Information Technology
VA Has Taken Important Steps to Centralize Control of Its Resources, but Effectiveness Depends on Additional Planned Actions Gao ID: GAO-08-449T February 13, 2008The use of information technology (IT) is crucial to the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) mission to promote the health, welfare, and dignity of all veterans in recognition of their service to the nation. In this regard, the department's fiscal year 2009 budget proposal includes about $2.4 billion to support IT development, operations, and maintenance. VA has, however, experienced challenges in managing its IT projects and initiatives, including cost overruns, schedule slippages, and performance problems. In an effort to confront these challenges, the department is undertaking a realignment to centralize its IT management structure. This testimony summarizes the department's actions to realign its management structure to provide greater authority and accountability over its IT budget and resources and the impact of these actions to date. In developing this testimony, GAO reviewed previous work on the department's realignment and related budget issues, analyzed pertinent documentation, and interviewed VA officials to determine the current status and impact of the department's efforts to centralize the management of its IT budget and operations.
As part of its IT realignment, VA has taken important steps toward a more disciplined approach to ensuring oversight of and accountability for the department's IT budget and resources. For example, the department's chief information officer (CIO) now has responsibility for ensuring that there are controls over the budget and for overseeing all capital planning and execution, and has designated leadership to assist in overseeing functions such as portfolio management and IT operations. In addition, the department has established and activated three governance boards to facilitate budget oversight and management of its investments. Further, VA has approved an IT strategic plan that aligns with priorities identified in the department's strategic plan and has provided multi-year budget guidance to achieve a more disciplined approach for future budget formulation and execution. While these steps are critical to establishing control of the department's IT, it remains too early to assess their overall impact because most of the actions taken have only recently become operational or have not been fully implemented. Thus, their effectiveness in ensuring accountability for the resources and budget has not yet been clearly established. For example, according to Office of Information and Technology officials, the governance boards' first involvement in budget oversight only recently began (in May 2007) with activities to date focused primarily on formulation of the fiscal year 2009 budget and on execution of the fiscal year 2008 budget. Thus, none of the boards has yet been involved in all aspects of the budget formulation and execution processes and, as a result, their ability to help ensure overall accountability for the department's IT appropriations has not yet been fully established. In addition, because the multi-year programming guidance is applicable to future budgets (for fiscal years 2010 through 2012), it is too early to determine VA's effectiveness in implementing this guidance. Further, VA is in the initial stages of developing management processes that are critical to centralizing its control over the budget. However, while the department had originally stated that the processes would be implemented by July 2008, it now indicates that implementation across the department will not be completed until at least 2011. Until VA fully institutes its oversight measures and management processes, it risks not realizing their contributions to, and impact on, improved IT oversight and accountability within the department.
GAO-08-449T, Information Technology: VA Has Taken Important Steps to Centralize Control of Its Resources, but Effectiveness Depends on Additional Planned Actions
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Testimony Subcommittee On Oversight and Investigations, House Committee
on Veterans' Affairs:
United States Government Accountability Office:
GAO:
For Release on Delivery Expected at 12:30 a.m. EST:
Wednesday, February 13, 2008:
Information Technology:
VA Has Taken Important Steps to Centralize Control of Its Resources,
but Effectiveness Depends on Additional Planned Actions:
Statement of Valerie C. Melvin, Director, Human Capital and Management
Information Systems Issues:
GAO-08-449T:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-08-449T, a testimony before the Subcommittee on
Oversight and Investigations, House Committee on Veterans‘ Affairs.
Why GAO Did This Study:
The use of information technology (IT) is crucial to the Department of
Veterans Affairs‘ (VA) mission to promote the health, welfare, and
dignity of all veterans in recognition of their service to the nation.
In this regard, the department‘s fiscal year 2009 budget proposal
includes about $2.4 billion to support IT development, operations, and
maintenance. VA has, however, experienced challenges in managing its IT
projects and initiatives, including cost overruns, schedule slippages,
and performance problems. In an effort to confront these challenges,
the department is undertaking a realignment to centralize its IT
management structure.
This testimony summarizes the department‘s actions to realign its
management structure to provide greater authority and accountability
over its IT budget and resources and the impact of these actions to
date.
In developing this testimony, GAO reviewed previous work on the
department‘s realignment and related budget issues, analyzed pertinent
documentation, and interviewed VA officials to determine the current
status and impact of the department‘s efforts to centralize the
management of its IT budget and operations.
