[Analytical Perspectives]
[Crosscutting Programs]
[9. Integrating Services with Information Technology]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]



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          9.  INTEGRATING SERVICES WITH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

  As one of the largest users and acquirers of data, information and 
supporting technology systems in the world, the United States Government 
will continue its efforts to strengthen its capabilities in managing 
technology and information in order to be the world's leader in 
information technology. This year, the President proposes to spend about 
$65 billion for Information Technology (IT) and the associated support 
services. Departments and agencies continue to build upon their 
successes including their efforts with portfolio management by applying 
the principles and methods of Earned Value Management (EVM) to achieve 
greater savings, better results and improved customer service levels.

                ACHIEVING RESULTS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  The Federal government continues to make progress by maximizing its, 
IT investments to deliver program results through the adoption of 
electronic government management principles and best practices. 
Departments and agencies continue to focus on:
    Improving service levels to citizens and government decision 
          makers;
    Making better purchasing decisions;
    Securing our systems and data; and
    Reducing duplication and related costs.
   This Budget chapter and Table 9-1, ``Effectiveness of Agency's IT 
Management and E-Gov Processes,'' included on the CD-ROM, fulfill the 
statutory reporting requirement of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996. Other 
management guidance provided to Federal departments and agencies is 
included on Table 9-2, ``Management Guidance,'' and is available at 
www.whitehouse.gov/OMB/memoranda.
   Government Performance.--The Federal government has shown improvement 
over the last year in achieving the goals specifically included in the 
President's Management Agenda, the Expanded Electronic Government (E-
Government) initiative. For example, each IT investment must have 
specific performance targets tied to a specific, significant, beneficial 
impact for our citizens. Performance functions must be defined, valued 
and deliver measurable results.
  The Federal departments and agencies continue to improve in their 
efforts to guarantee the success and results for the taxpayer. There 
were 263 major investments representing about $10 billion on the 
``Management Watch List,'' i.e., those IT investment justifications 
needing improvement in performance measurement, earned value management 
or system security. Before the start of the fiscal year, agencies were 
directed to remediate the shortfalls identified prior to expending 
additional funds. The agencies have worked to remediate the weaknesses 
or have put measures in place to monitor the progress of the IT 
investment which could include multiple projects. If an investment is 
still on the ``Management Watch List,'' agencies must describe their 
plans to manage or mitigate risk before undertaking or continuing 
activities related to that investment. As of December 31, 2006, 81 
percent of the agencies (22 of 27) had all acceptable FY 2007 business 
cases. Thus, remaining on last year's Management Watch list, there were 
84 business cases valued in FY 07 at $4.3 billion from five agencies. 
This year, 346 of the 840 FY 2008 major IT investments are on the 
``Management Watch List.'' These investments still need to address 
performance measures, implementation of earned value management, 
security or other issues before obligating funding in Fiscal Year 2008. 
See Table 9-3, ``Agencies with IT Investments on the Management Watch 
List.''
  The Report on Information Technology (IT) Spending for the Federal 
Government (Exhibit 53) will be published in the spring of 2007 and is 
located at www.whitehouse.gov/OMB. It provides details of the 
Administration's proposed 2008 IT investments. Related documents on IT 
security and Electronic Government (E-Government) are also available at 
www.whitehouse.gov/OMB.
  Fiscal Year 2008 proposed IT investments were analyzed for trends and 
potential duplications across government entities. At about $65 billion, 
the Fiscal Year 2008 Federal IT portfolio represents a 3 percent 
increase over Fiscal Year 2007 President's Budget. The following 
represents the highlights:

 
 
                                                             Percent \1\
                                FY 2006   FY 2007   FY 2008    Change
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Major IT Investments.........     1,087       857       840        -2%
Not Well Planned and Managed.       358       263       346        32%
Well Planned and Managed.....       682       594       494       -17%
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Change from FY 2007 to FY 2008.

