To help agencies more effectively  manage IT, the Congress has established a statutory framework of  requirements and roles and responsibilities relating to information and  technology management. In particular, the Paperwork Reduction Act of  1995 and the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 require agency heads, acting  through agency CIOs to, among other things,    better link their IT planning and investment decisions to program missions    develop and maintain a strategic information resources management  (IRM) plan that describes how IRM activities help to accomplish agency  missions;    develop and maintain an ongoing process to establish goals for improving  IRM’s contribution to program productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness;  methods for measuring progress toward these goals; and clear roles and  responsibilities for achieving these goals;   develop and implement a sound IT architecture;  implement and enforce IT management policies, procedures, standards,  and guidelines;   establish policies and procedures for ensuring that IT systems provide  reliable, consistent, and timely financial or program performance data; and implement and enforce applicable policies, procedures, standards, and  guidelines on privacy, security, disclosure, and information sharing. Strategic planning defines what an  organization seeks to accomplish and identifies the strategies it will use to  achieve desired results. Although the  agencies largely had one or more of the required performance measures in  place, these measures were not always linked to the agencies’  enterprisewide IT goals. Agencies’ Use of IT Investment Management Practices Was Mixed

Critical aspects of IT investment management include developing well- supported proposals, establishing investment management boards, and  selecting and controlling IT investments. Among the variety of reasons that agencies cited for not having IT  investment management practices fully in place were that the CIO position  had been vacant, that not including a requirement in the IT investment  management guide was an oversight, and that the process was being  revised. Improving Agencies’ IT Strategic Planning/Performance Measurement and Investment Management

To help agencies improve their IT strategic planning/performance  measurement and investment management, we have made numerous  recommendations to agencies and issued guidance. Specifically, in our  January 2004 report we made recommendations to the 26 agencies in our  review regarding practices that were not fully in place. In this vein,  today we are releasing the latest version of our ITIM framework. This  framework identifies and organizes critical processes for selecting,  controlling, and evaluating IT investments into a framework of  increasingly mature stages (see fig. 2). In summary, our January 2004 report indicates that the federal government  can significantly improve its IT strategic planning, performance  measurement, and investment management. Such improvement would  better ensure that agencies are being responsible stewards of the billions  of dollars for IT with which they have been entrusted, by helping them to  invest these monies wisely. Appendix I: Information Technology (IT) Strategic Planning/Performance Measurement and Investment Management Practices

Table 1 describes the 12 IT strategic planning/performance measurement  and the 18 IT investment management practices that we used in our  January 2004 report on the government’s performance in these areas.
Why GAO Did This Study

The federal government spends billions of dollars annually on information technology (IT) investments that are critical to the effective implementation of major government programs. To help agencies effectively manage their substantial IT investments, the Congress has established a statutory framework of requirements and roles and responsibilities relating to information and technology management, that addresses, for example, (1) IT strategic planning/performance measurement (which defines what an organization seeks to accomplish, identifies the strategies it will use to achieve desired results, and then determines how well it is succeeding in reaching resultsoriented goals and achieving objectives) and (2) IT investment management (which involves selecting, controlling, and evaluating investments). GAO was asked to summarize its January 2004 report on IT strategic planning/performance measurement and investment management (Information Technology Management: Governmentwide Strategic Planning, Performance Measurement, and Investment Management Can Be Further Improved, GAO-04-49 , January 12, 2004) and to discuss how agencies can improve their performance in these areas.

What GAO Found

GAO recently reported that the use of important IT strategic planning/performance measurement and investment management practices by 26 major federal agencies was mixed. For example, agencies generally had IT strategic plans and goals, but these goals were not always linked to specific performance measures that were tracked. Agencies also largely had IT investment management boards, but no agency had the practices associated with the oversight of IT investments fully in place. Although they could not always provide an explanation, agencies cited a variety of reasons for not having practices fully in place, including that the chief information officer position had been vacant and that the process was being revised. By improving their IT strategic planning, performance measurement, and investment management, agencies can better ensure that they are being responsible stewards of the billions of dollars for IT that they have been entrusted with through the wise investment of these monies. To help agencies improve in these areas, GAO has made numerous recommendations to agencies and issued guidance. For example, in the January 2004 report, GAO made recommendations to the 26 agencies regarding practices that were not fully in place. In addition, today GAO is releasing the latest version of its Information Technology Investment Management (ITIM) framework, which identifies critical processes for selecting, controlling, and evaluating IT investments and organizes them into a framework of increasingly mature stages; thereby providing agencies a road map for improving IT investment management processes in a systematic and organized manner.