CIO University

Public shaming can be a good thing if it promotes a change. That is what I hope to accomplish with this post. GSA's Office of Governmentwide Policy supports the CIO Council. The CIO Council, as you can probably guess is a board with representation from Department-level CIOs in the federal sector. Years ago the CIO Council thought it would be a good idea to encourage universities to adjust their programs to help develop the next generation of CIO leadership for the federal sector. GSA's Office of Governmentwide Policy ran this initiative and had an RFP to recognize some university programs that do a good job in meeting this need. Several good programs applied and were recognized based on that 2000 RFP. In fact, when I was looking at programs, this recognition figured heavily into my decision. The GW and Mason programs were both in that top tier of schools.

In the end though, I chose to go with the University of Virginia's Master of Science in the Management of Information Technology (MS MIT). This program is through the McIntire School of Commerce and borrows a great deal of vigor from the Darden Business School. But at its heart it is IT oriented. We don't jump into a great deal of statistics, but if I never have to analyze another pro forma financial statement I will be happy. But I digress, this program assembles the heavy topics that are important to IT management and those people aspiring to one day be CIOs. Enterprise Architecture, Program and Project Management, Enterprise Decision Making/Strategy and Financial Management are the four areas of focus. I feel very prepared to take that next step to be a CIO or Deputy CIO of an organization. In fact, a graduate of this program is currently the CIO of my agency and another former graduate is the CISO while yet another is an Associate CIO at the Department.

As such, it seems like the University of Virginia has a pretty good formula. This is why I can't understand GSA's Office of Governmentwide Partnership's decision to not re-examine educational programs. It has been almost 10 years since their initial and only RFP. But here is their same, broken, website, http://www.cio.gov/index.cfm?function=cio_university. It lists the initial winners, Mason, GW, Carnegie Mellon, which I assume is a part of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). They also have the University of Maryland. But then they have LaSalle and Syracuse as well. Syracuse??? No offense to anyone who went to Syracuse, but when I'm on their MS in Information Management page and click over to their Alumni Profiles page, there isn't anyone listed who is in the DC metropolitan area. So exactly how is this a benefit to the CIO Council??? The LaSalle program doesn't even seem to exist anymore. I went to the page that is linked from the CIO U site, http://www.lasalle.edu/admiss/grad/itl/ and it lists two campuses, both in Pennsylvania.

C'mon GSA. We should do better than this. The CIO U program is out of date and as it stands right now it doesn't add value. Programs like Virginia's MS MIT aren't recognized despite the fact that about 90% of the students in the Northern Virginia cohort either work for the federal government or support the government as a federal contractor. And programs that don't add value to the federal sector are recognized, dare I say, endorsed on a .gov website. Is that right?

To do this well the CIO Council should identify the elements that they think are important for developing the next generation of CIOs. They should treat this process like a real academic accreditation. A couple of these programs are only certificate programs. Ask yourself, why is that? Why are some the programs Masters level programs and some are certificate programs? The answer is simple, these programs have vastly different rigor behind them. To really add value the programs must be rigorous. To push the next generation of thinkers to come up with creative solutions to the problems we are facing today we need people who can look at and analyze the problem. We are not benefiting from people who merely pay their tuition and buy their certificate.

When I graduate from my UVA program I will receive a beautiful piece of parchment to put on a wall. Lucky for me, that is all the validation I need that I have developed the skills needed to rise to that high level of IT management. I don't need the CIO Council endorsement of my program to know that I am operating at that level.

If you are so motivated, you can contact Monica Fitzgerald, who works at GSA's Office of Governmentwide Policy and let her know how you feel about this issue.