Pennsylvania IT Transition Plan Announced

On June 6, Pennsylvania Gov. Rendell announced the appointment of state CIO Arthur C. Stephens to the post of deputy chief of staff. Today, in a memo to agency CIOs and IT managers, Stephens outlined some of the changes that will occur during the transition.

"In my new role," said Stephens in the memo, "I plan to continue to play a significant role in the major IT initiatives across the commonwealth including enterprise architecture, shared services, operation secure enterprise, statewide radio and key agency projects. Additionally, I will serve as the main point of contact for the Governor's Office in the community of practice process and continue to serve on the IT Governance Board."

Stephens announced that Kristen Miller will be acting CIO and deputy secretary for the Office for Information Technology. "I have tremendous confidence that Kristen will continue to lead OIT down the path that we have begun in a collaborative manner," he said.

"Third," said Stephens, "the IT Governance Board has approved the creation of deputy CIO positions for each community of practice. These deputy CIOs will be more readily accessible to agencies within that Community of Practice. They will help to:

• resolve issues that surface
• have approval authority for OIT on COP projects
• coordinate budgeting and funding across a community of practice
• work to define common processes to further define opportunities to increase our effectiveness.

"Secretary Masch, Kristen Miller, and I are working to fill these positions," said Stephens. "The Deputy CIO positions will be the primary contact for agencies in the future when you need services or answers from OIT."

Stephens also said that the Community of Practice planners will move from the Bureau of Planning and Administration to work for the Deputy CIOs to help ensure that there is much tighter integration with the Deputy CIO.