What GAO Found:
As part of its IT realignment, VA has taken important steps toward a
more disciplined approach to ensuring oversight of and accountability
for the department‘s IT budget and resources. For example, the
department‘s chief information officer (CIO) now has responsibility for
ensuring that there are controls over the budget and for overseeing all
capital planning and execution, and has designated leadership to assist
in overseeing functions such as portfolio management and IT operations.
In addition, the department has established and activated three
governance boards to facilitate budget oversight and management of its
investments. Further, VA has approved an IT strategic plan that aligns
with priorities identified in the department‘s strategic plan and has
provided multi-year budget guidance to achieve a more disciplined
approach for future budget formulation and execution.
While these steps are critical to establishing control of the
department‘s IT, it remains too early to assess their overall impact
because most of the actions taken have only recently become operational
or have not been fully implemented. Thus, their effectiveness in
ensuring accountability for the resources and budget has not yet been
clearly established. For example, according to Office of Information
and Technology officials, the governance boards‘ first involvement in
budget oversight only recently began (in May 2007) with activities to
date focused primarily on formulation of the fiscal year 2009 budget
and on execution of the fiscal year 2008 budget. Thus, none of the
boards has yet been involved in all aspects of the budget formulation
and execution processes and, as a result, their ability to help ensure
overall accountability for the department‘s IT appropriations has not
yet been fully established. In addition, because the multi-year
programming guidance is applicable to future budgets (for fiscal years
2010 through 2012), it is too early to determine VA‘s effectiveness in
implementing this guidance. Further, VA is in the initial stages of
developing management processes that are critical to centralizing its
control over the budget. However, while the department had originally
stated that the processes would be implemented by July 2008, it now
indicates that implementation across the department will not be
completed until at least 2011. Until VA fully institutes its oversight
measures and management processes, it risks not realizing their
contributions to, and impact on, improved IT oversight and
accountability within the department.
To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on
[hyperlink, http://www.GAO-08-449T]. For more information, contact
Valerie C. Melvin at (202) 512-6304 or melvinv@gao.gov.
[End of section]
Abbreviations:
CIO: chief information officer:
IT: information technology:
VA: Department of Veterans' Affairs:
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
Thank you for inviting me to participate in today's hearing on the
Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) fiscal year 2009 information
technology (IT) budget. As you know, the use of IT is crucial to
helping VA effectively serve our nation's veterans, with the
department's just-released budget proposal including approximately $2.4
billion to support IT development, operations, and maintenance.
However, as we have previously reported, VA has experienced challenges
in managing its IT projects and initiatives, including cost overruns,
schedule slippages, and performance problems. To address these
challenges, in October 2005, the department initiated a realignment of
its IT program to provide greater authority and accountability over its
resources. In undertaking this realignment, the department's goals were
to centralize IT management under the department-level chief
information officer (CIO) and to standardize budgets, operations, and
the development of systems through the use of new management processes
based on industry best practices.
At your request, my testimony today summarizes VA's actions as part of
the realignment and the impact of those actions to date in providing
greater authority and accountability over the department's IT resources
and budget. In developing this testimony, we reviewed our previous work
on the department's realignment and related budget issues. We also
obtained and analyzed pertinent documentation and supplemented our
analysis with interviews of responsible VA officials to determine the
current status and impact of the department's efforts to centralize the
management of its IT budget and operations. We conducted our work in
support of this testimony from January 2008 to February 2008 in the
Washington, D.C., area. All work on which this testimony is based was
conducted in accordance with generally accepted government auditing
standards.
Results in Brief:
As part of its IT realignment, VA has taken important steps toward a
more disciplined approach to ensuring oversight of and accountability
for the department's IT budget and resources. For example, to establish
controls, the CIO has designated necessary leadership to be responsible
for developing the department's annual IT budget and for tracking
actual expenditures against the budget. In addition, the department has
established and activated three governance boards to facilitate budget
oversight and the management of its investments. Further, VA has
approved an IT strategic plan[Footnote 1] that aligns with priorities
identified in the department's strategic plan, and has provided multi-
year budget guidance to achieve a more disciplined approach for future
budget formulation and execution. Beyond these actions, VA is in the
initial stages of implementing new management processes that are
critical to centralizing its control over the IT resources and budget.
