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The Carter Family sang an uplifting spiritual, "Keep on the Sunny Side." It has this inspirational chorus: "Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side, keep on the sunny side of life. It will help you every day, it will help you every way, if you keep on the sunny side of life."
This sentiment has influenced the thinking of Miriam F. Browning.
This appeared in GOVERNMENT COMPUTER NEWS (May 4).
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VAIL, Colo.--Army officials need a broader perspective on information technology, speakers said last week at the Small Computer Program's Spring Program Status Review here. . . .
Technical managers must look beyond their functional areas to broader concerns such as cost-cutting and risk management, said Miriam F. Browning, director of information management in the Office of the Secretary of the Army.
We all need to become champions for year 2000 readiness, she said.
Within 15 years, Browning said, agencies will no longer hire programmers and other technical personnel but instead will contract out IT tasks. . . .
"This is a particularly good time to work for a federal agency," she said, because promising employees will get valuable training in how to think strategically. . . .
Despite funding problems, Browning said, the year 2000 crisis has helped Army personnel think more broadly.
"Y2K is forcing people to speak with each other who haven't spoken before," she said. An Army Web site at http://www.army.mil/Y2K-web has hot links to vendor sites and policy information, she said, and the Army Audit Agency provides consulting services and readiness assessments. . . .
The date code crisis even has an upside, she added. It gives program executive officers, program managers and systems developers the chance to eliminate unnecessary systems.
"I'm not worried" about the Defense Department's 2000 readiness, Browning said.
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