Data Makes All the Difference

Here at VISTA, we've often said that real property asset management under the new federal regulations requires a paradigm shift from the historically accepted way by which the government has handled its inventory.

Increasingly, what seems clear is that the federal government's real property inventory must be seen as data to support management decisions. These decisions might be financially-based, or they may have to do with physical or information security, or they may be used to get the best possible use from the available inventory - but in any case it requires the collection of data in a shared repository for multiple applications.

In a way, it's the "chicken and egg" question, posed of Information Technology: What's more important, the Information or the Technology?

Obviously, without today's advancements in technology, very little could be done in regards to the decisions described above. Technology is the vehicle in which these decisions are made.

But Information is the fuel.

When new paradigms are called for, it's not enough to apply some technological remedy. The technology has to be used in the context of the available information. The more complete and accurate the information, the easier it is to apply technology, to get the best results.

Without complete information, loopholes can be introduced in even the best technological solutions. For example, the next milestone related to Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) is Oct. 27, 2006. By then agencies must be ready to issue FIPS 201-compliant cards to federal employees as part of a uniform governmentwide physical and information security system.

How can you be assured of an ironclad physical security system if you don't have a complete handle on your real property inventory? In this issue of Managing Change, we address that possible shortcoming in an article titled "Can Federal Security be Threatened by Lack of Real Property Knowledge?"

An important collection of data for proper operations and maintenance budgeting in real property is condition assessment. We've seen some real property professionals shy away from comprehensive condition assessments because of the perceived high cost of such work.

And yet, condition assessment does not necessarily require a heavy investment in human capital year after year. When condition assessment data is compiled and routinely updated in an IT-based decision support solution, better financial forecasting can be done with relative ease, and with a comparatively minimal impact on an agency's operational budget. For more information, see the article "Condition Assessment: The Advantage of Decision Support."

I recently came across an interesting thesis, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," by the modern philosopher Thomas Kuhn. In it, he says:

"[Individuals who break through by inventing a new paradigm are] almost always...either very young or very new to the field whose paradigm they change...These are the men who, being little committed by prior practice to the traditional rules of normal science, are particularly likely to see that those rules no longer define a playable game and to conceive another set that can replace them."

It's no surprise, therefore, that many agencies doing the best at complying with new federal real property regulations are being led by executives who are fairly new to the public sector.

There's a new set of rules being developed for the game of real property asset management. Information Technology is part of the answer, but only after the data collection is done. For a true paradigm shift, data makes all the difference.


David Baxa
President and CEO
VISTA