The Association for Federal
Information Resources Management and GCN last month hosted a roundtable
discussion of the Office of Management and Budget’s Lines of Business
initiatives. The 10 participants in the roundtable generally agreed that Lines
of Business can work, while acknowledging that a lot of challenges lie ahead.

What follows is an
abbreviated version of the discussion. To read more, go to www.gcn.com and enter
428 into the Quickfind search box.

Tom Temin, editor in chief
for GCN and Washington Technology, moderated the discussion.

The participants:

Scott Charbo, Agriculture
Department CIO

Linda Cureton, Alcohol,
Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives Bureau deputy CIO

Larry Gross, Treasury
Department acting CIO for E-Government

Charles Havekost, Health
and Human Services CIO

Randolph Hite, Government
Accountability Office director for IT Architecture and Systems Issues

Mark Krzysko, Defense
Department deputy director for Electronic Business, Defense Procurement and
Acquisition Policy

Tarrazia Marton,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement CIO

Price Roe, Justice
Department special assistant to the CIO

John Sindelar, General
Services Administration deputy associate administrator, Office of Governmentwide
Policy

Melissa Wojciak, House
Government Reform Committee staff director.

TEMIN: Well, Tarrazia
and I were discussing, when we came in, that there is not a lot known about how
Lines of Business will be accepted. It is a good thing in the eyes of OMB. So
what's your perspective on where we actually stand with picking Lines of
Business Centers of Excellence and moving toward them?

Price, I'm going to call on you.

ROE: Yes, I think we
know it's real because we are held accountable by OMB. One of the greatest
challenges for us—I say "us" meaning
the federal community—has been looking at the
volume and trying to figure out to what extent there is wheat and chaff as it
relates to an individual agency's mission.

It's the heartburn that sometimes accompanies these very good
initiatives.

So they are all real but there's going to be more—some
are going to have a greater alignment with the mission and, therefore, greater
focus and, therefore, receive more resources from within the department. And not
all are created equal in terms of what we are able to spend our time on.