Program managers seeking information on best practices and common pitfalls sometimes depend on industry's above-the-silos view to steer them toward the right contact within government, said James Jones, chief program officer at the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board.

"Industry can play a key role because we may not know the government people that [industry] probably would know from your expertise and key contacts," said Jones Dec. 8 at AFCEA Bethesda breakfast event. "Then you can find that person, talk to them, share your idea and take care of things."

Knowledge management and interagency information sharing has been a top issue for the Federal Chief Information Officers Council.

In April 2011 its best practices committee created a case study repository, in an effort to satisfy a requirement of the 25-point plan to reform federal IT that the council create a "best practices collaboration platform." And back in 2004 the CIO council created a CIO.gov platform called the "Solutions Exchange," which provided descriptions of products and services that agencies and the council viewed as preferred solutions.

While agency-to-agency communication remains difficult, panelists said they're also looking to industry to be frank about what will and will not work for their programs.

"A lot of times when we put out a task order you guys know it's going to fail. You all have a lot more experience with this [technology] than we do," said Brent Bushey, project manager for Immigration and Customs Enforcement's alien criminal response information management system.

While panelists pointed to the progress made by Office of Federal Procurement Policy Administrator Dan Gordon's "Myth Buster" campaign, they said more work lies ahead. "It's critical to find a way to foster a dialogue," he said.

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