Information Technology
DHS's Human Capital Plan Is Largely Consistent with Relevant Guidance, but Improvements and Implementation Steps Are Still Needed Gao ID: GAO-07-425 September 10, 2007In performing its missions, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) relies extensively on information technology (IT). Recognizing this, DHS's fiscal year 2006 appropriations act required its Chief Information Officer (CIO) to submit a report to congressional appropriations committees that includes, among other things, an IT human capital plan, and the act directs GAO to review the report. GAO's review addressed (1) whether the IT human capital plan is consistent with federal guidance and associated best practices and (2) the status of the plan's implementation. In performing its review, GAO compared DHS's plan and supporting documentation with 27 practices in the Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework of the Office of Personnel Management, and examined plan implementation activities at three DHS component agencies.
DHS's IT human capital plan is largely consistent with federal guidance and associated best practices; however, it does not fully address a number of important practices that GAO examined. Specifically, the plan and supporting documentation fully address 15 practices; for example, they provide for developing a complete inventory of existing staff skills, identifying IT skills that will be needed to achieve agency goals, determining skill gaps, and developing plans to address such gaps. They also provides for involving key stakeholders--such as the CIO, the Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO), and component agency CIOs and human capital directors--in carrying out the skill gap analyses and other workforce planning activities. Nevertheless, elements of 12 of the 27 practices are not included in the plan or related documentation. For example, although the plan and supporting documents describe the department's IT human capital goals and steps necessary to implement them, most steps do not include associated milestones. In addition, although the plan and supporting documents provide for involving key stakeholders, they do not specifically assign these stakeholders responsibility and accountability for carrying out planned activities. These and other missing elements of the practices are important because they help ensure that the plan is implemented efficiently and effectively. DHS officials provided various reasons why the missing practices were omitted, including uncertainty surrounding the source of resources for implementing the plan and the demands of other IT priorities, such as consolidating component agency data centers. To date, DHS has made limited progress in implementing the plan, according to officials from the offices of the department's CIO and CHCO and three DHS agencies (the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency). These officials said that they are nonetheless following several of the practices because they are required to report quarterly to the Office of Management and Budget on progress in meeting such human capital goals as filling mission-critical positions and delivering key IT training. DHS officials stated that the department's limited progress in implementing the plan was due to its focus on other priorities, and ambiguity surrounding plan implementation roles and responsibilities. Until DHS has a complete plan that fully addresses all practices and the department and components implement the plan, DHS will continue to be at risk of not having sufficient people with the right knowledge, skills, and abilities to manage and deliver the IT systems that are essential to executing the department's mission and achieving its transformation goals.
RecommendationsOur recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director: Team: Phone:GAO-07-425, Information Technology: DHS's Human Capital Plan Is Largely Consistent with Relevant Guidance, but Improvements and Implementation Steps Are Still Needed
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Report to Congressional Committees:
United States Government Accountability Office: GAO:
September 2007:
Information Technology:
DHS's Human Capital Plan Is Largely Consistent with Relevant Guidance,
but Improvements and Implementation Steps Are Still Needed:
GAO-07-425:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-07-425, a report to congressional committees.
Why GAO Did This Study:
In performing its missions, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
relies extensively on information technology (IT). Recognizing this,
DHS‘s fiscal year 2006 appropriations act required its Chief
Information Officer (CIO) to submit a report to congressional
appropriations committees that includes, among other things, an IT
human capital plan, and the act directs GAO to review the report. GAO‘s
review addressed (1) whether the IT human capital plan is consistent
with federal guidance and associated best practices and (2) the status
of the plan‘s implementation. In performing its review, GAO compared
DHS‘s plan and supporting documentation with 27 practices in the Human
Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework of the Office of
Personnel Management, and examined plan implementation activities at
three DHS component agencies.
What GAO Found:
DHS‘s IT human capital plan is largely consistent with federal guidance
and associated best practices; however, it does not fully address a
number of important practices that GAO examined. Specifically, the plan
and supporting documentation fully address 15 practices; for example,
they provide for developing a complete inventory of existing staff
skills, identifying IT skills that will be needed to achieve agency
goals, determining skill gaps, and developing plans to address such
gaps. They also provides for involving key stakeholders”such as the
CIO, the Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO), and component agency CIOs
and human capital directors”-in carrying out the skill gap analyses and
other workforce planning activities. Nevertheless, elements of 12 of
the 27 practices are not included in the plan or related documentation.
For example, although the plan and supporting documents describe the
department‘s IT human capital goals and steps necessary to implement
them, most steps do not include associated milestones. In addition,
although the plan and supporting documents provide for involving key
stakeholders, they do not specifically assign these stakeholders
responsibility and accountability for carrying out planned activities.
These and other missing elements of the practices are important because
they help ensure that the plan is implemented efficiently and
effectively. DHS officials provided various reasons why the missing
practices were omitted, including uncertainty surrounding the source of
resources for implementing the plan and the demands of other IT
priorities, such as consolidating component agency data centers.
To date, DHS has made limited progress in implementing the plan,
according to officials from the offices of the department‘s CIO and
CHCO and three DHS agencies (the Coast Guard, Customs and Border
Protection, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency). These
officials said that they are nonetheless following several of the
practices because they are required to report quarterly to the Office
of Management and Budget on progress in meeting such human capital
goals as filling mission-critical positions and delivering key IT
training. DHS officials stated that the department‘s limited progress
in implementing the plan was due to its focus on other priorities, and
ambiguity surrounding plan implementation roles and responsibilities.
Until DHS has a complete plan that fully addresses all practices and
the department and components implement the plan, DHS will continue to
be at risk of not having sufficient people with the right knowledge,
skills, and abilities to manage and deliver the IT systems that are
essential to executing the department‘s mission and achieving its
transformation goals.
What GAO Recommends:
GAO is recommending that DHS make completion and implementation of a
comprehensive IT human capital plan an imperative, and in doing so,
ensure that implementation roles and responsibilities are clearly
defined and adequate resources are made available. DHS agreed with
GAO‘s recommendations and acknowledged that IT human capital has been a
lower priority relative to other IT initiatives. It committed to having
a highly skilled IT workforce and described efforts planned and under
way to do so.
[Hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-425].
To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on
the link above. For more information, contact Randolph C. Hite at (202)
512-3429 or hiter@gao.gov.
[End of section]
Contents:
Letter:
Results in Brief:
Background:
DHS IT Human Capital Plan and Related Documentation Largely Satisfy
Relevant Guidance, but Several Key Practices Have Not Been Fully
Addressed:
DHS Has Made Limited Progress in Implementing Its IT Human Capital Plan:
Conclusions:
Recommendations for Executive Action:
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology:
Appendix II: Details on IT Human Capital Plan's Satisfaction of
Practices in OPM's Framework:
Appendix III: Comments from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security:
Appendix IV: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments:
Tables:
Table 1: DHS's Principal Organizations and Their Respective Missions:
Table 2: IT Funding for Fiscal Year 2007:
Table 3: Summary of Extent to which DHS's IT Human Capital Plan
Satisfies 27 Key Practices in OPM's Framework:
Figure:
Figure 1: DHS Organizational Structure (Simplified and Partial):
Abbreviations:
ACE: Automated Commercial Environment:
CHCO: Chief Human Capital Officer:
CIO: Chief Information Officer:
DHS: Department of Homeland Security:
IT: information technology:
OMB: Office of Management and Budget:
OPM: Office of Personnel Management:
United States Government Accountability Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
September 10, 2007:
The Honorable Robert C. Byrd:
Chairman:
The Honorable Thad Cochran:
Ranking Member:
Subcommittee on Homeland Security:
Committee on Appropriations:
United States Senate:
The Honorable David E. Price:
Chairman:
The Honorable Harold Rogers:
Ranking Minority Member:
Subcommittee on Homeland Security:
Committee on Appropriations:
House of Representatives:
Information technology (IT) is a critical tool in the Department of
Homeland Security's (DHS) quest to transform 22 diverse and distinct
agencies into 1 cohesive, high-performing department. Because of the
importance of this transformation together with the magnitude of the
associated challenges, we have designated it as a high-risk
undertaking.[Footnote 1] Among other things, DHS's ability to modernize
its IT systems and infrastructure to support this transformation
depends on its human capital, which is an area that we have designated
as high risk across the federal government.[Footnote 2]
Given the enormous role that IT plays in the department's
transformation efforts, DHS's fiscal year 2006 appropriations act
required its Chief Information Officer (CIO) to submit a report to
congressional appropriations committees that includes, among other
things, an IT human capital plan, and the act directs us to review the
report.[Footnote 3] The CIO submitted this report to the committees in
June 2006 and the IT human capital plan on August 30, 2006.[Footnote 4]
As agreed with your offices, our objectives in this report were to
determine (1) whether the department's IT human capital plan is
consistent with federal guidance and associated best practices and (2)
the status of the plan's implementation.
To address our objectives, we reviewed the IT human capital plan and
supporting documentation and evaluated them against the Human Capital
Assessment and Accountability Framework issued by the Office of
Personnel Management (OPM).[Footnote 5] This framework, which we
collaborated with OPM and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in
developing, is consistent with the practices in GAO's strategic human
capital management model.[Footnote 6] We assessed the plan and
supporting documentation against 27 practices in the framework that are
essential to a well-defined and executable plan. In addition, we
reviewed plan implementation activities within the department CIO and
Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO) organizations and within three DHS
agencies: the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, and the
Federal Emergency Management Agency. Collectively, these agencies
account for about 33 percent of the department's IT budget and about 60
percent of its IT personnel. We performed our work from October 2006
through July 2007, in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards. Appendix I contains more details about our
objectives, scope, and methodology.
Results in Brief:
DHS's IT human capital plan is largely consistent with federal guidance
and associated best practices. Of 27 practices in OPM's human capital
framework, DHS's plan and related documentation fully address 15
practices and partially address 12. For example, the plan and
supporting documentation provide for developing an inventory of
existing staff skills, identifying future skills needed, and
determining whether there are gaps between the two and how such gaps
will be filled. In addition, they provide for involving key
stakeholders--such as the CIO, the CHCO, and component agency CIOs and
human capital directors--in carrying out workforce planning activities.
According to DHS CIO officials, these practices were addressed because
the OPM framework was used as a guide in developing the plan.
Nevertheless, important elements of several key practices have not been
addressed because of other priorities, according to these officials. In
particular, the plan and supporting documents do not include milestones
for when most defined activities are to be completed, and they do not
define detailed roles and responsibilities for carrying out planned
activities. These missing elements are important because they help to
ensure effective implementation of planned activities.
