Survey lists 10 hottest technology issues

Hiring and retaining skilled information technology workers is the biggest challenge facing federal technology professionals, according to a new survey of the federal IT community.

At the end of each year, the Association for Federal Information Resources Management (AFFIRM) releases the results of a survey of federal IT managers and executives to find out the top 10 challenges they face. While the top five challenges IT professionals listed were the same in 1997 and 1998, the 1999 survey brought forward a very different set of priorities than in previous years.

Preventing hacker attacks got second billing on the 1999 list, while e-commerce was cited as the third biggest challenge. The top challenge from 1998, "measuring IT contribution to mission performance," fell to number 17, while conquering the Y2K bug, not surprisingly, fell off the list completely.

Integrating or consolidating program and administrative information systems earned fourth place on the list, while using IT to improve customer service was listed in fifth place.

The survey also asked IT officials to rate the most important technologies for federal agencies. Internet and intranet technology topped the charts, followed by data warehousing and mining, electronic commerce and electronic data interchange, mobile computing, and records management.

Here are the top 10 IT challenges, according to the survey:

1. Hiring and retaining skilled professionals: This challenge moved up from 22nd place in 1998, proving that human IT capital is in great demand in agencies.
2. Preventing unauthorized system intrusions: Hackers, terrorists and other groups continue to threaten information security. Although this is a new entry on the survey, it received top billing as one of the toughest issues facing federal CIOs.
3. Implementing electronic commerce: Federal agencies must report to the Office of Management and Budget on how they used e-commerce in the last fiscal year and how they will use it this year. As a result, more and more agencies are relying on e-commerce solutions as ways to improve service and cut costs.
4. Integrating or consolidating program/administrative information systems: Many agencies' systems don't share information, making it hard for agencies to collect and analyze budget and performance data.
5. Using IT to improve service to customers/stakeholders/citizens: Agencies are increasingly relying on technology to meet public expectations for faster, cheaper and more readily available services.
6. Obtaining adequate funding: Federal government IT budgets have remained the same, on average, despite more pressure to make use of IT resources.
7. Implementing IT capital planning and investment management across agencies: The 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act requires agencies to take a structured and disciplined approach to capital planning.
8. Identifying specific CIO/IRM measures under government performance and results act and reporting on the results: Managers must define measures and outcomes to determine the success of IT investments.
9. Formulating an agency IT architecture: Agencies must make sure information flows seamlessly and that the security and privacy of all data is maintained.
10. Assessing and developing agency IT competence: IT professionals are concerned about training and educating employees in the skills they need to develop and maintain IT programs, systems and projects.

AFFIRM leaders said they hope the survey will help the CIO Council, a governmentwide panel of agencies' top IT executives, understand the key technology challenges facing the federal government.