  The decreasing number of major IT investments is attributed to 
departments and agencies better managing their Capital Planning and 
Investment Control (CPIC) process in conformance with their enterprise 
architectures. The continued maturation of the CPIC processes provide 
for greater oversight and evaluation of the investments achieving and/or 
addressing intended results by departments' and agencies' Chief 
Information Officers. This oversight and understanding allows for 
changes in the IT portfolio to address mission

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priorities, consolidation and elimination of redundant investments.
  With the Administration's focus on achieving program results, the 
department and agencies partner with OMB to identify high-risk projects 
(those IT projects requiring special attention from oversight 
authorities and/or the highest level of agency management) and report on 
the agreed upon list of projects quarterly to OMB. As a result, 
oversight authorities and agency management now have available quarterly 
data on the progress of these projects to ensure improved execution and 
performance. OMB is working with departments and agencies to implement 
corrective action plans in cases where a project did not meet one or 
more of the four principle criteria. Additional information about high-
risk projects including agency performance for FY07Q1 can be found at: 
www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/b-1-information.html#io.
  When duplication across Federal agencies has been identified, the 
Administration has an ongoing process to bring together the appropriate 
agencies and help them to consider broad-based approaches to promote 
inter-agency data sharing and cooperation in building common solutions, 
rather than maintaining separate investments. Upon migration to common, 
government-wide solutions, agencies will shut down existing systems--
which will not only save money but also free-up resources for agencies 
to better focus on achieving their missions. These inter-agency 
taskforces focus on the agency Lines of Business (LoB) rather than a 
specific technology or investment. The following are the current LoB 
initiatives underway:
    Case Management;
    Federal Health Architecture;
    Financial Management;
    Human Resources Management;
    Grants Management;
    Information System Security;
    Budget Formulation and Execution;
    IT Infrastructure; and
    Geospatial.
  The inter-agency taskforces have driven significant accomplishments 
for each LoB initiative. The Information System Security (ISS) LoB 
evaluated agency proposals to become shared service centers in the areas 
of security awareness training and Federal Information Security 
Management Act (FISMA) reporting. On the basis of the evaluation and 
recommendations, the following agencies were selected to be the initial 
shared service centers:
    Security Awareness Training:
     --Office of Personnel Management
     --Department of State/United States Agency for International 
         Development
     --Department of Defense

    FISMA Reporting:
     --Environmental Protection Agency
     --Department of Justice

  Accomplishments of this LoB and the remaining LoB initiatives as well 
as the next steps are included in Table 9-5, ``Lines of Business (LoB) 
Update.''
  The Administration continues to leverage government buying power while 
reducing redundant purchases through the SmartBUY program. Launched in 
June 2003, the SmartBUY program continues to provide increased cost 
avoidance savings to federal agencies through new and existing 
agreements with commercial software providers. In FY 2006, the Federal 
Government has achieved cost avoidance of over $300 million for the 
Oracle agreement alone. The SmartBUY Office located at the General 
Services Administration (GSA) continues to manage a total of nine 
agreements. In December 2006, the Administration established an 
agreement with the first of several Antivirus software developers with 
projected cost avoidance of as much as $18 million annually compared 
with the current best pricing available on GSA schedule and projected 
agency buying patterns. SmartBUY will continue to identify and develop 
new agreements throughout the year. In particular, SmartBUY will pursue 
a multiple award agreement in support of OMB policy memorandum, M-06-16, 
``Protection of Sensitive Agency Information,'' which would include data 
at rest and remote access.
   Government IT Workforce.--With rapid advances in IT, improved program 
performance is first and foremost driven by the Federal employees who 
manage the IT projects and portfolios. Qualified project managers and an 
IT workforce with the necessary skills and competencies help ensure 
agency investments are well planned and managed. In 2005, agencies 
submitted plans to OMB for closing critical IT skill and competency 
gaps. Progress against these plans is measured and included in the 
President's Management Agenda Human Capital Scorecard. As of September 
30, 2006, out of the 26 scorecard agencies:
    17 agencies (65 percent) have met all planned skill or 
          competency gap closure milestones; and
    15 agencies (58 percent) have met or are consistently 
          meeting their IT hiring targets.
  The table below provides a summary of agency progress toward hiring 
goals.

 
 
                                                             Number of
                                                              Vacant
                                            Fiscal Year      Positions
                                            2006--Total      Agencies
                Job Area                     Number of      Planned to
                                              Current       Fill by the
                                           Positions \1\   End of Fiscal
                                                           Year FY 2006
------------------------------------------------------------------------
IT Project Management...................           4,619             600
IT Security.............................           9,030             488
IT Architecture (Enterprise)............           1,169             180
IT Architecture (Solutions).............             942             148
                                         -------------------------------
  Total.................................          15,760           1,416
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ As of date agencies reported to OMB.