While these steps are critical to establishing control of the
department's IT, it remains too early to assess their overall impact
because most of the actions taken have only recently become operational
or have not yet been fully implemented. Thus, their effectiveness in
ensuring accountability for the resources and budget has not yet been
clearly established. For example, according to Office of Information
and Technology officials, the governance boards' first involvement in
budget oversight only recently began in May 2007, with their activities
to date focused primarily on formulation of the fiscal year 2009 budget
and execution of the fiscal year 2008 budget. However, none of the
boards has yet been involved in all stages of the budget formulation
and execution processes and, as such, their effectiveness in helping to
ensure overall accountability for the department's IT budget and
resources has not yet been fully established. In addition, because the
multi-year programming guidance is applicable to future budgets (for
fiscal years 2010 through 2012), it is too early to determine VA's
effectiveness in implementing this guidance and its impact on improved
oversight and accountability. Further, while the department has
initiated its development of management processes that are critical to
centralizing its control over the IT budget, the date by which it had
planned to complete the implementation of these processes across the
department has slipped from July 2008 to at least fiscal year 2011.
Until VA fully institutes its oversight measures and management
processes, it risks not realizing their contributions to, and impact
on, improved IT oversight and accountability within the department.
Background:
VA's mission is to promote the health, welfare, and dignity of all
veterans in recognition of their service to the nation by ensuring that
they receive medical care, benefits, social support, and lasting
memorials. Over time, the use of IT has become increasingly crucial to
the department's efforts to provide such benefits and services. For
example, the department relies on its systems for medical information
and records for veterans, as well as for processing benefit claims,
including compensation and pension and education benefits.
In reporting on VA's IT management over the past several
years,[Footnote 2] we have highlighted challenges that the department
has faced in achieving its "One VA" vision,[Footnote 3] including that
information systems and services were highly decentralized and that its
administrations controlled a majority of the IT budget. For example, we
noted that, according to an October 2005 memorandum from the former CIO
to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the CIO had direct control over
only 3 percent of the department's IT budget and 6 percent of the
department's IT personnel. In addition, in the department's fiscal year
2006 IT budget request, the Veterans Health Administration was
identified to receive 88 percent of the requested funding, while the
department was identified to receive only 4 percent. We have previously
pointed out that, given the department's large IT funding and
decentralized management structure, it was crucial for the CIO to
ensure that well-established and integrated processes for leading,
managing, and controlling investments were followed throughout the
department.[Footnote 4]
Further, a contractor's assessment of VA's IT organizational alignment,
issued in February 2005, noted the lack of control for how and when
money is spent.[Footnote 5] The assessment found that project managers
within the administrations were able to shift money as they wanted to
build and operate individual projects. In addition, according to the
assessment, the focus of department-level management was only on
reporting expenditures to the Office of Management and Budget and
Congress, rather than on managing these expenditures within the
department.
VA Establishes Centralized Management Structure to Improve IT
Accountability:
The department officially began its initiative to provide the CIO with
greater authority over the department's IT in October 2005. At that
time, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs issued an executive decision
memorandum that granted approval for the development of a new
centralized management structure for the department. According to VA,
its goals in moving to centralized management included having better
overall fiscal discipline over the budget.
In February 2007, the Secretary approved the department's new
management structure. In this new structure, the Assistant Secretary
for Information and Technology serves as VA's CIO and is supported by a
principal deputy assistant secretary and five deputy assistant
secretaries--senior leadership positions created to assist the CIO in
overseeing functions such as cyber security, IT portfolio management,
and systems development and operations. In April 2007, the Secretary
approved a governance plan[Footnote 6] that is intended to enable the
Office of Information and Technology, under the leadership of the CIO,
to centralize its decision making. The plan describes the relationship
between IT and departmental governance and the approach the department
intends to take to enhance governance and realize more cost-effective
use of IT resources and assets. The department also made permanent the
transfer of its entire IT workforce under the CIO, consisting of
approximately 6,000 personnel from the administrations.
In June 2007,[Footnote 7] we reported on the department's plans for
realigning the management of its IT program and establishing
centralized control of its IT budget within the Office of Information
and Technology. We pointed out that the department's realignment plans
included elements of several factors that we identified as critical to
a successful transition, but that additional actions could increase
assurance that the realignment would be completed successfully.
