Chief Information Officers Council - Chapter 19-1

An Official Website of the United States Government
FDCCI       IT REFORM       FEDRAMP       TECHSTAT       RSS  
HOME
BLOG
PRIORITIES
Open, Transparent & Participatory Government
Policy Compliance
Infrastructure
Efficiency
Security & Privacy
Effectiveness
INNOVATIONS
ABOUT
Mission & Vision
Leadership
Organization
Milestones
VIDEO
CIO COUNCILAbout The Council
People & Organization
Committees
Knowledge Base
INNOVATIONS

Chapter 19 Information Technology Page 1
Tags: closing the technology gap, IT gap, Apps.gov, IT Dashboard, Data.gov, Federal innovation, private sector, TechStat, Federal IT porfolio, enterprise architecture, Federal IT spending, Cyberscope, FY 2011 budget
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
FY 2011 President's Budget,  Analytical Perspectives, Special Topics,  Chapter 19
Twenty years ago, people working for the Federal Government had access to the world’s best technology. Today, many Government employees have better technology at home than at work. The Federal Government spends tens of billions of dollars annually on information technology (IT). However, fragmentation, poor project execution, and the drag of legacy technology have prevented the Government from realizing the productivity and performance gains that are found when IT is deployed effectively in the private sector. Under the leadership of the Federal Chief Information Officer, the Administration will continue its efforts to close the gap in effective technology use between the private and public sectors. The Administration will continue to streamline operations, transform customer service, and maximize the return on investment from information technology.
In May 2009, Data.gov was launched to enhance access to Federal data. Since then, the site has grown to contain over 167,000 data sets and tools for using the data. After the Environmental Protection Agency toxic release data was featured on Data.gov, the frequency of downloads of that data increased over tenfold. In June 2009, the IT Dashboard was implemented to provide unprecedented transparency into $78 billion in annual Federal spending on IT investments Agency Chief Information Officers now review the IT Dashboard monthly to provide updated status in-formation on major IT investments more frequently than ever before. In September 2009, Apps.gov was launched to pro-vide Federal agencies easy access to new cloud computing and social media technologies. This enabled agencies to transform their computing services quickly and avoid months of delay and redundant effort. In October 2009, a new platform, Cyberscope, was launched to streamline the annual security re-porting workload and improved the ability to analyze and report on IT security across the Federal Government. In December 2009, OMB issued the Open Government Directive instructing all agencies to implement the principles of transparency, participation and collaboration set forth by the President. In January 2010, the Federal CIO held the first “TechStat” session with the Environmental Protection Agency, using the IT Dashboard to identify and correct IT investment problems. TechStat sessions will be a regular practice going forward to detect IT investment problems early, reduce waste, and increase the rate of successful project completion.
These efforts demonstrate that the Federal Government can implement new technology to solve old problems quickly and cost-effectively. In 2011, the Administration will build on these efforts to leverage the power of technology to transform the Government and meet its respon-sibilities to manage IT resources with a bold new strategy to guide the Federal enterprise.

MANAGING THE FEDERAL IT PORTFOLIO
Federal Spending on Information Technology— The total planned spending on information technology in 2011 is $79.4 billion, a 1.2% increase from the 2010 Budget level of $78.4 billion. Table 19.1 above displays the spending estimates presented in the last three bud-gets. Data displayed in Charts 19.1 and 19.2 reflect actual levels through 2009 and the enacted 2010 level, highlight-ing the 1.6% decrease from the 2010 enacted level of $80.6 billion.
Identifying ways to achieve greater efficiencies in the areas of most rapid cost growth in the past, like development of new mission-oriented systems and infrastructure, is an important part of the Administration’s IT strategy. The strategy to control IT spending will also focus on reversing the growth in the number of agency data centers which increased over 150 percent from 432 in 1998 to 1,100 in 2009.
Federal IT spending of nearly $80 billion a year demands continuous improvements in oversight. Responding to the need, the Administration launched a publicly accessible IT Dashboard, located at http://it.usaspending.gov, to increase the visibility of agencies’ IT spending, promote accountability, and help managers identify and eliminate redundancies. Here American taxpayers can see whether major IT investments are well managed by viewing costs, schedule, performance, and CIO ratings of IT in-vestments. The Dashboard’s capabilities will continue to improve oversight of the main drivers behind increased IT spending, including mission-related spending (up ap-proximately 90 percent since 2001), shown in Chart 19–2, and investments for internal management.
Federal Enterprise Architecture—Early engagement in strategic planning processes and development of robust system architectures is central to the Administration’s approach to effective IT. Stronger interventions early in project planning are needed to give the Federal enterprise a modern, interconnected, responsive information technology environment, which will support improved business processes and program performance. The history of many past failures in Federal IT investments is rife with examples where proper planning, consultation with business owners, and the development of a sound architecture could have saved many millions of dollars from being wasted, rather than waiting until burgeoning costs and repeated non-deliveries on required capabilities forced managers to abandon the project. For ex-ample, use of the National Information Exchange Model, a Federal, State, local and tribal interagency initiative that enables seamless information exchange, has improved in-formation sharing and reduced redundant investments.
Starting in 2009 with initiatives such as Data.gov and the expanded USASpending.gov, the Federal CIO began to transform the face of Federal IT investment management. This new approach will redesign IT in key business areas from the ground up, based on the concept of central Federal platforms designed to streamline processes and modernize information technology services. This will provide an interoperable, secure, and cost-effective Federal IT enterprise.

Next Page >
Harnessing Innovation To Amplify Mission Success
Tweetups Offer Followers a Backstage Pass to NASA
Leadership Testimony
Navy Handbook Offers Advice on Friending, Following, Blogging
Smart Phones Join the Army



Related Blog Posts
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Closing the Tech Gap
Vivek Kundra, U.S. Chief Information Officer (from whitehouse.gov)
What if senior management in an Agency – or anyone in the public – could identify and monitor the performance of IT projects just as easily ...More ›
Friday, July 2, 2010
Social Media Presence at NRC
Darren Ash, CIO, NRC (cio.gov)
I was recently asked about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) use of social media tools. The two questions I got had to do with why N...More ›
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Closing the IT Gap
Vivek Kundra, U.S. CIO (cio.gov)
The Federal Government lacks many of the technological capabilities that are commonplace in the private sector and our everyday lives. This ...More ›
Related Video
Monday, October 4, 2010

GSA Hosts Conference Focused on Improving Government Efficiency
Thursday, September 16, 2010

Expanding "Educate to Innovate"
Related Knowledge Base Documents
Federal Enterprise Architecture Security and Privacy Profile, version 3
Priorities
Open, Transparent, & Participatory Government
Policy Compliance
Infrastructure
Efficiency
Security & Privacy
Effectiveness
Library
About
Mission & Vision
Organization
Leadership and Staff
Milestones
Blog
Innovations
Video
CIO Council
About The Council
People & Organization
Committees
Knowledge Base
Accessibility Policy
Privacy Policy
Council Events
© 2010 Chief Information Officers Council All Rights Reserved.
CIO HomeWhite HouseUSA.govOpen Government