Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Former E-Gov Chief Cheers IT Tool

Karen Evans, administrator of e-government and information technology at the Office of Management and Budget in the Bush administration lauded her successor's Tuesday launch of an Internet-based dashboard that makes available in a single location details about every major IT project of the federal government but warned of potential challenges on the horizon. The interactive Web site unveiled by Vivek Kundra at the Personal Democracy Forum's conference lets the public see each initiative's goals, schedule, cost outlays, key personnel, contractors used, and where the effort stands in real time. Read more coverage in CongressDaily's PM Edition here (subscription required).

Data quality will continue to be an issue, Evans told Tech Daily Dose. "The management of the agency's IT portfolio is a complex process and there are many reasons why a project may not be on schedule which then, affects performance and costs. With the public availability of the data, OMB and the agencies' CIOs will need to be prepared to respond to the corrective actions they have in place for investments which are not necessarily performing optimally." Additionally, the dashboard should serve as a tool to highlight areas that need attention rather than as a punitive mechanism for lack of performance, she said.

The future challenge is to avoid compliance reporting and to get true management oversight of IT investments, Evans said. She pointed out that the dashboard's level of transparency far exceeds what was available under the annual management watch list and the high risk list -- the OMB's standard methods of assessing troubled projects. "The departments and agencies have worked diligently to put management practices into place to ensure results for their investments," Evans said. "The IT dashboard is taking this detailed information and making it available to public and the Congress. Transparency is always a good thing."