Delivering on the Promise of Government for the People

Each administration issues a President's Management Agenda (PMA) that lays out several key goals around transforming the way government does "business." In his PMA, President Biden challenges agencies to "prove that government can deliver results." The guidance goes further to define success as results that are equitable, effective, and accountable. The PMA has three key areas of focus that aim to advance efforts currently in place with additional counsel and resources.

Priority 1: Strengthening and Empowering the Federal Workforce

The once feared "retirement tsunami" in reality has been a slow, steady wave, but incredibly impactful, nonetheless. As long-tenured federal employees retire, they take with them a valuable trove of knowledge - of what has worked and not worked overtime as well as how to navigate the bureaucracy of government. It is important to take that information out of employees' heads and document it in systems so that future teams have access to the experience.

Beyond retaining their knowledge, the role these employees play also needs replacing. Recruiting, training, and retaining are key focus areas of the PMA. To fill senior roles, existing employees need training to advance into these more strategic positions. For more tactical work, agencies are challenged to find ways to automate some manual efforts.

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Looking Past the Cloud and Into Space

While the focus of government modernization has been transitioning government into the Cloud, NASA and Space Force have their sights set even further. Both organizations are focused on bringing "new knowledge and opportunities back to Earth."

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Show Me the Data!

Data is critical to that mission. Using data, NASA leaders have set a goal to accelerate the time it takes to release innovations to the market by 25%. This data use challenge is common across government, and becomes even more complex when you have to get data from where it is to where it's needed and that movement involves data coming from space.

Being a new agency, Space Force is able to implement many digital born systems, but working with legacy data and systems is a constant challenge that requires innovative thinking. Critical to this is understanding a technology's application to a specific mission and effectively communicating its impact to leaders to help reduce barriers to changing "how it's always been done."

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