According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), IT expenditures too often have produced failed projects – projects with multimillion dollar cost overruns and schedule delays measured in years, with questionable mission-related achievements and duplicative and inefficient operational systems. In December 2014, IT reform legislation was enacted which requires agencies to address key IT issue areas.
To help address these ongoing challenges, GAO recently added improving the management of IT acquisitions and operations to its list of high-risk areas for the federal government. While GAO has made over 800 recommendations aimed at improving IT acquisitions and operations outcomes, slightly less than half of these recommendations have been fully implemented.
In light of this, GAO assembled a panel of IT experts on September 14, 2016 to elicit additional ideas to further improve delivery and operations of IT. This panel was a virtual who’s-who of senior IT leadership throughout the federal sector. Forum participants discussed the challenges and opportunities for Chief Information Officers (CIO) to improve IT acquisitions and operations—with the goal of better informing policymakers and government leadership. They identified key actions related to the following topics: strengthening the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), improving CIO authorities, budget formulation, governance, workforce, operations, and transition planning.
The chart below summarizes the key findings:
This forum, and subsequent GAO report, was an exercise to gather significant thought leadership on pervasive issues that plague the procurement of IT. However, the report is also an excellent roadmap for firms to differentiate themselves by addressing these specific challenges to improve performance in the execution of federal IT programs.To read the full GAO report, click here.
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