The Federal Chief Data Officers (CDO) Council has published its new goals for 2024-2025 to better leverage data as a strategic asset.
The CDO Council – established by the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 – is tasked with developing resources to support Federal CDOs, evaluating new tech for the collection and use of data, and coordinating with other Federal councils on data-related activities.
Currently, the council is slated to sunset in January 2025 unless it is rechartered. The CDO Council is led by Chair Kirsten Dalboe, CDO at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Vice Chair Rob King, CDO at the Department of Energy.
Nevertheless, the council – which is comprised of all agency-level CDOs – identified five goals for 2024 to 2025, each with accompanying objectives.
The first goal is to strengthen and empower the Federal workforce in the use of data. To achieve this goal, the council set three objectives: define data talent skills; establish a hiring pipeline of data professionals (data talent acquisition); and develop data talent.
The second goal is to professionalize the CDO function. This goal has four objectives: develop a CDO competency model; position CDOs to include data goals within agency strategic plans; explore credentialing programs used by other C-suite communities; and promote an inclusive and diverse CDO community.
The third goal is to optimize the business of the data lifecycle, such as costs, logistics, and burden. The council outlined four objectives for this goal: use the data governance board as strategic leverage; raise up the value stories of the CDO community; establish best practices for CDOs to evaluate their effectiveness and evaluate progress; and help CDOs be successful in change management.
The fourth goal is to optimize customer experience through efficient collection and use of data, also known as data input. This particular goal has five objectives: develop a data journey map; develop and advance Federal data collection best practices; promote awareness and use of data standards for common core data elements; identify opportunities for shared data acquisitions (such as subscriptions, tech licenses, and services); and partner with the Office of Management and Budget on opportunities to modernize the Paperwork Reduction Act.
Finally, the fifth goal is to empower modern digital experiences through data output. This goal also has five objectives: identify best practices for managing data to enable responsible A; create a risk framework for the use of open data in AI training models; enable user experiences to obtain meaningful responses from government data; advance data product management to ensure trusted data products; and modernize enterprise data inventory to meet user needs (such as feeding Data.gov).