Overall, DHS's progress in implementing its IT human capital plan has
been limited. Although the plan and supporting documentation do not
explicitly assign detailed roles and responsibilities for executing
planned activities, the DHS CIO and the DHS CHCO have collaborated in
executing some steps in the plan. For example, they have performed a
gap analysis between existing and future skill needs and have begun
examining strategies for reducing the gaps. However, they have yet to
take other key steps. For example, while DHS is collecting information
on the number of increasing, decreasing, and new mission-critical
occupations, it is not identifying and analyzing year-to-year changes
and trends to determine whether recruitment and retention strategies
need to be updated to meet current organizational needs. Moreover, not
all component agencies have begun to implement the plan. In particular,
CIO and human capital officials with the Coast Guard, Customs and
Border Protection, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency told us
that although they were aware of the plan, they were in large part not
aware of a requirement to implement it. Nevertheless, these officials
stated that they have been taking actions consistent with some aspects
of the plan as part of their quarterly reporting to OMB on such issues
as progress in filling mission-critical positions and delivering IT
training. Department and component agency officials attributed the
status of the plan's implementation to competing priorities, such as
consolidating data centers, and ambiguity surrounding plan
implementation roles and responsibilities.
Until DHS has a fully defined IT human capital plan that, among other
things, clearly assigns roles and responsibilities and ensures
stakeholder commitment and accountability for implementation, it runs
the continued risk of not having the people it needs to effectively and
efficiently leverage IT in support of organization transformation.
Accordingly, we are recommending that the Secretary of Homeland
Security make development and implementation of a comprehensive IT
human capital plan an imperative, and ensure that (1) the plan fully
satisfies relevant federal guidance and related best practices, (2)
roles and responsibilities for implementing the plan are clearly
defined and understood, (3) resources needed to effectively and
efficiently implement the plan are made available, and (4) progress in
implementing the plan is regularly measured.
In its written comments on a draft of this report, DHS agreed with our
recommendations, adding that the state of its IT human capital efforts
varies widely across the department, and acknowledging that these
efforts have been a lower priority relative to other IT imperatives.
Nevertheless, it stated that it will dedicate the resources needed to
ensure that it has a highly skilled and effective IT workforce. In this
regard, it provided information that it said would update and clarify
the status of its more recent IT human capital efforts. While our
report already recognized most of this information, we have
incorporated or otherwise recognized new information in our report as
appropriate.
Background:
In March 2003, DHS began operations and set about the daunting task of
merging 22 separate and autonomous federal agencies with homeland
security-related missions under the centralized leadership of a single
department. In doing so, DHS assumed operational control of about
209,000 civilian and military positions from these agencies. As we have
previously reported,[Footnote 7] the creation and transformation of DHS
is critically important and poses significant management and leadership
challenges, and failure to address these challenges could have serious
consequences for our national security. Consequently, in 2003, we first
designated the department's implementation and transformation as high
risk, and we continue to do so today.[Footnote 8]
IT is a critical tool in DHS's quest to transform itself and carry out
the department's critical missions on a day-to-day basis. For fiscal
year 2008 alone, the department is requesting almost $4 billion in IT
budgetary authority.[Footnote 9] The department's ability to
effectively and efficiently invest these funds and deliver IT systems
and infrastructure that perform as intended depends in large part on
the capabilities of its IT human capital. As we have reported, DHS and
the other federal agencies historically have been challenged in their
ability to strategically manage human capital. For this reason, we
first designated strategic human capital management as a governmentwide
high-risk area in 2001, and we continue to do so today.[Footnote 10]
Overview of DHS Organizational Structure and Responsibility for IT
Human Capital Management:
To accomplish its mission, the department is organized into various
agencies and directorates, each of which is responsible for specific
homeland security missions and for coordinating related efforts with
other DHS organizations, as well as external entities. Table 1 shows
DHS's principal organizations and their respective missions.
Table 1: DHS's Principal Organizations and Their Respective Missions:
Principal organizations: Citizenship and Immigration Services;
Missions: Administers immigration and naturalization adjudication
functions and establishes immigration services policies and priorities.
Principal organizations: Coast Guard;
Missions: Protects the public, the environment, and U.S. economic
interests in the nation's ports and waterways, along the coast, on
international waters, and in any maritime region as required to support
national security.
Principal organizations: Customs and Border Protection;
Missions: Secures the nation's borders in order to prevent unauthorized
persons and goods from entering the United States, while facilitating
the flow of legitimate trade and travel.
Principal organizations: Federal Emergency Management Agency;
Missions: Prepares the nation for hazards, manages federal response and
recovery efforts following any national incident, and administers the
National Flood Insurance Program.
Principal organizations: Immigration and Customs Enforcement;
Missions: Investigates, identifies, and addresses vulnerabilities in
the nation's border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure
security.
Principal organizations: Management Directorate;
Missions: Manages department budgets and appropriations, expenditure of
funds, accounting and finance, procurement, human resources, IT
systems, facilities and equipment, and the identification and tracking
of performance measurements. This directorate includes the Offices of
the CHCO, Chief Financial Officer, and the CIO.
Principal organizations: National Protection and Programs Directorate;
Missions: Supports the department's homeland security risk-reduction
mission through an integrated approach that encompasses both physical
and virtual threats and their associated human elements. This
directorate includes the Offices of Cyber Security and Communications
and Infrastructure Protection.
Principal organizations: Science and Technology Directorate;
Missions: Conducts research and development for the department and
provides federal, state, and local officials with the technology and
capabilities to protect the homeland.
Principal organizations: Secret Service;
Missions: Protects the President and other high-level officials and
investigates counterfeiting and other financial crimes (including
financial institution fraud, identity theft, and computer fraud) and
computer- based attacks on the nation's financial, banking, and
telecommunications infrastructure.
Principal organizations: Transportation Security Administration;
Missions: Protects the nation's transportation systems to ensure
freedom of movement for people and commerce.
Source: GAO analysis of DHS data.
Note: This table does not show the organizations that fall under each
of the directorates. It also does not show all organizations that
report directly to the DHS Secretary and Deputy Secretary, such as
Executive Secretary, Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs, Public
Affairs, Chief of Staff, Inspector General, and General Counsel.
[End of table]
Within DHS, responsibility for IT human capital management resides with
the Management Directorate--specifically, the Offices of the CIO and
the CHCO--and with component agency CIO and human capital offices. More
specifically, the management directive of the DHS Office of the CIO's
states that the office is responsible for leveraging the best available
technologies and applying proven IT management and human capital
practices to provide shared services, coordinate acquisition
strategies, maintain an enterprise architecture, and advocate and
enable business transformation, among other things. To assist in
managing these matters, DHS established the DHS CIO Council made up of
the CIOs from each of DHS's component organizations. The council
identified eight priorities, including IT human capital, and for each
priority, it assigned an executive sponsor that is responsible for
overseeing the department's efforts in that area. The council also
established the IT Human Capital Resource Center (formerly called the
IT Human Capital Center of Excellence) to support the council and the
executive sponsor responsible for IT human capital. In short, the
center is responsible for setting a DHS-wide vision and strategy for IT
human capital and the functions that IT staff perform. The center is
staffed by the component CIO organizations and, among other things, is
responsible for coordinating the implementation of the department's IT
human capital initiatives. Figure 1 shows a simplified and partial DHS
organizational structure, including the CIO IT human capital-related
entities.
Figure 1: DHS Organizational Structure (Simplified and Partial):
[See PDF for image]
Source: GAO analysis of DHS data.
[End of figure]
According to the DHS overall strategic human capital plan, which covers
IT and non-IT personnel, the Office of the CHCO is responsible for
implementing initiatives to achieve strategic human capital goals in
support of the department's mission.[Footnote 11] With regard to IT,
this includes planning and managing human capital to meet current and
future mission needs, recruiting a high-quality workforce, developing a
strong and capable workforce, motivating and retaining high performers,
and fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement. It also
includes applying human capital best practices in carrying out these
responsibilities.
Each of the department's component agencies has its own CIO and human
capital director to, among other things, manage the implementation of
their respective IT human capital initiatives. According to DHS, this
includes recruiting staff to close competency and skill gaps,
coordinating and delivering mission-essential training, analyzing
workforce data, and aligning component human capital plans with the
department human capital plans to achieve agency and department
missions.
IT Is Critical to Achieving DHS's Mission:
To accomplish its mission, DHS relies extensively on IT. For example,
in fiscal year 2007, about $4.16 billion dollars in funding was
requested to support 278 major IT programs. Table 2 shows the fiscal
year 2007 IT funding for key DHS components.
Table 2: IT Funding for Fiscal Year 2007:
Dollars in millions:
DHS agencies and directorates: Citizenship and Immigration Services;
Funding: $570.3.
Dollars in millions:
DHS agencies and directorates: Coast Guard;
Funding: 196.7.
Dollars in millions:
DHS agencies and directorates: Customs and Border Protection;
Funding: 546.4.
Dollars in millions:
DHS agencies and directorates: Federal Emergency Management Agency;
Funding: 77.1.
Dollars in millions:
DHS agencies and directorates: Immigration and Customs Enforcement;
Funding: 134.0.
Dollars in millions:
DHS agencies and directorates: Management Directorate;
Funding: 1,576.0.
Dollars in millions:
DHS agencies and directorates: Preparedness Directorate[A];
Funding: 213.5.
Dollars in millions:
DHS agencies and directorates: Science and Technology Directorate;
Funding: 34.1.
Dollars in millions:
DHS agencies and directorates: Secret Service;
Funding: 3.8.
Dollars in millions:
DHS agencies and directorates: Transportation Security Administration;
Funding: 356.4.
Dollars in millions:
DHS agencies and directorates: US-VISIT[B];
Funding: 407.4.
Dollars in millions:
DHS agencies and directorates: Other DHS components;
Funding: 45.1.
Dollars in millions:
DHS agencies and directorates: Total;
Funding: $4,160.8.
Source: GAO analysis of DHS data.
[A] On April 1, 2007, this directorate was replaced by the National
Protection and Programs Directorate.
[B] On April 1, 2007, US-VISIT became part of the National Protection
and Programs Directorate.
[End of table]
To manage the use of these funds and carry out these programs, the
department reports that it employs about 2,600 IT personnel. While
these personnel represent about 1 percent of the department's total
workforce, they nonetheless perform critical mission functions.
