The Office of Management and Budget is trying to bring order to the data deluge impacting agencies, and chief data officers at agencies are point in fulfilling the guidance’s goals. Kris Rowley, chief data officer at the General Services Administration, says that the data roles are somewhat variable depending on the agency.
“The evidence and evaluation law lays out some very specific functions of a chief data officer, the Federal Data Strategy envisioned that a little bit more broadly, and identified some specific action items, and the recent OMB guidance coming out on the evidence and evaluation law provides some additional teeth and instruction,” Rowley said. “Those documents create an ecosystem where we have some definition, but enough latitude that each agency can define these roles uniquely to what their mission is.”
