5 areas to start IT procurement reform

Few outside the arcane world of federal procurement have contemplated how the government buys and uses its technology. Until HealthCare.gov. The bungled Obamacare website rollout has drawn unprecedented attention to an $80 billion system layered with cost overruns, slow actions and shoddy outcomes. Here are five broad areas of reform experts suggest as a place to start:

1. Put someone in charge: Numerous agencies weigh in on technology procurement, but no one carefully monitors the entire process.
2. Prioritize people: The federal procurement process depends on contracting officers to help develop and oversee project contracts. But they often lack enough training and lose talent to sectors that pay more.
3. Stop the bidding wars: Government contracts present lucrative business and contractors fight hard. But long-term battles can slow the entire process.
4. Don’t fear the woodshed: The government’s intrinsic bureaucracy -- along with its political pressures and financial limitations -- have bred a culture petrified of risk. Contracting officers tend to stick with the safe choice, which limits outsiders from participating. Any real reform to federal IT, experts warn, must allow for ingenuity.
5. Throw away the rules: A complex tangle of regulations sometimes upends its very purpose: to ensure a smooth process.