Specifically, we reported that the department had ensured commitment
from its top leadership and that, among other critical actions, it was
establishing a governance structure to manage resources. However, at
that time, VA had not updated its strategic plan to reflect the new
organization. In addition, we noted that the department had planned to
take action by July 2008 to create the necessary management processes
to realize a centralized IT management structure.[Footnote 8] In
testimony before the House Veterans' Affairs Committee last September,
however, we pointed out that the department had not kept pace with its
schedule for implementing the new management processes.[Footnote 9]
Important Steps Taken to Centralize Control of IT Resources but Their
Effectiveness Will Depend on Additional Planned Actions:
As part of its IT realignment, VA has taken important steps toward a
more disciplined approach to ensuring oversight of and accountability
for the department's IT budget and resources. Within the new
centralized management structure, the CIO is responsible for ensuring
that there are adequate controls over the department's IT budget and
for overseeing capital planning and execution. These responsibilities
are consistent with the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996,[Footnote 10] which
requires federal agencies to develop processes for the selection,
control, and evaluation of major systems initiatives. In this regard,
the department has (1) designated organizations with specific roles and
responsibilities for controlling the budget to report directly to the
CIO; (2) implemented an IT governance structure that assigns budget
oversight responsibilities to specific governance boards; (3) finalized
an IT strategic plan to guide, manage, and implement its operations and
investments; (4) completed multi-year budget guidance to improve
management of its IT; and (5) initiated the implementation of critical
management processes. However, while VA has taken these important steps
toward establishing control of the department's IT, it remains too
early to assess their overall impact because most of the actions taken
have only recently become operational or have not yet been fully
implemented. Thus, their effectiveness in ensuring accountability for
the resources and budget has not yet been clearly established.
As one important step, two deputy assistant secretaries under the CIO
have been assigned responsibility for managing and controlling
different aspects of the IT budget. Specifically, the Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Information Technology Enterprise Strategy, Policy,
Plans, and Programs is responsible for development of the budget and
the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information Technology Resource
Management is responsible for overseeing budget execution, which
includes tracking actual expenditures against the budget. Initially,
the deputy assistant secretaries have served as a conduit for
information to be used by the governance boards.
As a second step, the department has established and activated three
governance boards to facilitate budget oversight and management of its
investments. The Business Needs and Investment Board;[Footnote 11] the
Planning, Architecture, Technology and Services Board;[Footnote 12] and
the Information Technology Leadership Board[Footnote 13] have begun
providing oversight to ensure that investments align with the
department's strategic plan and that business and budget requirements
for ongoing and new initiatives meet user demands.[Footnote 14] One of
the main functions of the boards is to designate funding according to
the needs and requirements of the administrations and staff offices.
Each board meets monthly, and sometimes more frequently, as the need
arises during the budget development phase.
The first involvement of the boards in VA's budget process began with
their participation in formulating the fiscal year 2009 budget. As part
of the budget formulation process, in May 2007 the Business Needs and
Investment Board conducted its first meeting in which it evaluated the
list of business projects being proposed in the budget using the
department's Exhibit 300s[Footnote 15] for fiscal year 2009, and made
departmentwide allocation recommendations. Then in June, these
recommendations were passed on to the Planning, Architecture,
Technology, and Services Board, which proposed a new structure for the
fiscal year 2009 budget request. The recommended structure was to
provide visibility to important initiatives and enable better
communication of performance results and outcomes. In late June, based
on input from the aforementioned boards, the Information Technology
Leadership Board made recommendations to department decision makers for
funding the major categories of IT projects. In July 2007, following
its work on the fiscal year 2009 budget formulation, the boards then
began monitoring fiscal year 2008 budget execution.
However, according to Office of Information and Technology officials,
with the governance boards' first involvement in budget oversight
having only recently begun (in May 2007), and with their activities to
date being primarily focused on formulation of the fiscal year 2009
budget and execution of the fiscal year 2008 budget, none of the boards
has yet been involved in all stages of the budget formulation and
execution processes. Thus, they have not yet fully established their
effectiveness in helping to ensure overall accountability for the
department's IT appropriations. In addition, the Office of Information
and Technology has not yet standardized the criteria that the boards
are to use in reviewing, selecting, and assessing investments. The
criteria is planned to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2008 and
to be used as part of the fiscal year 2010 budget discussions.