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  Agencies have also made progress in assignment of project managers to 
major IT investments. As reported by agencies on their FY 2008 Exhibit 
53 submissions, 83 percent of major IT investments have qualified 
project managers, an increase from approximately 70 percent in agency FY 
2007 submissions.
  Going forward, agencies are completing a new IT Workforce Assessment 
Survey developed and administered by the Chief Information Officers 
(CIO) Council. The survey collects information from Federal IT 
professionals about the types of work they perform, as well as their 
level of proficiency in competencies and skills. The survey also 
identifies top training needs; gathers information on the types of 
certifications owned by employees; and provides key demographic data. 
Using the survey results, agencies will prepare a gap analysis report 
and improvement plan. OMB will be working in conjunction with OPM and 
the CIO Council to review the survey results as well as the agency plans 
to address identified gaps.
   Securing Government Systems.--The Federal government continues to 
improve information security performance; however, declines in a few 
agencies have resulted in a net decrease in overall performance in some 
areas. Additionally, aspects of IT security such as securing data on 
removable media remain under addressed government-wide. Departments and 
agencies progress against their corrective actions plans will be 
measured in the President's Management Agenda Expanded Electronic 
Government Scorecard. On balance, the majority of agencies continue to 
improve or sustain high performance. Agencies report quarterly on their 
efforts to address IT security weaknesses against key IT security 
performance measures.
  The 2006 agency FISMA reports reveal continued progress in the area of 
system certification and accreditation. In FY 2006, the percentage of 
certified and accredited systems rose from 85 percent to 88 percent, 
despite a 3 percent increase in the total system inventory to 10,600 
operational systems. A few larger agencies made exceptional progress in 
closing the gap on certification and accreditation and testing of 
security controls and contingency plans. The State Department and 
Department of Homeland security both more than doubled their percentage 
of secured systems. Several departments achieved impressive increases in 
the percentage of systems with tested security controls and/or 
contingency plans, most notably Homeland Security, the Department of 
Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Defense, Department of 
Energy, Education, and the General Services Administration.
  Overall quality of the certification and accreditation processes as 
determined by agency Inspectors General (IG) decreased slightly compared 
to 2005, with 60 percent of agencies reporting ``satisfactory'' or 
better processes. Over 72 percent of agencies can demonstrate they have 
an effective process in place for identifying and correcting weaknesses, 
a slight decrease from 2005.
  The overall security status and progress in percentage of systems, 
from FY 2002 to FY 2006, is as follows:

                                                (In Fiscal Years)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                  2002      2003      2004      2005      2006
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Effective Security and Privacy Controls (C&A).................       47%       62%       77%       85%       88%
Tested Contingency Plans......................................       35%       48%       57%       61%       88%
Tested Security Controls......................................       60%       64%       76%       72%       77%
Total Systems Reported........................................     7,957     7,998     8,623    10,289    10,600
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The number of agencies where the IG has verified the process exists to 
remediate IT security weaknesses (Plan of Actions & Milestones):

 
 
 
 
FY 2002................................  N/A (was not required in until
                                          FY 2003)
FY 2003................................  12
FY 2004................................  18
FY 2005................................  19
FY 2006................................  18
 

  Government-wide, incremental progress in resolving fundamental IT 
security weaknesses has been made in many aspects of information 
security; however departments and agencies must continually assess the 
risks associated with technological developments and service offerings. 
Thus, each year brings new challenges and approaches, and potentially 
new measures for performance. Additional information and detail 
concerning the Federal Government's IT security program and agency IT 
security performance can be found in OMB's Annual Report to Congress on 
IT Security. The next such report will be issued by March 1, 2007, and 
will be made available on OMB's website.
   Protecting Privacy.--In 2006, several agencies experienced high 
profile data security breaches involving personal information. Most 
notable of these was the Department of Veterans Affairs, but significant 
problems also exist at other departments and agencies. Virtually all of 
these incidents resulted from ``internal'' problems within agencies and 
not external attacks on agency systems.
  To help address this issue, in May 2006, the President signed an 
Executive Order creating the Federal Identity Theft Task Force. Several 
of the Task Force's interim recommendations address the need to improve 
data security in the government, improve the agencies' ability to 
respond to data breaches, and reduce the risk to personally identifiable 
information.
  In this context, OMB has issued four security and privacy policy and 
advisory memoranda. These memoranda reemphasize agency responsibilities 
under law and policy regarding protection and safeguard of sensitive 
personally identifiable information, including information accessed 
through removable media, and incident reporting. They are included in 
Table 9-2, ``Management Guidance,'' and are available at: 
www.whitehouse.gov/OMB/memoranda.
  To help ensure safeguard of personally identifiable information, 
agencies are required to report on several performance metrics related 
to information privacy. Additionally, this year agencies were also 
required to provide quantitative performance measures to assess the 
privacy of agencies' personally identifiable information. The FY 2006 
agency FISMA reports reveal modest suc

