WashingtonExec 2013 Government Contracting Outlook Series:
The new year brings big changes for the Federal IT industry, and WashingtonExec is back with its Government Contracting Industry Outlook Series.
We are giving local executives the opportunity to share their thoughts on where they see our industry headed this year and beyond. Leaders were asked a series of questions focused on cloud computing, healthcare IT, defense, mobility, and more.
Randall Good, Director of Technical Programs at SRI International, spoke with us about his predictions for 2013:
“In 2013, government and industry collaboration on Big Data issues will need to address technical and contracting challenges that are tightly connected.
Collaborative new methods of acquisition will replace long-established processes that are not optimized for the rapidly developing world of analytics and deployment of new capabilities.
These new methods must meet mission requirements and support a commercial/industrial base, too.
While Programs-of-Record will continue to be the cornerstone of acquisition, spin-out technologies from within these programs will become more common. Much like new sensor technologies are often spun out of platform development programs, analytic methods and tools developed as part of a toolkit will be adopted separately , independent of the completion of a larger program. This will provide the Government with early-adopter capabilities and offer industry the ability to do long-term program planning.
Development of analytic capabilities will be less of a “waterfall” and much more “agile,” with closely integrated development, test, and operational environments that allow the Government to rapidly try new capabilities.
These changes cannot be addressed by Government or industry independently. As they represent significant changes in the way everyone does business, collaboration will be necessary to identify and implement the solution.”
