So Dick Burk of HUD was finally named as the government's Chief Architect last week. In my view, this is a good appointment, and one that will hopefully maintain momentum in that office.
Dick's done a great job over at HUD and his office has begun the long hard task of producing blueprints of HUD lines of business. With an intimate interest in the grants management domain, I've watched this with growing fascination.
The subject of grants management systems at HUD is a sore one. Well, it's a sore subject pretty much everywhere in the government but particularly at HUD, where there is a horrendous number of duplicative systems and redundant data. A modernization attempt in 2000 didn't pan out as anyone wanted (least of all the contractor) and the whole line of business has been left to fester since. Given that history, HUD has done a sterling job of getting their domain experts to even come up with the high-level blueprint that's on the table now.
If Dick could pull that off -- and the initiative is still very much alive and proceeding, from what I understand -- then he may be able to do for the FEA what he did for HUD. Namely, give it a fresh shot in the arm, with enthusiasm for the subject tempered with many years of experience in the subject matter.
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