VIDEO | U.S. Veteran Affairs Department CDO: We Want to Reduce Time Tax and Complexity for Veterans

(US and Canada) Kshemendra Paul, Chief Data Officer, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, speaks with Adita Karkera, Chief Data Officer, Government & Public Services, Deloitte Consulting LLP, about the data strategy at the Veterans Affairs Department and management of its massive data assets.

Paul says that the Department of Veteran Affairs works closely with the Department of Defense to be able to deliver the best possible outcomes and customer experience. The goal is also to reduce the time tax burden, and complexity for veterans. He adds that the department strives to be proactive in reaching out to veterans and giving them informed choices so they can make the best possible decisions for themselves and their families.

Speaking about operationalizing data strategy, Paul says that it is a coalition of folks across the department. For example, partners in information and technology work closely with their counterparts in the Veterans Affairs Administration.

He reveals that the strategy was put in motion in early 2021 and has continued with key initiatives across six goals – strategy, stewardship, analytics, technology, people, and governance. The department is now looking forward to opportunities to take next steps in implementing its roadmap.

Paul indicates that the roadmap has an 18-month-long horizon with 26 milestones, objectives, and key results. It will take the team up to the next level of executing the strategy as an enterprise. He points out that the federal data strategy published in 2020 had a 10-year horizon with an emphasis on data management maturity as the key metric.

According to Paul, the biggest information-sharing partner for Veterans Affairs in the federal government is the Defense Department. Their work is being executed as a joint data management maturity assessment using the same framework.

When asked about his experience of bringing together a multitude of disparate data sources at the department, Paul says that the challenges are at many levels, for example, the policy and governance around information-sharing agreements among agencies. He adds that the department also has huge data assets that are diverse, disparate, and have different generations of technology that host them.

Paul concludes that the approach is not to boil the ocean but to work backwards from prioritized mission requirements.