Specifically, IT personnel develop, manage, and operate mission-
critical systems that are intended to unify the department under a
common IT infrastructure and to facilitate agencies' ability to analyze
intelligence to identify threats, guard U.S. borders and airports,
protect critical infrastructure, coordinate national responses to
emergencies, and implement other security measures. Moreover, IT staff
track and oversee the efforts of a sizable workforce of support
contractors.
Prior GAO Reviews Have Highlighted DHS IT Human Capital Challenges and
Called for a More Strategic Approach to Addressing Them:
According to DHS, the need to successfully manage its IT human capital
is essential to effectively and efficiently leveraging technology in
achieving the department's mission. This need is compounded by the fact
that the department faces major near-term IT human capital challenges.
For example, DHS estimates that between 2005 and 2010, approximately 35
percent of its IT workforce will be eligible for retirement. Moreover,
it reports that in light of the continued growth in demand of
experienced IT professionals and the high rate of turnover experienced
thus far, the department faces significant risk of critical skill
shortages, which could hamper its mission imperatives.
During the last 3 years, we have reported on the importance of DHS
adopting a strategic approach to addressing its IT human capital
challenges. For example, in August 2004, we reported[Footnote 12] that
DHS had begun strategic planning for IT human capital at the
headquarters level, but it had not yet systematically gathered baseline
data about its existing workforce. We also reported on CIO staffing
concerns and slow progress in this area. Accordingly, we recommended
that the department analyze whether it had appropriately allocated and
deployed IT staff with the relevant skills to obtain its institutional
and program-related goals. In response, the DHS CIO approved funding
for the IT Human Capital Resource Center in July 2004. Among other
things, the center subsequently began work to complete an IT human
capital plan. Consistent with our recommendation, the center was to
ensure that the completed plan provided for an analysis of IT workforce
skill sets. In May 2005, the DHS CIO issued a draft version of the IT
human capital plan.[Footnote 13] This draft version was sent to the
Senate and House Appropriations Committees on August 30, 2006, as part
of the CIO's report pursuant to requirements in DHS's fiscal year 2006
appropriations act. According to the CIO Council senior executive
leading the effort to develop this plan, it was developed in
partnership with the DHS CHCO's office and intended to direct the
department's IT human capital efforts.
In March 2006, we testified[Footnote 14] on a number of IT human
capital and other management challenges at DHS. We noted that DHS had
undertaken a departmentwide human capital initiative, MAXHR, which was
to provide greater flexibility and accountability in the way employees
are paid, developed, evaluated, afforded due process, and represented
by labor organizations. Part of this initiative involved the
development of departmentwide workforce competencies. We testified that
the department had intended to implement MAXHR in the summer of 2005
but had encountered delays. More recently, DHS officials stated that
MAXHR had been canceled and is to be replaced by another initiative
called the Human Capital Operational Plan. In May 2007, we
reported[Footnote 15] that while DHS continues work to develop and
implement departmentwide human capital initiatives, its overall
progress in managing its IT and non-IT human capital had been limited.
Since 2002, we have also reported on human capital management
weaknesses associated with key DHS IT programs. For example:
* In September 2005, we reported[Footnote 16] that the program office
for the Atlas program[Footnote 17] was not adequately staffed.
Accordingly, we recommended that the Atlas program conduct a staffing
needs assessment to determine the positions and the level of staffing
needed for all Atlas projects, and that it develop a human capital
strategy for meeting its staffing needs. DHS agreed with our
recommendations and has since completed a needs assessment, developed a
human capital strategy, and used it to staff the program office and
projects.
* In February 2006, we reported[Footnote 18] that the US-VISIT
program[Footnote 19] had developed a human capital strategy, as we had
recommended[Footnote 20] 2 years earlier, and had begun implementing
it. However, we also reported that several activities in the plan had
not been implemented, such as assessing the extent of current
employees' competency gaps and developing a listing of competency-based
training courses. To address this shortfall, among other things, the
program recently developed a new human capital plan. We have not yet
reviewed the new plan.
* In May 2006, we reported[Footnote 21] that the Automated Commercial
Environment (ACE) program[Footnote 22] had yet to develop and implement
a human capital management strategy, as we had recommended several
years earlier. Instead, program officials told us that they were
following a less formal approach to bolstering ACE's workforce.
Accordingly, we recommended that the department report to its
appropriations committees on its strategy for managing ACE human
capital needs. DHS agreed with our recommendation and has since been
working to develop a strategy.
GAO and OPM Have Developed Tools to Help Federal Agencies Strategically
Manage Human Capital:
A strategic approach to human capital management includes viewing
people as assets whose value to an organization can be enhanced by
investing in them. Such an approach enables organizations to
effectively use their people and determine how well they integrate
human capital considerations into daily decision making and planning
for mission results. It also helps organizations remain aware of and be
prepared for current and future needs as an organization, ensuring that
they have the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to pursue their
missions.
On the basis of our experience with leading organizations, we issued a
model in 2002 for strategic human capital management.[Footnote 23] The
model is built around four cornerstones: (1) leadership; (2) strategic
human capital planning; (3) acquiring, developing, and retaining
talent; and (4) results-oriented organizational cultures. We also
issued a set of key practices in 2003 for effective strategic human
capital management.[Footnote 24] These practices are generic, applying
to any organization or component, such as an agency's IT organization.
Since then, OPM, in conjunction with OMB and us, issued a strategic
human capital framework--called the Human Capital Assessment and
Accountability Framework--to provide a consistent, comprehensive
representation of human capital management to guide federal
agencies.[Footnote 25] Consistent with our 2002 model, OPM's framework
provides six standards, along with associated indicators (practices)
for achieving success. The six standards for success and related
definitions are as follows:
* Strategic alignment. The organization's human capital strategy is
aligned with mission, goals, and organizational objectives and
integrated into its strategic plans, performance plans, and budgets.
* Workforce planning and deployment. Among other things, the
organization strategically uses staff in order to achieve mission goals
in the most efficient ways.
* Leadership and knowledge management. The organization's leaders and
managers effectively manage people, ensure continuity of leadership,
and sustain a learning environment that drives continuous improvement
in performance.
* Results-oriented performance culture. The organization has a diverse,
results-oriented, high-performance workforce and a performance
management system that effectively differentiates between high and low
performance and links individual, team, or unit performance to
organizational goals and desired results.
* Talent management. The organization makes progress toward closing
gaps or making up deficiencies in most mission-critical skills,
knowledge, and competencies.
* Accountability. The organization's human capital decisions are guided
by a data-driven, results-oriented planning and accountability system.
Our recent work has shown that DHS and other federal agencies, such as
the Securities and Exchange Commission, have begun to use OPM's
framework as the basis for preparing strategic IT and other human
capital plans.[Footnote 26] According to DHS CIO officials, they used
the OPM framework in developing the IT human capital plan that they
included in the August 2006 report to Congress.
DHS IT Human Capital Plan and Related Documentation Largely Satisfy
Relevant Guidance, but Several Key Practices Have Not Been Fully
Addressed:
DHS has developed an IT human capital plan that is largely consistent
with OPM guidance. Specifically, of 27 key practices in OPM's
framework, the department's plan and related documentation fully
address 15 practices and partially address the other 12, meaning that
these 12 are missing elements that are essential to having a well-
defined and executable plan. DHS officials responsible for developing
the plan attributed the missing elements to, among other things, the
department's decision to focus its resources on other IT priorities.
These officials also stated that until the missing elements are fully
addressed, it is unlikely that the plan will be effectively and
efficiently implemented, which in turn will continue to put DHS at risk
of not having sufficient people with the right knowledge, skills, and
abilities to manage and deliver its mission-critical IT systems.
Examples of the key practices that DHS has fully and partially
addressed in its IT human capital plan and related documentation,
organized according to OPM's six standards for success, are given in
the following text. Also, table 3 is a summary of the DHS plan's
satisfaction of all 27 key practices. Appendix II contains our full
analysis of the plan's satisfaction of these 27 practices. Both the
summary and full analysis contain examples to demonstrate full or
partial satisfaction of the practices. They do not contain all examples
of DHS's accomplishments or limitations to a given key practice.
* Strategic alignment. DHS's plan and related documentation satisfy a
number of strategic alignment practices. For example, they specify
human capital goals for the IT organization and provide for linking
them to departmental human capital goals. More specifically, the plan
identifies such IT human capital goals as meeting current and future
mission needs, recruiting a high-quality IT workforce, and motivating
and retaining high performers. The plan further states that IT human
capital programs and initiatives should produce performance outcomes
that support the overall DHS strategic goal of operational excellence.
In addition, the plan calls for involving key stakeholders--such as the
CIO, the CHCO, and their component agency counterparts--in carrying out
a range of workforce planning activities, such as conducting a
workforce analysis, developing an inventory of current staff skills,
and identifying the future skills that are needed for mission-critical
positions. By addressing these key practices, the plan helps set the
overall direction and tone for strategic management of IT human capital
and lays a foundation for demonstrating management commitment and
promoting buy-in across the organization.
However, the plan and related documentation do not fully satisfy other
key practices. For example, they do not include specific milestones for
when most defined activities and steps are to be completed. This is a
serious limitation because milestones help to ensure that resources
needed to execute plans are allocated, and they provide a basis for
measuring progress. In addition, although the plan provides for
involving key stakeholders, it does not assign stakeholders
responsibility and accountability for specific activities. Without
fully addressing these practices, the plan does not provide an adequate
basis for promoting accountability for results, and thus ensuring that
the plan will be effectively implemented.
* Workforce planning and deployment. The plan and related documentation
satisfy a number of key practices in this standards area, including
provision for incentives for new recruits, training for existing staff,
and an exchange program to draw on private sector personnel with
necessary skills. This is important because such practices are
essential ingredients to acquiring, training, and deploying an
effective workforce. However, the plan does not provide for regular
collection and analysis of data on promotions, conversions,
separations, and retirements to show an understanding of trends and
related indicators of performance. Without this information, DHS will
be limited in its ability to know whether the techniques being employed
are effective, and thus performance results and accountability goals
are being met.
* Leadership and knowledge management. DHS's plan and supporting
documentation provide for a number of leadership and knowledge
management practices. For example, DHS planning documents (e.g., DHS
Succession Management Plan FY 2006-2009)[Footnote 27] supporting the IT
human capital plan describe and encourage leadership development across
all DHS components through application of the department's Leadership
Competency Framework and succession approach to workforce planning
efforts. The plan also identifies succession planning goals and
objectives, implementation strategies, and program evaluation critical
success factors to achieve expected leadership outcomes. These efforts
are important because they show how the department and components plan
for and minimize the impact of changes to its leadership team arising
from retirements and separations.
