August-20168GOVERNMENT CIO OUTLOOKOIN MYPINIONEmbracing Agile IT and Business Developmentur work, our responsibilities, our lives--the pace gets faster and faster. The world demands information and support more quickly than ever. And it is more critical than ever to match that speed, to adapt on the fly, and to rethink some of our core practices."Agility" has become a key term in business and in IT. It must be more than a buzzword. Organizations must be quick enough to meet demands, flexible enough to adapt to evolving processes, and resourceful enough to predict the unpredictable. They must effectively respond to changing environments while simultaneously remaining efficient and productive. In short, they must embrace agility as a core skill and find ways to foster it among employees and through business practices.Consider the challenges we face here at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), where our Office of Information and Technology (OI&T) is charged with providing, maintaining, and protecting the IT tools and services needed to support our nation's veterans:· Our IT landscape is rapidly changing--with mobile technologies, wearable technologies, and more. Every day we strive to more closely connect veterans with the services and benefits they have earned, whether they are communicating with a specialist over real-time video or entering personal health data through their smartphones.· The cyber environment grows increasingly complex. Millions of veterans and their families have entrusted their information and privacy to us, and protecting that information in the face of rapidly evolving threats is our No. 1 priority.· Veteran demographics are changing. The number of women veterans continues to increase, as does the number of veterans seeking specialty care or care in the community. We are constantly striving to provide all our patients with the individualized care that works best for them. Organizations must be quick enough to meet demands, flexible enough to adapt to evolving processes, and resourceful enough to predict the unpredictableLaVerne Council, Assistant Secretary for IT & CIO, U.S. Department of Veterans AffairsOByLaVerne Council
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