Working Session: Government-as-a-Service (GAAS)

In this working session, participants will be divided into groups to collaboratively develop ideas for how
government can operate like a modern technology enterprise.

Participants in each session will help develop a strategy for their topic area. Participants will be
encouraged to provide concrete steps that government can take to move each strategy forward and
identify where they may be able to provide support to these efforts.

Working Group 1: Cloud/Infrastructure Strategy

Moving to cloud applications, platforms, and infrastructure can reduce Federal costs, provide improved
security, and allow agencies to focus on their core missions. The Federal government has had a Cloud
First policy for over half a decade, yet little progress has been made in this area. We need to close this
gap between policy and operational reality.

In this working group, participants should address the following questions:

1. What are the best practices from the private sector that government should leverage to
transition to cloud services? What are the best private-sector examples of large-scale
migrations?

2. In the context of cloud services, how should the Federal government approach data center
consolidation and optimization?

3. What is the best advice/lessons learned regarding the operation of hybrid environments, where
legacy systems or data must integrate seamlessly in a unified business process with cloud
services?

4. How can the government build a successful cloud market place that the private sector would
support?

Working Group 2: Citizen Services Strategy

The American people should be able to interact with the government the way that they do with the best
private-sector companies through intuitive digital experiences that effectively solve problems.
Currently, when the American people interact with their Federal government, they frequently encounter
a very poor experience defined by outdated websites, unhelpful call centers, and thousands of pages of
paper-based forms.

In this working group, participants should address the following questions:

1. How can the Federal government make citizen services more intuitive, user-friendly and
effective?

2. How can the Federal government accelerate efforts to transition from paper-based or pdf forms
to digital-by-default experiences?
 3. How can government data be opened to the public to most effectively encourage private sector
innovation? Which transactional APIs would best enable private sector innovation on top of the
service?

Working Group 3: Analytics /Dashboard Strategy

With such a vast enterprise, it is difficult for both policy-makers and the public to know how agencies
are performing. In contrast to data-driven organizations that continuously leverage real-time
information to track outcomes and optimize performance, the government is too often governed by
anecdote and procedural compliance. The White House envisions a strategy in which the public is able
to track Federal operations, often in real-time or near real time.

In this working group, participants should address the following questions:

1. What are the key elements of an Analytics / Dashboard strategy for the Federal government?
How are data-driven organizations in the private sector making use of analytics dashboards to
inform management decision-making?

2. What are the elements the private sector chooses to measure to ensure that outcomes are
emphasized over outputs? What metric (or a small set of common metrics) should be used to
measure performance across the portfolio of Federal government services?

3. What more can be done to make Federal data accessible for analysis by the public?

Working Group 4: Cybersecurity Strategy

The Federal government requires a coherent strategy for protecting the data of the American people it
possesses from theft, as well as making the digital services of the nation resistant and resilient in the
face of cyber-attacks. Federal agencies are operating legacy systems that were not designed with
current day security requirements in mind. This working group should explore strategies which enable
Federal agencies to protect the data that they hold from even the most advanced adversaries.

In this working group, participants should address the following questions:

1. What cybersecurity best practices from the private sector should the government adopt? Are
there clear lessons learned from the private sectors experience with cybersecurity incidents?
What are the top metrics used by the private sector to track their cybersecurity programs?

2. How would increasing reliance on commercial cloud providers and reducing data centers impact
cybersecurity? How does industry maintain control of proprietary or sensitive company data
when leveraging these providers?

3. As the government looks to rely more on managed services and commercial platforms, how do
they achieve confidence there has been follow-through to adequately address intrusions?
Working Group 5: Big Data/Detecting and Eliminating Fraud

Big data can be used to solve some of the most important and historically intractable problems. For
example, fraud on government services costs the taxpayers tens of billions of dollars each year. Previous
approaches to eliminating fraud have focused on process solutions, rather than leveraging the best
technology to ensure that taxpayer money is used for those it was intended.

In this working group, participants should address the following questions:

1. Which problems facing the government lend themselves best to being solved by big
data/advanced analytics?

2. How can advanced analytical approaches (big data, machine learning, etc.) be used to detect
and eliminate fraud?

3. What is the best approach to addressing this problem? For example, can the government set up
a trial at a specific agency to prove the approach, while leveraging the best minds from the
private sector to work on the problem?

Working Session 2: Supporting/Other topics

In this working session, participants will be divided into groups to examine what steps must be taken to
enable the government and private sector to work together on technology transformation. In addition,
given the interest in H-1B Visa Reform, we have included a session discussing that topic.

Working Group 6: Purchasing and Contracting Reform

The Federal government is one of the largest buyers of products and services in the country, spending
more than $80 billion on information technology systems alone. Yet, despite these considerable
investments, projects are routinely over-budget, delayed and underperform expectations.

In this working group, participants should address the following questions:

1. Can working group members identify specific areas where government purchasing and
contracting requirements could be improved?

2. How can the Federal procurement process be modified to encourage innovative new entrants
into the Federal marketplace?

3. How could a robust ecosystem of large, medium and small (start-up) technology companies be
facilitated to work on government services?

Working Group 7: Talent/Recruiting/Retraining

Federal agencies need the best people to work on solving their problems. The Federal workforce needs
to be refreshed with new entrants, while simultaneously retraining existing staff for todays workplace.
In this working group, participants should address the following questions:

1. How should the government improve its recruiting approaches?

2. What should be done to develop a tradition of public service in the technology industry, similar
to what exists in the legal, medical, science and finance professions?

3. What are best practices for transitioning and re-training staff working on traditional systems to
modern systems?

Working Group 8: Government/Private/Academic Sector Partnerships

The White House Office of American Innovation believes that the best minds in the country should be
work together on the largest problems. The private sector can play a critical role in helping achieve the
vision of government modernization. This working group will be tasked with brainstorming creative
models that the government and private sector can use to solve problems.

In this working group, participants should address the following questions:

1. How can the private sector help government develop and implement strategies for its largest
technology problems?

2. Are private sector leaders amenable to increasing opportunities for employees to work in
government for a period on an exchange program? Would private companies support a program
to allow their employees to take a leave of absence to consult for or work in the government for
a short time (assuring them a job when they return, pausing their stock options, etc.)?

3. How can the best technology universities be included and involved in partnerships?

Working Group 9: H-1B/Immigration

The Executive Order of April 18, 2017 prioritizes the proper functioning of the H-1B visa program by
instructing Administration stakeholders to develop reforms that help ensure that these visas are
awarded to the most-skilled or highest-paid beneficiaries.

In this working group, participants should address the following question:

1. How can the H-1B visa program be modified to ensure that they are issued to the highest skilled
and highest paid workers, and eliminate examples of the programs abuse?

Working Group 10: Future Trends

Government technology-enabled services are often 10-20 years out of date. Simply modernizing them
would have a dramatic impact on the quality of life of the average American citizen. However, there are
a number of exciting trends that the government should consider embracing.
In this working group, participants should address the following questions:

1. What emerging technology trends not already discussed in other streams should the
government consider??

2. Is there an opportunity to leap-frog to these emerging trends, rather than simply catching up
to todays technology? If so, what steps would you recommend taking to achieve that goal?