However, the plan does not address how these activities are to be
linked to and reflected in department annual performance plans and
budgets. Having performance plans and budgets that address the IT human
capital goals is vital to ensuring that the plan is properly funded to
ensure implementation.
* Results-oriented performance culture. DHS's plan and supporting
documentation satisfy key practice elements under this standards area,
such as identifying outcome-based human capital goals for its IT
workforce and linking these goals to departmental strategic plans.
However, the plan does not address linking each work unit's efforts and
performance to these goals. Linking the work units to goals is
important because it provides a framework for setting performance
expectations, determining whether expectations are met, and
establishing accountability, each of which is critical to effective and
efficient plan implementation.
* Talent management. DHS's plan addresses important practices related
to talent management, including documenting mission-critical
occupations, strategizing how to reduce competency gaps between the
workforce's current skills and those needed to achieve mission goals,
and tracking efforts to implement strategies. In particular, it
provides for a monthly forum hosted by the IT Human Capital Resource
Center for DHS components to share ideas and strategies for
recruitment, retention, and training of their workforces. These
initiatives are important because they provide a disciplined and
systematic approach to identifying and reducing organizational skill
shortfalls, and thus contribute to better ensuring that DHS has the
right people with the right skills. However, neither the plan nor
supporting documents fully provide for measuring whether its
recruitment and training efforts are closing competency gaps. Such
performance measurement is vital to effective plan implementation
because it provides feedback on the effectiveness of efforts and the
need for corrective action.
* Accountability. The plan addresses the key practice for establishing
and using applicable merit principles and standards in appraising IT
staff performance, and for establishing a process for employee
grievances to be considered and addressed. However, the plan does not
fully address other accountability-related practices. For example, it
does not provide for proactively identifying where the department is at
risk with regard to attaining its IT human capital goals and developing
initiatives to mitigate any high risks. This is a significant omission
because proactively managing risks is a proven means for avoiding
problems before they can occur.
According to DHS officials responsible for developing the plan, the 12
key practices were not fully addressed for several reasons.
Specifically, they stated that uncertainty surrounding the source of
resources for implementing the plan led to a lack of a clear definition
of stakeholder roles and responsibilities, which in turn made setting
realistic milestones impractical. They added that a number of other IT
priorities that were competing for resources, such as consolidation of
data centers, also contributed to the 12 practices not being addressed,
while other omissions were purely an unintended oversight, such as not
addressing central management of risks. According to the officials, the
next version of the plan, which is tentatively scheduled to be released
in the second quarter of fiscal year 2008 based on the assumption that
resources are made available, is to address all of these omissions.
Without a comprehensive IT human capital plan, DHS does not have an
effective means for ensuring that it has the right people in the right
place at the right time to achieve the department's mission-related IT
goals. The department has acknowledged this risk and estimates there is
currently a medium-to-high level of risk of not meeting DHS's mission
due to personnel and competency and skill shortages.[Footnote 28]
Table 3: Summary of Extent to which DHS's IT Human Capital Plan
Satisfies 27 Key Practices in OPM's Framework:
Standard: Strategic alignment;
Practice: Key stakeholders participate in the development and revision
of the agency's strategic plan and facilitate workforce planning and
analysis efforts;
Satisfied[A]: Fully.
Standard: Strategic alignment;
Practice: The organization defines successful achievement of its
mission in terms of valid and reliable data, including both long-and
short-term human capital performance goals;
Satisfied[A]: Fully.
Standard: Strategic alignment;
Practice: Trends in mission-critical occupations are analyzed in terms
of suggested factors in order to continually adjust the agency's
recruitment and retention strategy to its current state of need;
Satisfied[A]: Partially.
Standard: Strategic alignment;
Practice: An integrated human capital planning process is in use,
including representatives from the agency/unit human capital team, the
primary IT human capital officer, and senior leaders and managers from
mission-specific program areas;
Satisfied[A]: Fully.
Standard: Strategic alignment;
Practice: Mission-critical occupations and competencies are identified
in the agency's strategic plan and/or performance plan, and its
strategic human capital plan;
Satisfied[A]: Partially.
Standard: Strategic alignment;
Practice: The strategic human capital plan sets human capital progress
milestones and identifies those responsible for meeting them;
Satisfied[A]: Partially.
Standard: Strategic alignment;
Practice: Key human capital leaders and agency stakeholders utilize
collaborative mechanisms/forums that provide a venue for consistent
dialogue in the planning process (e.g., team members of review boards,
working groups, or executive off-sites);
Satisfied[A]: Fully.
Standard: Strategic alignment;
Practice: The agency has a documented change management process that
identifies necessary human capital practices to achieve human capital
objectives;
Satisfied[A]: Fully.
Standard: Strategic alignment;
Practice: Studies indicate which occupations and competencies are
essential to achieving the agency's strategic goals;
Satisfied[A]: Fully.
Standard: Strategic alignment;
Practice: Line managers and key staff, including human resources,
consider and prepare for possible workforce changes in areas such as
mission/goals, technology, program additions or deletions, functions,
and outsourcing initiatives;
Satisfied[A]: Fully.
Standard: Strategic alignment;
Practice: Turnover indicators are monitored regularly;
Satisfied[A]: Fully.
Standard: Strategic alignment;
Practice: A workforce analysis process is used on a regular basis for
assessment and planning, and to drive human capital decisions;
Satisfied[A]: Partially.
Standard: Strategic alignment;
Practice: The agency has a clearly defined strategy and plan to
facilitate human capital changes;
Satisfied[A]: Partially.
Standard: Workforce planning and deployment;
Practice: Staffing data showing trends in appointments, promotions,
conversions, separations, and retirements are analyzed regularly, and
management decisions regarding workforce deployment are based on
documented data;
Satisfied[A]: Partially.
Standard: Workforce planning and deployment;
Practice: The agency uses multifaceted techniques to close competency
gaps within the organization (e.g., strategic recruitment, midcareer
hiring, and training);
Satisfied[A]: Fully.
Standard: Leadership and knowledge management;
Practice: Leadership development and succession needs are considered,
reflected in human capital plans and strategies, and addressed through
related human capital management efforts/programs;
Satisfied[A]: Fully.
Standard: Leadership and knowledge management;
Practice: The agency has a strategy and plan for communication of human
capital changes and progress, and to capture employee feedback related
to human capital practices and needs;
Satisfied[A]: Fully.
Standard: Leadership and knowledge management;
Practice: Annual performance plans, budgets, and performance reports
document plans for and progress toward human capital goals;
Satisfied[A]: Partially.
Standard: Results-oriented performance culture;
Practice: Work units have documented performance goals and objectives
linked to the agency strategic plan and performance plan;
Satisfied[A]: Partially.
Standard: Talent management;
Practice: The agency's strategic planning process documents and tracks
mission-critical occupations and competency gap reduction efforts;
Satisfied[A]: Fully.
Standard: Talent management;
Practice: Strategies are developed and implemented for reducing
competency gaps through training, development, or alternative sources;
Satisfied[A]: Fully.
Standard: Talent management;
Practice: Staffing, training, and performance data indicate success in
closing competency gaps;
Satisfied[A]: Partially.
Standard: Talent management;
Practice: Recruitment strategies are created to maintain mission-
critical competencies at the desired level using business forecasting
and workforce analysis results;
Satisfied[A]: Fully.
Standard: Accountability;
Practice: Human capital risks are tracked, documented, and reported to
a central advisory or management board, and action is taken to mitigate
high-risk areas;
Satisfied[A]: Partially.
Standard: Accountability;
Practice: Applicable merit principles and standards are upheld, and
employee grievances are considered and addressed;
Satisfied[A]: Fully.
Standard: Accountability;
Practice: Program and initiative implementation efforts include
published plans that clearly outline periodic review of performance and
desired outcomes;
Satisfied[A]: Partially.
Standard: Accountability;
Practice: Accountability for human capital improvements is clearly
assigned and assessed regularly, and is an input into future planning
and resource allocation decisions;
Satisfied[A]: Partially.
Standard: Total;
Satisfied[A]: Fully: 15;
Satisfied[A]: Partially: 12.
Source: GAO analysis of OPM and DHS data.
[A] "Fully satisfied" means that the agency demonstrated, through
verifiable evidence, that it has addressed all aspects of the key
practice. "Partially satisfied" means that such evidence shows that
some, but not all, aspects of the key practice have been addressed.
[End of table]
DHS Has Made Limited Progress in Implementing Its IT Human Capital Plan:
The DHS departmental offices and component agencies that share
responsibility for implementing the IT human capital plan have
collectively made little progress in doing so. In general, the DHS
Offices of the CHCO and the CIO have done more to implement the plan
than have the DHS component agencies, as described in the following
text. The plan's state of implementation is due to both a lack of
clarity around the respective implementation-related roles and
responsibilities of the various DHS organizations involved, as well as
the lower funding priority that these organizations have given to the
plan's implementation relative to other competing IT efforts. Until a
complete and well-defined IT human capital plan is effectively and
efficiently implemented, the department will continue to run the risk
of not having the people it needs to leverage technology in achieving
organizational transformation and mission goals.
At the department level, the CIO and the CHCO organizations, working
with the CIO Council's Human Capital Resource Center, have together
performed some of the tasks in the plan. For example, they have
performed a gap analysis between existing and future skill needs and
have begun examining strategies for reducing the identified gaps. They
have also identified mission-critical occupations and skills necessary
to achieve departmental goals. However, it is unclear which
organization has primary responsibility for the plan. According to
officials from both the Offices of the CHCO and the CIO, primary
responsibility for the IT human capital plan and its implementation has
recently moved from the CIO to the CHCO. However, these officials have
yet to provide us with documentation of this transfer in responsibility.
Despite the previously noted positive steps toward implementing the
plan, officials from the CIO and the CHCO offices told us that the plan
is largely not implemented. For example, while DHS is collecting
information on the number of increasing, decreasing, and new mission-
critical occupations, it is not identifying and analyzing year-to-year
changes and trends to determine whether recruitment and retention
strategies need to be updated to meet current organizational needs. In
addition, although the department has documented performance goals and
objectives for some work units (e.g., managers in Customs and Border
Protection) and linked them to department-level organizational goals,
it had not done so for much of the department.
At the component level, none of the three agencies that we reviewed had
begun implementing the plan, as described in the following text.