Office of Information and Technology officials stated that, in response
to operational experience with the 2009 budget formulation and 2008
budget execution, the department plans to further enhance the
governance structure. For example, the Office of Information and
Technology found that the boards' responsibilities needed to be more
clearly defined in the IT governance plan to avoid confusion in roles.
That is, one board (the Business Needs and Investment Board) was
involved in the budget formulation for fiscal year 2009, but budget
formulation is also the responsibility of the Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Information Technology Resource Management, who is not a
member of this board. According to the Principal Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Information and Technology, the department is planning to
update its governance plan by September 2008 to include more
specificity on the role of the governance boards in the department's
budget formulation process. Such an update could further improve the
structure's effectiveness. In addition, as part of improving the
governance strategy, the department has set targets by which the
Planning, Architecture, Technology, and Services Board is to review and
make departmentwide recommendations for VA's portfolio of investments.
These targets call for the board to review major IT projects included
in the fiscal year budgets. For example, the board is expected to
review 10 percent for fiscal year 2008, 50 percent for fiscal year
2009, and 100 percent for fiscal year 2011.
As a third step in establishing oversight, in December 2007, VA
finalized an IT strategic plan to guide, manage, and implement its
operations and investments. This plan (for fiscal years 2006-2011)
aligns Office of Information and Technology goals, priorities, and
initiatives with the priorities of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs,
as identified in the VA strategic plan for fiscal years 2006-2011. In
addition, within the plan, the IT strategic goals are aligned with the
CIO's IT priorities, as well as with specific initiatives and
performance measures. This alignment frames the outcomes that IT
executives and managers are expected to meet when delivering services
and solutions to veterans and their dependents. Further, the plan
includes a performance accountability matrix that highlights the
alignment of the goals, priorities, initiatives, and performance
measures, and an expanded version of the matrix designates specific
entities within the Office of Information and Technology who are
accountable for implementation of each initiative. The matrix also
establishes goals and time lines through fiscal year 2011,[Footnote 16]
which should enable VA to track progress and suggest midcourse
corrections and sustain progress toward the realignment. As we
previously reported, it is essential to establish and track
implementation goals and establish a timeline to pinpoint performance
shortfalls and gaps and suggest midcourse corrections.[Footnote 17]
As a fourth step, the department has completed multi-year budget
guidance to improve management of its IT portfolio. In December 2007,
the CIO disseminated this guidance for the fiscal years 2010 through
2012 budgets. The purpose of the guidance is to provide general
direction for proposing comprehensive multi-year IT planning proposals
for centralized review and action. The process called for project
managers to submit standardized concept papers and other review
documentation in December 2007 for review in the January to March 2008
time frame, to decide which projects will be included in the fiscal
year 2010 portfolio of IT projects. The new process is to add rigor and
uniformity to the department's investment approach and allow the
investments to be consistently evaluated for alignment with the
department's strategic planning and priorities and the enterprise
architecture. According to VA officials, this planning approach is
expected to allow for reviewing proposals across the department and for
identifying opportunities to maximize investments in IT.
Nevertheless, although the multi-year programming guidance holds
promise for obtaining better information for portfolio management, the
guidance has not been fully implemented because it is applicable to
future budgets (for fiscal years 2010 through 2012). As a result, it is
too early to determine VA's effectiveness in implementing this
guidance, and ultimately, its impact on the department's IT portfolio
management.
Finally, the department has begun developing new management processes
to establish the CIO's control over the IT budget. The department's
December 2007 IT strategic plan identifies three processes as high
priorities for establishing the foundation of the budget functions:
project management, portfolio management, and service level agreements.
However, while the department had originally stated that its new
management processes would be implemented by July 2008, the IT
strategic plan indicates that key elements of these processes are not
expected to be completed until at least fiscal year 2011. Specifically,
the plan states that the project and portfolio management processes are
to be completed by fiscal year 2011, and does not assign a completion
date for the service level agreement process. As our previous report
noted, it is crucial for the CIO to ensure that well-established and
integrated processes are in place for leading, managing, and
controlling VA's IT resources. The absence of such processes increases
the risk to the department's ability to achieve a solid and sustainable
management structure that ensures effective IT accountability and
oversight.
Appendix I provides a timeline of the various actions that the
department has undertaken and planned for the realignment.
