VA CIO wants to end IT failures

Roger Baker, the new chief information officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs, is hoping to create accountability and put an end to what has become one IT disaster after another at his agency.

His plan will require managers to deliver systems and applications incrementally, rather than all at once. If managers miss three key milestones, he will take steps such as stopping program development, analyzing and fixing problems, or even firing contractors if things appear to get out of hand.

Baker told nextgov.com that he plans to put on hold 40 to 50 programs, and talk to the managers about how to solve issues that have caused milestones to be missed.

"The main thing is to make it clear what the decision criteria are," Baker told Allan Holmes of nextgov.com. "Meeting the milestones becomes paramount." He added that it is imperative that something be done to stop to the IT failures at the VA.

For more on the CIO's new plan:
- see this nextgov.com article