* The Coast Guard had not implemented the plan. According to Coast
Guard officials, including the Director, Future Force, and the Chief of
Human Resource Information Services, they were aware of the plan's
existence, but were unaware of any requirement to implement it.
However, they stated that their own human capital efforts satisfy
everything in the plan. For example, these officials said that they had
performed workforce analyses to determine skill and competency gaps and
have employed a range of strategies, such as strategic recruitment
through direct hiring authority and internal training, to fill the
gaps. The Coast Guard has yet to provide us with documentation to
substantiate these statements.
* Customs and Border Protection had not implemented the plan, although
officials from its Office of Information Technology and the Office of
Human Resources Management told us that they were aware of the plan and
the need to implement it. According to these officials, the agency is
in the process of developing a strategy to implement the plan. They
also stated that the strategy was to be completed in June 2007, but it
is still under development. On August 30, 2007, the officials reported
that the strategy had been completed. We have not yet received the
strategy and had an opportunity to analyze it.
* The Federal Emergency Management Agency had not implemented the plan.
Agency officials, including the Deputy CIO and the Chief of the Human
Capital Branch, stated that they were aware of the plan but were
unaware of a requirement to implement it. They also stated that their
agency human capital efforts nevertheless were fully consistent with
the plan. However, the officials have yet to provide analysis and
related documentation to support these statements. In addition, the
officials added that they are in the process of developing an
agencywide human capital plan--addressing both IT and non-IT personnel-
-that is to be consistent with the plan and is to be issued on October
1, 2007.[Footnote 29]
The lack of implementation progress can be attributed in part to
ambiguity surrounding implementation roles and responsibilities. In
particular, the plan itself is in large part silent on implementation
roles and responsibilities as well as implementation accountability
mechanisms. Moreover, as we have previously noted, the plan does not
address important aspects of OPM's key practices that are
implementation related. To help clarify the plan, including
implementation roles and responsibilities, the DHS CIO Council's Human
Capital Resource Center developed an implementation briefing and
provided it to the CIO Council members in November 2005. However, the
briefing does not assign specific implementation activities to specific
organizations. Rather, it groups implementation activities into
solution sets and then broadly assigns these sets to department and
component agency CIOs, CHCOs, and human capital directors. As a result,
department and component agency officials told us that they were not
clear on who was responsible for what, particularly with regard to the
sources of funding and staff. Moreover, as we have previously noted,
officials for at least one component agency were not even aware that
they were required to implement it, or what their roles and
responsibilities were relative to implementation.
The lack of implementation progress can also be attributed to resources
being assigned to competing IT initiatives that were judged to be
higher priorities. According to DHS CIO officials, including the CIO
Council senior executive leading the effort, when it came time to fund
implementation of the plan, the department and components decided to
fund other priorities, such as DHS's effort to consolidate multiple
component data centers and create a unified departmental network.
Furthermore, the IT Human Capital Resource Center program manager
responsible for implementing the plan resigned in January 2006, and his
replacement left in November 2006. According to DHS CIO and CHCO
officials, the department has not provided funding to fill the
position, which still remains vacant.
Department and component officials agreed that the IT human capital
plan is largely not implemented. However, they stated that they are
nonetheless following many of the OPM framework practices in the plan
as a by-product of fulfilling their periodic reporting requirements to
OMB on the President's Management Agenda[Footnote 30] human capital
initiatives. Specifically, the department and its components are
required to report quarterly to OMB on progress in meeting certain
human capital goals, such as filling mission-critical positions and
delivering training to strengthen key IT knowledge, skills, and
abilities. For example, the actions reported to OMB require the
department and components to identify mission-critical occupations and
competencies, develop recruitment strategies to maintain mission-
critical competencies at desired levels, and report on progress toward
achieving human capital goals, which are also called for by the plan
and OPM's framework. Our analysis showed that efforts related to this
reporting requirement align with about 12 of the 27 practices that we
examined. DHS officials did not disagree with this analysis. This means
that despite a number of IT human capital-related activities, the
department and its component agencies are not implementing the full
range of practices needed for effective management of IT human capital.
Conclusions:
An effective DHS IT workforce is essential to the department's efforts
to leverage technology in transforming itself and achieving mission
goals and outcomes. Central to creating and sustaining such a workforce
is developing a comprehensive IT human capital plan that reflects
relevant guidance and best practices, and ensuring that the plan is
effectively implemented. While much of such a plan has been developed,
and thus a planning foundation exists upon which to build, this plan is
nevertheless lacking with respect to relevant guidance and best
practices aimed at, among other things, ensuring that the plan is
effectively implemented. Moreover, actual implementation of the plan to
date has been limited, with much remaining to be accomplished by the
department CIO and CHCO organizations as well as their DHS component
agency counterparts. The status of the plan and its implementation is
largely attributable to the lack of clarity surrounding implementation
roles and responsibilities, and the lack of priority being given to the
plan's implementation relative to competing IT priorities at the
department and component agency levels. Until DHS has a comprehensive
plan and follows through to ensure that it is effectively implemented
departmentwide, it will remain challenged in its ability to have
sufficient people with the right knowledge, skills, and abilities to
effectively leverage technology in support of transformation and
mission goals.
Recommendations for Executive Action:
To strengthen DHS's management of IT human capital, we recommend that
the Secretary of Homeland Security direct the Under Secretary for
Management and the head of each DHS component agency to instruct their
respective CIOs and human capital directors to make development and
implementation of a comprehensive IT human capital plan an imperative
within each organization. In this regard, we recommend that the
Secretary direct the Under Secretary and the component agency heads to
ensure that (1) IT human capital planning efforts fully satisfy
relevant federal guidance and related best practices, (2) roles and
responsibilities for implementing the resulting IT human capital plan
and all supporting plans are clearly defined and understood, (3)
resources needed to effectively and efficiently implement the plans are
made available, and (4) progress in implementing the plans is regularly
measured and periodically reported to DHS leadership and Congress.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
In written comments on a draft of this report, signed by the Director,
Departmental GAO/Office of Inspector General Liaison and reprinted in
appendix III, the department stated that it agreed with our
recommendations. Consistent with our report, it also stated that the
state of IT human capital management varies widely across DHS component
organizations, and it acknowledged that a lower priority has been
assigned to IT human capital relative to other IT-related matters. In
addition, DHS stated that it understands the importance of IT human
capital planning and that it will dedicate the resources needed to
ensure that it has a highly skilled and effective IT workforce.
DHS also provided what it termed additional information about ongoing
and planned activities to update and clarify the status of its IT human
capital efforts, particularly with regard to the key practices that we
determined to be "partially satisfied." Among other things, DHS stated
that some of our determinations were based on the DHS IT Human Capital
Strategic Plan (2005), which was not intended to include certain
details relative to achieving results, such as milestones, time frames,
and roles and responsibilities. According to DHS, this plan is a high-
level strategy and not a "blueprint for execution." Rather, it said
that the IT Gap Analysis Report and Improvement Plan (2007) is the
department's "operative diagram" for achieving its human capital goals
and results. We agree that the IT Gap Analysis Report and Improvement
Plan (2007) is relevant to our determinations. However, we disagree
that our determinations were based solely on the strategic plan. As
described in our report's scope and methodology, our determinations
were based on examining all relevant documentation that the department
provided for each key practice, including the IT Gap Analysis Report
and Improvement Plan (2007), as well as on interviews with key
officials from DHS's Offices of the CIO and CHCO, the CIO Council
executive sponsor for Human Capital issues, and officials from the
department's IT Human Capital Resource Center. Accordingly, the
determinations in our draft report already recognized most of the
additional information that DHS provided. In cases where new
information was provided, we have incorporated, or otherwise
recognized, this information in our report as appropriate.
We are sending copies of this report to the Chairmen and Ranking
Members of the Senate and House committees that have authorization and
oversight responsibilities for homeland security and other interested
congressional committees. We are also sending copies to the Directors
of OMB and OPM; the DHS Secretary, Undersecretary for Management, CHCO,
and CIO; the component agency heads; and other interested parties. In
addition, the report will also be available without charge on GAO's Web
site at [Hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov].
Should you have any questions about matters discussed in this report,
please contact me at (202) 512-3439 or by e-mail at hiter@gao.gov.
Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public
Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. Key contributors
to this report are listed in appendix IV.
Signed by:
Randolph C. Hite:
Director, Information Technology Architecture and Systems Issues:
[End of section]
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology:
The objectives of our review were to determine (1) whether the
Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) information technology (IT)
human capital plan is consistent with federal guidance and associated
best practices and (2) the status of the plan's implementation.
To address our first objective, we reviewed the department's May 20,
2005, IT human capital plan,[Footnote 31] which DHS labeled as "Draft
Final for Discussion Purposes" and submitted on August 30, 2006, to the
Senate and House Appropriations Committees pursuant to requirements in
DHS's fiscal year 2006 appropriations act. We evaluated this plan and
supporting documentation against selected practices in the Office of
Personnel Management's (OPM) Human Capital Assessment and
Accountability Framework.[Footnote 32] We used this framework because
it is the federal guidance that DHS used in developing its plan, and
because the framework reflects the human capital best practices in
GAO's strategic human capital model.[Footnote 33] In addition, this
framework provides a method for assessing the adequacy of a human
capital plan. In applying this method, we focused on 27 practices in
the framework that are essential to a well-defined and useful plan and
that span the six standards areas in the framework.[Footnote 34] We
also validated our use of the 27 practices with OPM.
Using the framework's method, we compared the DHS IT human capital plan
and supporting documentation with each of the elements comprising the
27 practices.[Footnote 35] We also interviewed (1) officials from DHS's
Offices of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the Chief Human
Capital Officer (CHCO); (2) the CIO Council executive sponsor for Human
Capital issues; and (3) officials from the department's IT Human
Capital Resource Center, which helped develop the IT human capital plan
and supporting documentation. In performing our comparative analysis,
we determined if the practice was fully satisfied, partially satisfied,
or not satisfied. For purposes of this review, we defined "fully
satisfied" to mean that the agency demonstrated, through verifiable
evidence, that it had addressed all aspects of the key practice;
"partially satisfied" to mean that such evidence showed that some, but
not all, aspects of the key practice had been addressed; and "not
satisfied" to mean that such evidence showed that none of the aspects
of the key practice had been addressed.
In addition, we shared all of our preliminary determinations with
officials from the DHS CIO Council and the DHS Office of the CHCO and
provided them with an opportunity to comment on these determinations.
These officials agreed with many of our determinations but also
provided additional evidence to support revising others, which we have
done and incorporated in this report.
