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West became CIO in October 2003, before
which he was CIO of the National Weather Service and previously was
technical lead for the FirstGov website at GSA. In his FEMA role, he
oversees over 660 employees and contractors, who do engineering
software development, national operations center support, help desk
support at headquarters, customer service liaison, computer
programming, and networking and infrastructure specialties.
Bisnow: You're one of those government guys who ride a
Harley.
Yes, I've been riding since 1998. I started out
on a smaller one. Then two years ago, Harley celebrated its 100th
anniversary, so I purchased a 100th anniversary Road King Classic,
which is one of their larger cruising bikes.
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Where do you ride it?
With my job, I
don't get a lot of time to ride. But I've actually ridden it
to two conferences, the Executive Leadership Conference in
Hershey, and the Management of Change Conference in
Philadelphia. A dozen of us, people like Woody Hall, formerly
of Customs, and Sandy Bates from GSA.
So you're like a motorcycle gang. Do people look at
you and not realize you're CIOs?
They have no
clue. |
You have another extracurricular gig: President of the
American Council on Technology.
It's the old FGIPC, but
we changed our name — it was too laborious, people got tired of
saying it. We just had our 25th anniversary, but wanted to take on a
new life, the organization was a little dormant. We thought a name
change would be a good start. And we've changed to a membership
model. ACT is comprised of 18 councils, IAC being the largest, and
that's how you used to become a member.
How's being CIO of FEMA compare to being CIO of the
Weather Service?
This job is more exciting. I'm actually
part of the work that FEMA does, for example in recovery and
response. During Hurricane Charley, I worked all weekend with my
folks on the disaster itself. We provided the IT support at
headquarters and in the field, making sure the infrastructure was in
place. I have a Geospatial Information System Mapping Analysis
Center, and we provided all the maps that were used by government
agencies. Maps are actually an IT product.
What's your most interesting current
project?
Several. Interoperability issues, so first
responders can communicate, unlike during 9/11, and FEMA and DHS are
very much involved. And enterprise architecture: We've selected a
tool, finished our "as is" architecture, and are in the process of
creating our "to be" architecture. We've got all our architecture
right now in the Popkins tool [an enterprise architecture modeling
and repository tool] and we're working very closely with DHS on
this.
And your next benchmark in EA?
To integrate
enterprise architecture with our entire capital planning and
investment control process and align it with our IT strategic plan
and the FEMA strategic plan. Our goal is to make it a governance
tool, so I can use it during my IT review boards, purchasing
decisions, things like that.
How do you relate to the other CIOs at
DHS?
We have a DHS CIO Council, with a standing meeting
once a week for two hours and sometimes more, plus we do a lot
offline.
Where do you report?
I report via solid lines
both to the Chief of Operations and to the Under Secretary, and I
have a dotted line to the DHS CIO, Steve Cooper.
You're from western Maryland with family still here. Are
they happy you figured out a way to stay in this
area?
Yes, but I'm spending a lot of time at work!
:)
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Bisnow: People are bombarded by offers
for IT certifications. How useful are
these?
Well, there’s a lot of programs
and new ones seem to be created every day. Some
programs are through community colleges or online
universities, and some are given by vendors.
They’re obviously revenue sources so sometimes you
have to take the hype with a grain of salt. In
fact, programs come and go; a program ranked tops
one year might not even be around the next year.
But some are very valuable.
So
what are the good courses?
The
important thing is the staying power of the
technology or vendor. For example, firewalls are
going to be around for many years, so becoming a
Certified Firewall Analyst or Certified Intrusion
Analyst is probably worthwhile. If you use a
vendor’s program, you should consider how long
they’re going to be around. That might argue for a
Microsoft or Cisco. And certification in the
underlying technology, such as network support,
may be more valuable than in just one particular
network operation.
How about from
companies’ points of view?
The
instructional value is critical, not just the name
or subject. Graduates should be able to meet
performance-based standards after they complete
the program. If they do, it’s a great way for
employers to upgrade the skills of their
workforce. But it takes some savvy to separate the
wheat from the chaff, because there’s a lot of
chaff. |
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