In summary, while the department has made progress with implementing
its centralized IT management approach, effective completion of its
realignment and implementation of its improved processes is essential
to ensuring that VA has a solid and sustainable approach to managing
its IT investments. Because most of the actions taken by VA have only
recently become operational, it is too early to assess their overall
impact. Until the department carries out its plans to add rigor and
uniformity to its investment approach and establishes a comprehensive
set of improved management processes, the department may not achieve a
sustainable and effective approach to managing its IT investments.
Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, this concludes my
statement. I would be pleased to respond to any questions that you may
have at this time.
Contacts and Acknowledgments:
For more information about this testimony, please contact Valerie C.
Melvin at (202) 512-6304 or by e-mail at melvinv@gao.gov. Key
contributors to this testimony were Barbara Oliver, Assistant Director,
Nancy Glover, David Hong, Scott Pettis, and J. Michael Resser.
[End of section]
Appendix I: Timeline of Key VA Activities:
This figure is a timeline showing key VA activities.
[See PDF for image]
Source: GAO analysis of VA data.
[End of figure]
[End of section]
Footnotes:
[1] Department of Veterans Affairs, Information and Technology
Strategic Plan FY 2006 - 2011 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 2007).
[2] GAO, Veterans Affairs: Continued focus on Critical Success Factors
Is Essential to Achieving Information Technology Realignment, GAO-07-
844 (Washington, D.C.: June 15, 2007); GAO, Veterans Affairs: Progress
Made in Centralizing Information Technology Management, but Challenges
Persist, GAO-07-1246T (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 19, 2007); GAO, Veterans
Affairs: The Role of the Chief Information Officer in Effectively
Managing Information Technology, GAO-06-201T (Washington, D.C.: Oct.
20, 2005); GAO, Veterans Affairs: The Critical Role of the Chief
Information Officer in Effective Information Technology Management, GAO-
05-1017T (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 14, 2005); GAO, VA Information
Technology: Management Making Important Progress in Addressing Key
Challenges, GAO-02-1054T (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 26, 2002); GAO, VA
Information Technology: Important Initiatives Begun, Yet Serious
Vulnerabilities Persist, GAO-01-550T (Washington, D.C.: April 4, 2001);
GAO, VA Information Technology: Improvements Needed to Implement
Legislative Reforms, GAO/AIMD-98-154 (Washington, D.C; July 7, 1998).
[3] The OneVA vision is to create versatile new ways for veterans to
obtain services and information by streamlining interactions with
customers and integrating IT resources to enable VA employees to help
customers more quickly and effectively.
[4] GAO-07-844.
[5] Gartner Consulting, OneVA IT Organizational Alignment Assessment
Project "As-Is" Baseline (McLean, Virginia; Feb. 18, 2005).
[6] Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Information and Technology
VA IT Governance Plan, (March 12, 2007).
[7] AO-07-844.
[8] GAO-07-844.
[9] GAO-07-1264T.
[10] 0 U.S.C. §§ 11311-11313.
[11] This board, which became operational in May 2007, is chaired by
the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and membership consists of
high ranking officials from the Veterans Health Administration, the
Veterans Benefits Administration, the National Cemetery Administration,
staff offices, and the deputy assistant secretaries in the Office of
Information and Technology.
[12] his board, which became operational in June 2007, is chaired by
the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enterprise, Strategy, Policy,
Plans and Programs and its membership includes high-ranking officials
from the Veterans Benefits Administration, the Veterans Health
Administration, the National Cemetery Administration, and high-ranking
officials from the offices of finance, budget, and human resources
management.
[13] This board, which became operational in June 2007, is chaired by
the Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology and its members
include undersecretaries for Health, Benefits, and Memorial Affairs,
the Assistant Secretary for Management, and the Executive in Charge of
Human Resources and Administration.
[14] VA IT Governance Plan.
[15] The OMB Exhibit 300, also called the Capital Asset Plan and
Business Case, is a document that agencies must submit to OMB to
justify resource request for major IT investments. The Exhibit 300
contains information such as an investment's historical and future
costs, performance measures and goals, cost-benefits analysis,
acquisition strategy, risk assessment, and security issues.
[16] The matrix uses fiscal year 2007 as the baseline and lists targets
for fiscal years 2008 and 2011.
[17] GAO, Results-Oriented Cultures: Implementation Steps to Assist
Mergers and Organizational Transformations, GAO-03-669 (Washington,
D.C.: July 2003).
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