For our second objective, we reviewed plan implementation activities
within the DHS Offices of the CIO and the CHCO and three DHS component
agencies: the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, and the
Federal Emergency Management Administration. We selected these
components because based on DHS's fiscal year 2006 budget, they were
among the largest with respect to total budget, IT budget, and IT staff
positions. Thus, the scope of our component agency coverage extended to
about $20 billion of DHS's $40 billion total budget; $720 million of
the department's $2.2 billion IT budget; and 60 percent[Footnote 36] of
its IT personnel. In each of these organizations, we requested and
reviewed available documentation on its respective efforts to implement
the plan, including development of supporting implementation plans,
completion of tasks, and the status of ongoing efforts related to IT
human capital. We also interviewed responsible officials from DHS's
Offices of the CIO and the CHCO; the Coast Guard's Human Resources
Directorate; Customs and Border Protection's Office of Human Resources
Management; and the Federal Emergency Management Administration's
Office of the CIO and its Office of Human Resources Management.
We performed our work at DHS headquarters in Washington, D.C., from
October 2006 through July 2007, in accordance with generally accepted
government auditing standards.
[End of section]
Appendix II: Details on IT Human Capital Plan's Satisfaction of
Practices in OPM's Framework:
Key practice: Strategic alignment;
Key stakeholders participate in the development and revision of the
agency's strategic plan (e.g., DHS's IT human capital plan) and
facilitate workforce planning and analysis efforts;
Satisfied[A]: Fully;
Comment: Key stakeholders--identified by DHS as including the CIO, the
CHCO, component agency CIO and human capital directors, and the IT
Human Capital Resource Center--participated in the development of the
department's IT human capital plan and workforce planning and analysis
efforts. For example, in March 2005, DHS held an off-site meeting with
these stakeholders to facilitate collaboration and to gather
stakeholder input as part of plan development efforts. DHS's IT human
capital plan also states that the department intends to involve these
stakeholders in efforts to periodically revise the plan to reflect
current priorities and conditions. Furthermore, the plan and supporting
documentation identify these stakeholders as participating in analyzing
and identifying the department's workforce needs and in developing a
departmentwide workforce plan to fill identified gaps.
Key practice: Strategic alignment;
The organization defines successful achievement of its mission in terms
of valid and reliable data, including both long-and short-term human
capital performance goals;
Satisfied[A]: Fully;
Comment: In its IT human capital plan and supporting documentation, DHS
defines accomplishing its near-term and long-term IT human capital
goals and objectives in terms of qualitative and quantitative measures
that are to be based on valid and reliable data, and links them to
accomplishing DHS's mission. Specifically, the plan identifies
departmental human capital goals, such as recruiting a high-quality IT
workforce, training its IT workforce to be capable, and retaining high
performers. It also describes how these goals support the strategic
goal of empowering the IT workforce and how this helps to achieve DHS's
mission.
Key practice: Strategic alignment;
Trends in mission-critical occupations are analyzed in terms of
suggested factors in order to continually adjust the agency's
recruitment and retention strategy to its current state of need;
Satisfied[A]: Partially;
Comment: In the IT human capital plan and supporting documentation, the
department provides updates for fiscal years 2004 and 2005 on, for
example, the number of mission-critical occupations that are
increasing, decreasing, or new. However, the plan and supporting
documentation generally do not identify and analyze the year-to-year
trends. For example, supporting documentation (e.g., the DHS Workforce
Plan FY 2005-2008) has data for 2003 and 2004, but the year-to-year
changes and trends in occupations are not identified and analyzed to
determine whether the recruitment and retention strategy needs to be
updated to meet the current state of organizational need. In addition,
while DHS officials noted an example of one component agency
(Transportation Security Administration) adjusting its recruitment and
retention strategy to meet the current state of need, they stated that
most components are not adjusting recruitment strategies on the basis
of available occupation data.
Key practice: Strategic alignment;
An integrated human capital planning process is in use, including
representatives from the agency/unit human capital team, the primary IT
human capital officer, and senior leaders and managers from mission-
specific program areas;
Satisfied[A]: Fully;
Comment: DHS's IT human capital plan and supporting documentation
identify use of a human capital planning process that includes
stakeholders from across the department and component agencies. For
example, in developing the IT human capital plan, the department used a
process involving representatives from the department's CHCO, CIO, and
component offices, among others. This was also the case with regard to
other supporting documentation. For example, in developing the DHS
Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008, the department brought together
stakeholders from across the department to collaborate on and produce
this product. This workforce plan also defines a human capital planning
process whose stated purpose is to help identify, in an integrated and
cost-effective manner, the human capital resources needed to meet
mission goals and develop strategies for developing or acquiring those
resources.
Key practice: Strategic alignment;
Mission-critical occupations and competencies are identified in the
agency's strategic plan and/or performance plan, and its strategic
human capital plan;
Satisfied[A]: Partially;
Comment: Although documentation supporting DHS's IT human capital plan
identifies mission-critical occupations (e.g., IT project managers and
IT security specialists), the IT human capital plan and other DHS
strategic and human capital plans do not. Specifically, DHS's IT Human
Capital Plan to Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps and the DHS
Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008 identify technical competencies and skills
needed for IT occupations. However, the DHS IT human capital plan and
the departmentwide strategic and human capital plans do not identify
mission-critical IT occupations and competencies.
Key practice: Strategic alignment;
The strategic human capital plan sets human capital progress milestones
and identifies those responsible for meeting them;
Satisfied[A]: Partially;
Comment: While documents supporting DHS's IT human capital plan (e.g.,
the November 2005 implementation briefing and the May 2007 IT Gap
Analysis Report and Improvement Plan) include milestones and assign
roles and responsibilities, neither these documents nor the IT human
capital plan include specific time frames or milestones for when most
defined activities and steps are to be completed. In addition, although
the supporting documents and the plan provide for involving key
stakeholders, they do not assign stakeholders responsibility and
accountability for specific activities.
Key practice: Strategic alignment;
Key human capital leaders and agency stakeholders utilize collaborative
mechanisms/forums that provide a venue for consistent dialogue in the
planning process (e.g., team members of review boards, working groups,
or executive off-sites);
Satisfied[A]: Fully;
Comment: DHS's IT human capital plan and supporting documentation
describe the department's collaborative mechanisms and forums for
planning strategic human capital activities. They include, for example,
the DHS CIO Council, which is made up of component agency CIOs and
which has monthly meetings to discuss, among other things, human
capital matters. The council used this forum and off-site meetings to
collaborate with the DHS CHCO office, the IT Human Capital Resource
Center, and component human capital directors, among others, in
developing the IT human capital plan. In addition, the department tasks
the Human Capital Resource Center to bring together representatives
from DHS and the components on a monthly basis to share ideas and
strategies on emerging IT human capital issues. Furthermore, DHS
established a Workforce Planning Council, comprising department and
component agency officials, to develop a workforce plan and provide for
analysis across DHS.
Key practice: Strategic alignment;
The agency has a documented change management process that identifies
necessary human capital practices to achieve human capital objectives;
Satisfied[A]: Fully;
Comment: In the IT human capital plan and supporting documentation, DHS
documents a change management process that identifies human capital
practices needed to achieve the department's human capital objectives.
For example, in the DHS Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008, the department
describes its change management process that includes steps such as
identifying departmental goals, identifying workforce requirements,
developing a workforce strategy, and evaluating the effectiveness of
the planning process. In addition, the IT human capital plan identifies
certain practices--such as analyzing workforce needs and capabilities,
developing an IT training strategy, implementing an IT leadership
development program, and developing performance measures for
accountability--as being critical to achieving DHS human capital
objectives. Moreover, supporting documentation (e.g., DHS's November
2005 implementation briefing) identifies traceable linkages between the
practices it is intended to implement and IT human capital goals and
objectives.
Key practice: Strategic alignment;
Studies indicate which occupations and competencies are essential to
achieving the agency's strategic goals;
Satisfied[A]: Fully;
Comment: Documentation supporting the IT human capital plan (e.g.,
DHS's IT Human Capital Plan to Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps)
identifies occupations and competencies to achieve the agency's
strategic goals. For example, the department identified competencies
within IT project management, information security, and enterprise
architecture as being critical to achieving the department's mission
goals.
Key practice: Strategic alignment;
Line managers and key staff, including human resources, consider and
prepare for possible workforce changes in areas such as mission/goals,
technology, program additions or deletions, functions, and outsourcing
initiatives;
Satisfied[A]: Fully;
Comment: DHS's IT human capital plan and supporting documentation
include guidance for managers and key staff to consider, plan, and
prepare for changes in the department's mission, programs, and
workforce composition. Specifically, DHS's IT human capital plan states
that DHS managers should consider and prepare for changes in
organizational goals, personnel, and technology. In addition,
supporting documentation (e.g., the DHS Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008)
acknowledges the possibility of workforce changes due to retirements
and attrition. The workforce plan also states that it will serve as an
integrated approach for addressing future business needs, and
identifies steps that department managers should go through in planning
for changes, including considering how changes will impact mission
goals, programs, functions, and workforce composition. The workforce
plan also states that managers should consider using alternative
strategies, such as outsourcing.
Key practice: Strategic alignment;
Turnover indicators are monitored regularly; Satisfied[A]: Fully:
Comment: Documentation supporting the IT human capital plan
(specifically, the DHS Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008) identifies several
factors to be monitored, including appointments, separations, and
retirements, and assigns the responsibility for monitoring the factors
to the department's Office of the CHCO. This documentation also reports
on the department's appointments, separations, and retirements during
fiscal years 2004 and 2005.
Key practice: Strategic alignment;
A workforce analysis process is used on a regular basis for assessment
and planning, and to drive human capital decisions;
Satisfied[A]: Partially;
Comment: The IT human capital plan and supporting documentation show
that DHS uses a workforce analysis process for human capital
assessment, planning, and decisions. For example, supporting
documentation (e.g., the DHS Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008) identifies
workforce trends analyzed among cross-cutting and high-profile mission-
critical occupations and the process established and followed to
develop such trend data. Furthermore, the documentation also shows that
DHS established a Workforce Planning Council that is responsible for
ensuring that workforce planning and human capital initiatives are
integrated consistently and cost-effectively across DHS. According to
DHS CHCO officials, the department intends to conduct workforce
analysis efforts every 2 years. However, these officials also report
that not all components are using the workforce data on a regular basis
to drive human capital decisions.
