARA compliance, but overall modernization efforts. Share your thoughts in the comments!