+ Building Government IT 2.0:
My Experiences as Chief IT
Strategist at USPTO
Marti Hearst
March 19, 2012
+
About Me

Computational Linguistics

“Hearst patterns”

Discourse / TextTiling

Boundary Detection

Semantic Relations

HCI/Search User Interfaces
 Faceted Navigation
 Tilebars Visualization
 Automating Metrics for
Usability
 Biosearch
+
Why Should You Care About
Government IT?
 Your
$$$$$$ (~$81 B on IT in 2012)
 Software
 Masters
Engineering Practices
of Engineering Program
Industry Fails at IT
Year
Company
Cost
2005
2004
2004
2004
2004
Hudson Bay Co
Avis Europe PLC
Ford Motor Co
J Sainsbury PLC
Hewlett-Packard Co
$33.2 M
$54.4 M
$400 M
$527 M
$160M
Why Software Fails, R. Charette, IEEE Spectrum Sept 2005
Government Fails at IT
Year
Agency
Cost
2001-2005
FBI Virtual Case File System
$170 M
2005-2010
FBI Virtual Case File System
$450 M
1987-1995
IRS Business System
$3 B
1995 – now IRS Business System (some working)
$5 B
2000-2009
VA Outpatient Scheduling
$127 M
2002-2009
FEMA claims System
$40 M
1983-2002
USPTO Patent System
$1 B
2006-2009
USPTO Patent System (PFW)
$?? M
GAO report, May 27, 2010 www.gao.gov/new.items/d10579.pd
http://fcw.com/articles/2009/11/20/it-turkeys-7-government-projects-gone-wrong.aspx
GAO report, June 2005, ttp://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05336.pdf
Why Software Fails, R. Charette, IEEE Spectrum Sept 2005
Why Did I Do It?
+
Federal Government Service
If you go into government, be sure you work directly for a winning
change agent.
+
David Kappos
Director & Undersecretary
2 Below POTUS
UC Davis Computer Engineering
UC Berkeley Law
IBM IP VP
+
USPTO Overview Statistics

~10,000 Employees

~500,000 patent appl’s/year

~400,000 trademark appl’s/year

~$2.5B annual budget

~$350M spend on IT/year
+

Backlog: 655,00 from 770,000 peak



Ranking in Annual Survey of Federal
Employees Job Satisfaction (out of 240)

A Winning Team
Average 5%/year increase in filings
Lowest total in 5 years
From # 172 (2007) to #19 (2011)
 Reduced achievement gaps
 Co-negotiated with unions
 Leading telework program

International Advances

Innovative Programs to Improve Patents







New Quality Measures
Fast Track (speed up patent appl’s)
Ombudsman program
First action interview program
New work counting agreement
Hiring of experienced IP professionals
Refresher training
+
Some Measurable Improvements
+
+
What Was Broken in Patents IT?

All documents in image form.


A complex, huge, centralized data storage system.



Converted several times.
No notion of status
New document ID codes added at will
Every piece in silos

New functionality added in many different places

Atrocious interface design

Inextensible and Inflexible


Indexing the search system requires 4 months and $Ms to change
Examiners top requests:



Doesn’t crash.
Isn’t slow.
Is up all the time.
+
What Are the Hurdles?
 Ingrained
 Rules
Habits and Pessimism
Preventing:
 User-Centered
Design
 Agile Software Development
 IT
Staffing and Hiring
 Procurement
 Rules
Rules and Myths
Around Budgeting
 Vendors
 Oversight
+
+ Changes and Successes

Hired Professional IT Managers

Invented New Procurement Methods

Procured Strong Software Contractors

Institutionalized User Centered Design

Facilitated Agile Software Development

Instituted Service Oriented Architecture

Earned the Trust of User Stakeholders

Early Successes:





Online Manuals
Front End for Patent Examiners
New Search Tool
Many smaller successes
“Rebooted IT at the USPTO” – Director Kappos
+
Remaining Challenges
 Need
more strong IT Staff
 Procurement:
 Converting
still very difficult and very slow
Legacy Data is a Nightmare
 Communication
+
Reform at the Federal Level
+
How to Fix All This?
Point Plan for Reforming IT
+ 25
Current status: cio.gov/modules/itreform
+
25 Point Plan for Reforming IT
+
25 Point Plan for Reforming IT
+
25 Point Plan for Reforming IT
+
Enabling User-Centered Design
 Legal
Hurdles:
 Paperwork Reduction Act
 ~6 months to ask questions of 10 or more
people
 Solution:
 Special
new guidance created.
 Only takes 5 days!
 Applies
to customer-service related information
gathering.
+
Strengthen Program Management
 Design
an IT management career path
 Enable
mobility across govt and industry
 Launch
a technology fellows program
 Require
integrated program teams
+
+
Enabling User-Centered Design
A
brand new program!
 Started
Fall 2011
 2 year paid fellowship
 Rotate among agencies
 Builds
on the highly successful Presidential
Management Fellows program
 Trains
leaders for Federal Government Service
 Usually a terrific cohort
 Must
apply in the Fall before graduating with a
masters or PhD
 But
very few opportunities for non-US citizens
+Summary

It is still very difficult to successfully
develop IT in government.

However, many reform efforts are greatly
improving the situation.





An IT-savvy administration.
A focus on usability and citizen input.
The 25 point plan.
Additional changes in procurement guidance.
Academics, researchers, and practitioners
can all help!