Key practice: Strategic alignment;
The agency has a clearly defined strategy and plan to facilitate human
capital changes;
Satisfied[A]: Partially;
Comment: The IT human capital plan and supporting documents clearly
identify human capital strategies and goals, but do not fully provide
for how and when human capital changes will be made. For example, the
plan defines strategic goals and objectives and states that an
implementation plan is to be developed and executed with performance
measures, such as milestones, deadlines, and assignment of personnel
responsible for achieving them. However, as we have previously
discussed, DHS developed such a plan in November 2005 (i.e., the
November 2005 implementation briefing) and later updated it in the May
2007 IT Gap Analysis Report and Improvement Plan, but these documents
do not include specific time frames or milestones for when most defined
activities and steps are to be completed. In addition, although the
document provides for involving key stakeholders, it does not assign
stakeholders responsibility and accountability for specific activities.
Key practice: Workforce planning and deployment;
Staffing data showing trends in appointments, promotions, conversions,
separations, and retirements are analyzed regularly, and management
decisions regarding workforce deployment are based on documented data;
Satisfied[A]: Partially;
Comment: The IT human capital plan and supporting documentation include
analyses of staffing data for appointments, separations, and
retirements that are reported to the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) on a quarterly basis. In addition, these documents (e.g., the DHS
Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008) include workforce trends analyses among
cross-cutting and mission- critical occupations. However, trends in
these data are not fully analyzed, and, according to DHS CHCO
officials, not all components are using the data on a regular basis to
drive human capital decisions.
Key practice: Workforce planning and deployment;
The agency uses multifaceted techniques to close competency gaps within
the organization (e.g., strategic recruitment, midcareer hiring, and
training);
Satisfied[A]: Fully;
Comment: The IT human capital plan and supporting documentation provide
for a variety of recruitment and training techniques to be used in
closing competency gaps. For example, supporting documents (e.g., DHS's
IT Human Capital Plan to Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps)
describe efforts planned and under way to mitigate gaps using strategic
recruitment through outsourcing, private/public cross training,
internal training, and e-training.
Key practice: Leadership and knowledge management;
Leadership development and succession needs are considered, reflected
in human capital plans and strategies, and addressed through related
human capital management efforts/programs;
Satisfied[A]: Fully;
Comment: The IT human capital plan and supporting documentation, in
particular DHS's Succession Management Plan FY 2006-2009, describe
practices to be followed in developing the leadership skills of DHS
personnel. These documents also identify succession planning goals and
objectives, implementation strategies, and program evaluation critical
success factors to measure whether expected outcomes are being achieved.
Key practice: Leadership and knowledge management;
The agency has a strategy and plan for communication of human capital
changes and progress, and to capture employee feedback related to human
capital practices and needs;
Satisfied[A]: Fully;
Comment: In its IT human capital plan and supporting documentation, DHS
identifies strategies and plans for communicating changes and progress
to employees. For example, the IT human capital plan includes
initiatives to improve communication on human capital changes and
progress, such as developing training materials and courses to educate
supervisors on how to (1) take advantage of hiring flexibilities; (2)
promote the use and accessibility of departmentwide training
opportunities, including e- learning; and (3) provide Web-based
information on training and human capital policies and procedures. In
addition, supporting documentation, such as the DHS Workforce Plan FY
2005-2008, includes a communications plan on how to keep DHS personnel
informed on workforce changes, including the department's progress in
implementing them. Furthermore, according to DHS CHCO and CIO
officials, the department captures employee feedback on its practices
through representatives to the IT Human Capital Resource Center and
also through annual IT staff surveys.
Key practice: Leadership and knowledge management;
Annual performance plans, budgets, and performance reports document
plans for and progress toward human capital goals;
Satisfied[A]: Partially;
Comment: As directed by OMB, DHS reports quarterly on its progress on
human capital goals. However, DHS's IT human capital plan and
supporting documentation do not provide for developing annual
performance plans, budget documents, or performance reports that
discuss plans for and progress against human capital goals. In
addition, the information reported to OMB is primarily on DHS efforts
to close IT competencies and skills gaps, which is just one of the
multiple goals and objectives in DHS's plan and supporting
documentation.
Key practice: Results-oriented performance culture;
Work units have documented performance goals and objectives linked to
the agency strategic plan and performance plan;
Satisfied[A]: Partially;
Comment: Although DHS's IT human capital plan and related documentation
support having measurable performance goals for work units, such
performance plans and measures have not been fully developed. For
example, DHS CIO and CHCO officials stated that although the department
has documented performance goals and objectives for some work units
(e.g., managers in Customs and Border Protection) and linked them to
department-level organizational goals, it had not done so for much of
the department. Specifically, only managers in the DHS CHCO's office
and also at Customs and Border Protection have performance objectives
that are linked to strategic plans.
Key practice: Talent management;
The agency's strategic planning process documents and tracks mission-
critical occupations and competency gap-reduction efforts;
Satisfied[A]: Fully;
Comment: DHS's IT human capital plan and supporting documentation
provide details on the department's strategic planning process,
including the reporting and tracking of mission-critical occupations
and efforts to reduce competency gaps. For example, in supporting
documentation (e.g., the DHS Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008), the
department describes a workforce planning process that is to help
identify the human capital resources needed to meet mission goals and
develop strategies for developing or acquiring those resources. In
addition, other supporting documentation (e.g., the IT Human Capital
Plan to Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps) identifies mission-
critical IT occupations and high-level efforts needed to close its
competency gaps. The department uses its OMB quarterly reports to
document and track the status of efforts to close those competency gaps.
Key practice: Talent management;
Strategies are developed and implemented for reducing competency gaps
through training, development, or alternative sources;
Satisfied[A]: Fully;
Comment: As described in its IT human capital plan and supporting
documentation, DHS's strategies to close its competency gaps consist of
a number of human capital initiatives, including training, staff
development, and an outside executive exchange program. Specifically,
DHS's IT Human Capital Plan to Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps
details planned and ongoing efforts to mitigate gaps using, for
example, strategic recruitment through outsourcing, private/public
cross training, internal training, and e-training.
Key practice: Talent management;
Staffing, training, and performance data indicate success in closing
competency gaps;
Satisfied[A]: Partially;
Comment: The IT human capital plan and supporting documentation state
that data on its progress toward meeting human capital goals will be
reported to OMB and DHS management as required; they do not, however,
specify what data are to be reported. The department reports quarterly
to OMB on the status of efforts to close competency gaps. In addition,
a recently completed (May 2007) DHS workforce survey and gap
analysis[B] identify existing IT competency gaps, but do not indicate
any progress in closing them. According to DHS CHCO and CIO officials,
the department to date has had limited resources and data available to
assess the effectiveness of ongoing efforts to close competency gaps.
They further stated that they intend to use the newly completed
analysis as a baseline for measuring the success of future efforts.
Key practice: Talent management;
Recruitment strategies are created to maintain mission-critical
competencies at the desired level using business forecasting and
workforce analysis results;
Satisfied[A]: Fully;
Comment: Documentation supporting DHS's IT human capital plan provides
for developing recruiting strategies based on workforce forecasting and
analysis results. For example, the DHS Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008
states that the department is to use a strategic approach to
recruitment and workforce planning. In addition, it identifies a DHS
corporate recruitment workgroup, which includes senior human resources
and civil rights staff throughout DHS, who are to assess departmentwide
recruitment activities and tools; coordinate participation in
recruitment fairs; and develop recruitment strategies and activities
for crosscutting occupations, primarily entry-level positions. In May
2007, the department developed an improvement plan that provides
updated strategies for addressing competency gaps and maintaining
mission-critical competencies. This plan is based on the analysis of a
recently completed workforce survey.
Key practice: Accountability;
Human capital risks are tracked, documented, and reported to a central
advisory or management board, and action is taken to mitigate high-risk
areas;
Satisfied[A]: Partially;
Comment: Documents supporting DHS's IT human capital plan (e.g., the IT
Human Capital Plan to Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps and the IT
Gap Analysis Report and Improvement Plan) identify and document some
but not all key human capital risks and do not provide for reporting
risks to management or a management board. More specifically, these
plans document that failure to fill critical competency and skill sets
(e.g., IT project management and IT security) poses a medium-to-high
human capital risk to DHS's ability to achieve mission goals. However,
DHS CHCO and CIO officials acknowledged that the department does not
track these risks through any formal mechanism. In addition, they
stated that DHS has not established a comprehensive effort to identify
and track the full range of human capital risks facing the department,
as well as reporting those risks to management or a central advisory or
management board.
Key practice: Accountability;
Applicable merit principles and standards are upheld, and employee
grievances are considered and addressed;
Satisfied[A]: Fully;
Comment: DHS's IT human capital plan and supporting documentation
provide for the application and enforcement of merit principles and
standards and for considering and addressing employee grievances. For
example, the plan recognizes that the department has legislative and
regulatory requirements to implement performance-based management
practices, including merit principles and standards, for its IT
workforce. In addition, an OPM analysis of DHS's human resources
management operations reports that the department's human resources
management operates in a consistent manner with merit principles.[C]
Moreover, DHS has a policy directive that defines the process for
administering its employee grievance system. The department also
regularly reports to management and employees on the number of
grievances filed and resolved as well as the number of cases
outstanding.
Key practice: Accountability;
Program and initiative implementation efforts include published plans
that clearly outline periodic review of performance and desired
outcomes;
Satisfied[A]: Partially;
Comment: DHS's IT human capital plan and supporting documentation
provide for performance reviews of desired outcomes. For example,
supporting documentation (specifically, DHS's IT Human Capital Plan to
Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps and IT Gap Analysis Report and
Improvement Plan) provides analyses and snapshots of the department's
performance in trying to close gaps in mission-critical competencies.
However, these competency gap snapshots do not constitute a
comprehensive review and evaluation of progress against all of the
objectives established in the human capital plan. In addition, DHS's IT
human capital plan and supporting documentation do not clearly outline
or identify time frames for periodic review. DHS CHCO and CIO officials
stated that they intend to address this in future revisions to the plan.
Key practice: Accountability;
Accountability for human capital improvements is clearly assigned and
assessed regularly, and is an input into future planning and resource
allocation decisions;
Satisfied[A]:Partially;
Comment: DHS's IT human capital plan does not clearly assign
accountability for human capital improvements or provide for regular
assessments of that accountability. However, documents supporting the
plan (specifically, the department's November 2005 implementation
briefing and the May 2007 IT Gap Analysis Report and Improvement Plan)
do assign accountability and responsibility for human capital
improvements. For example, the documents assign accountability to the
DHS CHCO, DHS CIO, and component agency heads to make improvements
related to closing selected competency gaps. However, the documents do
not provide for assessing accountability on a regular basis and using
the results as an input into future planning and resource allocation
decisions. DHS CHCO and CIO officials stated that while data related to
competency gaps are used as an input, data regarding accountability are
not.
Source: GAO analysis of OPM and DHS data.
[A] "Fully satisfied" means that the agency demonstrated, through
verifiable evidence, that it has addressed all aspects of the key
practice. "Partially satisfied" means that such evidence shows that
some, but not all, aspects of the key practice have been addressed.
[B] DHS, Office of the Chief Information Officer/Office of the Chief
Human Capital Officer, IT Gap Analysis Report and Improvement Plan (May
1, 2007).
[C] OPM, Department of Homeland Security: Human Resources Operations
Audit Report Q2 FY 2006 (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 23, 2006).
[End of table]
[End of section]
Appendix III: Comments from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security:
U.S. Department of Homeland Security:
Washington, DC 20528:
Homeland Security:
August 30, 2007:
Mr. Randolph C. Hite:
Director, Information Technology:
Architecture and Systems Issues:
U.S. Government Accountability Office:
441 G Street, N.W.:
Washington, DC 20548"
Dear Mr. Hite:
RE: Draft Report GAO-07-425, Information Technology: DHS's Human
Capital Plan Is Largely Consistent with Relevant Guidance, but
Improvements and Implementation Steps Still Needed (GAO Job Code 310632)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appreciates the opportunity
to review and comment on the draft report referenced above. Based on
our review, the Department concurs with the recommendations. However,
we offer the following additional information which we believe will
help clarify and update the current status:
1. Although human capital and workforce planning efforts in DHS have
been fairly decentralized in the past, yielding programs that vary
widely in maturity and effectiveness, DHS has recently issued a
Workforce Planning Guide to educate all managers, including Information
Technology (IT) managers, on the tools and techniques for effective
human capital and workforce planning. The Guide incorporates relevant
federal guidance and best practices from several Federal agencies.
2. To facilitate future workforce planning efforts within DHS, the
Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer is also collaborating with
DHS offices/components to develop the following human capital
management tools and programs:
* E-Recruitment, to include workforce data analysis tools:
* Automated Competency Assessments for Mission Critical Occupations:
* Competency-based Qualifications for 115 DHS Occupations:
* Component and Corporate Intern Programs:
* Career Path Programs:
* Workforce Planning Training, and the:
* DHScovery Learning Program
Some of the U.S. Government Accountability Office's (GAO's)
observations were based on its interpretation of the DHS IT Human
Capital Strategic Plan (2005), a high-level strategy document for
achieving human capital goals, as opposed to a tactical or operational
plan that outlines intricate details for achieving results. The GAO
mentioned a lack of milestones, time frames, responsible parties and
other problems in this document. The purpose of the DHS IT Human
Capital Strategic Plan was to paint a broad picture of IT workforce
strategy, not to draw a blueprint for execution.
3. We acknowledge that IT-related strategic and business priorities
have shifted from human capital planning to building and strengthening
DHS' information technology infrastructure. However, despite pressing
fiscal constraints, DHS continues to dedicate resources towards
reducing skill and competency gaps in our information technology
occupations.
4. The IT Gap Analysis Report and Improvement Plan (2007) is the
current diagram for achieving human capital goals. DHS is accountable
to the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and
Budget for ensuring that specified competency targets are achieved en a
quarterly basis.
We have separately provided technical comments with respect to those
key practices determined to be "partially satisfied" by the GAO.
We understand the importance of IT human capital planning and will
continue to dedicate resources to ensure a highly skilled and effective
IT workforce that can meet the challenges required to protect the
homeland.
Sincerely,
Signed by:
Steven J. Pecinovsky Director:
Departmental GAO/OIG Liaison Office:
[End of section]
Appendix IV: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments:
GAO Contact:
Randolph C. Hite, (202) 512-3439, or hiter@gao.gov:
Staff Acknowledgments:
In addition to the individual named above, Gerard Aflague, Mathew
Bader, Justin Booth, Barbara Collier, S. Mike Davis, Bill Doherty
(Assistant Director), and Gary Mountjoy (Assistant Director) made key
contributions to this report.
[End of section]
Footnotes:
[1] GAO, High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-07-310 (Washington, D.C.:
January 2007).
[2] GAO-07-310.
[3] In addition to the human capital plan, the act also required the
CIO to include in the report the department's enterprise architecture
and a description of its IT capital planning and investment control
process. The results of our reviews of these aspects of DHS's report
were provided to the committees in April and May 2007. See GAO,
Information Technology: DHS Needs to Fully Define and Implement
Policies and Procedures for Effectively Managing Investments, GAO-07-
424 (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 27, 2007) and Homeland Security: DHS
Enterprise Architecture Continues to Evolve but Improvements Needed,
GAO-07-564 (Washington, D.C.: May 9, 2007).
[4] DHS, Empowering the IT Workforce, DHS IT Human Capital Strategic
Plan (2005-2010), Draft Final for Discussion Purposes (Washington,
D.C.: May 2005).
[5] OPM, Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework
(Washington, D.C.: October 2002).
[6] See, for example, GAO, A Model of Strategic Human Capital
Management (Exposure Draft), GAO-02-373SP (Washington, D.C.: March
2002).
[7] GAO-07-310.
[8] GAO, High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-03-119 (Washington, D.C.:
January 2003); High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-05-207 (Washington,
D.C.: January 2005); and GAO-07-310.
[9] OMB, Fiscal Year 2008 Report on Information Technology Budgets
(Washington, D.C.: Feb. 6, 2007).
[10] GAO, High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-01-263 (Washington, D.C.:
January 2001), and GAO-07-310.
[11] DHS, Human Capital Strategic Plan FY 2004-2008 (Washington, D.C.)
[12] GAO, Department of Homeland Security: Formidable Information and
Technology Management Challenge Requires Institutional Approach, GAO-04-
702 (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 27, 2004).
[13] DHS, Empowering the IT Workforce (2005-2010).
[14] GAO, Homeland Security: Progress Continues, but Challenges Remain
on Department's Management of Information Technology, GAO-06-598T
(Washington, D.C.: Mar. 29, 2006).
[15] GAO, Homeland Security: Management and Programmatic Challenges
Facing the Department of Homeland Security, GAO-07-833T (Washington,
D.C.: May 10, 2007).
[16] GAO, Information Technology: Management Improvements Needed on
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Infrastructure Modernization
Program, GAO-05-805 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 7, 2005).
[17] Atlas is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement program to
modernize IT infrastructure.
[18] GAO, Homeland Security: Recommendations to Improve Management of
Key Border Security Program Need to Be Implemented, GAO-06-296
(Washington, D.C.: Feb. 14, 2006).
[19] US-VISIT (United States-Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator
Technology) is a DHS program to collect, maintain, and share
information, including biometric identifiers, on foreign nationals
entering and exiting the United States. US-VISIT uses these identifiers
(digital fingerscans and photographs) to screen persons against watch
lists and to verify that a visitor is the person who was issued a visa
or other travel document. Visitors are also to confirm their departure
by having their visas or passports scanned and undergoing
fingerscanning at selected air and sea ports of entry.
[20] GAO, Homeland Security: First Phase of Visitor and Immigration
Status Program Operating, but Improvements Needed, GAO-04-586
(Washington, D.C.: May 11, 2004); and Homeland Security: Risks Facing
Key Border and Transportation Security Program Need to Be Addressed,
GAO-03-1083 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 19, 2003).
[21] GAO, Information Technology: Customs Has Made Progress on
Automated Commercial Environment System, but It Faces Long-Standing
Management Challenges and New Risks, GAO-06-580 (Washington, D.C.: May
31, 2006).
[22] ACE is a Customs and Border Protection program to modernize trade
processing systems and support border security. Its goals include
enhancing analysis and information sharing with other government
agencies; providing an integrated, fully automated information system
for commercial import and export data; and reducing costs for the
government and the trade community though streamlining.
[23] GAO-02-373SP.
[24] GAO, Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective Strategic
Workforce Planning, GAO-04-39 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 11, 2003).
[25] OPM, Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework.
[26] See, for example, GAO, Securities and Exchange Commission: Some
Progress Made on Strategic Human Capital Management, GAO-06-86
(Washington, D.C.: Jan. 10, 2006).
[27] DHS, DHS Succession Management Plan FY 2006-2009, draft.
[28] DHS, Office of the Chief Information Officer, IT Human Capital
Plan to Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps (March 2006).
[29] With respect to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's overall
management of human capital, we recently reported that it lacks a
strategic workforce plan and related human capital strategies--such as
succession planning or a coordinated training effort--which are
integral to managing resources. They enable an agency to define
staffing levels, identify the critical skills needed to achieve its
mission, and eliminate or mitigate gaps between current and future
skills and competencies. (For the report, see GAO, Budget Issues: FEMA
Needs Adequate Data, Plans, and Systems to Effectively Manage Resources
for Day-to-Day Operations, GAO-07-139 (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 19,
2007).)
[30] Started by OMB in fiscal year 2002, the President's Management
Agenda is an initiative intended to help reform federal government
management in several areas, one of which is the strategic management
of human capital. More specifically, the initiative calls for agencies
to, among other things, link human capital strategies to their mission
goals, use workforce planning and flexible strategies to recruit and
train staff, and determine the most effective means of achieving
mission goals through identifying the organization's core competencies.
[31] DHS, Empowering the IT Workforce, DHS IT Human Capital Strategic
Plan (2005-2010), Draft Final for Discussion Purposes (Washington,
D.C.: May 2005).
[32] OPM, Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework
(Washington, D.C.: October 2002).
[33] GAO, A Model of Strategic Human Capital Management (Exposure
Draft), GAO-02-373SP (Washington, D.C.: March 2002).
[34] OPM, Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework.
[35] DHS, Office of the CIO, IT Human Capital Plan to Mitigate IT
Competency and Skill Gaps (March 2006); Empowering the IT Workforce:
Solutions to Address Critical IT Human Capital Gaps--Executive Brief
and Detailed Implementation Plan (Nov. 1, 2005); Empowering the IT
Workforce: DHS IT Human Capital Strategic Plan (2005-2010) Draft Final
for Discussion Purposes (May 20, 2005); DHS Workforce Plan FY 2005-
2008; and DHS, Offices of the CHCO and CIO, IT Gap Analysis Report and
Improvement Plan (May 1, 2007).
[36] This percentage is based on 1,276 of the 2,165 full-time
equivalent positions in fiscal year 2006.
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