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cess in meeting several key privacy performance measures:
    Program Oversight. In 2006, the majority of agencies report 
          having appropriate oversight over their privacy programs in 
          place. All agencies report having a privacy official who 
          participates in privacy compliance activities, however, 84 
          percent report coordinated oversight coordination with the 
          Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Most agencies report 
          privacy training for Federal employees and contractors, with 
          92 percent reporting general privacy training and 84 percent 
          reporting job-specific privacy training.
    Privacy Impact Assessments. In 2006, 82 percent of 
          applicable systems government-wide have publicly posted 
          privacy impact assessments verses the goal of 90 percent.
    System of Records Notices (SORNs). In 2006, 82 percent of 
          systems government-wide with personally identifiable 
          information contained in a system of records covered by the 
          Privacy Act have developed, published, and maintained current 
          systems of records notices verses the goal of 90 percent.
   Initiative to Secure Federal Information Systems and Facilities.--
Inconsistent agency approaches to facility security and computer 
security are inefficient and costly, and increase risks to the Federal 
government. On August 27, 2004, the President signed Homeland Security 
Presidential Directive (HSPD) 12, ``Policy for a Common Identification 
Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors,'' which requires 
agencies to implement a mandatory, government-wide standard for secure 
and reliable forms of identification for Federal employees and 
contractors. In October 2006, agencies met the major milestone of their 
HSPD-12 implementation plans which was to begin issuance of compliant 
identification cards. During FY2007--FY2008, agencies are required to 
complete issuance of these IDs to all applicable employees and 
contractors and install infrastructure to use them.
   Initiative for Improving Government Networking Capabilities.--In 
order for the departments and agencies to overcome technical limitations 
arising from this need to interoperate and support emerging requirements 
and technologies, the Administration set June 2008 as the date by which 
all agencies' infrastructure (network backbones) must be IPv6-capable. 
In August 2005, OMB issued guidance to agencies to ensure an orderly and 
secure transition from Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) to Version 6 
(IPv6). Since the Internet Protocol is core to an agency's IT 
infrastructure, in February 2006, the Administration began using the 
Enterprise Architecture (EA) Assessment Framework to evaluate agency 
IPv6 transition planning and progress. The agencies are responsible for 
a series of actions by specific dates. For instance, by June 30, 2006, 
agencies were to complete:
            --an inventory of existing routers, switches, and hardware 
          firewalls; and
            --an impact analysis of fiscal and operational impacts and 
          risks.
  Agencies are required to submit status reports with their quarterly EA 
submissions showing progress against the agency-specific milestones 
detailed in their IPv6 transition plans.
  To avoid unnecessary costs in the future, agencies are also required 
to the maximum extent practicable, to ensure all new IT procurements are 
IPv6 compliant. Any exceptions to the use of IPv6 require the agency's 
CIO to give advance, written approval. In support of this requirement, 
the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will release a 
standards profile. The profile will be released for public comment in 
January 2007.
  Additionally, the President's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace 
directed the Secretary of Commerce to form a task force to examine the 
most recent iteration of the Internet Protocol, IP version 6 (IPv6). The 
President charged the task force with considering a variety of IPv6-
related issues, ``including the appropriate role of government, 
international interoperability, security in transition, and costs and 
benefits.'' The task force, co-chaired by the Administrator of the 
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and 
the Director of the NIST, prepared a report discussing the benefits and 
impacts of IPv6. This report was published in January 2006.
   Making Government Accessible to All.--The efficient, effective, and 
appropriately consistent use of Federal agency public websites is 
important to promote a more citizen centered government. Federal agency 
public websites are information resources funded in whole or in part by 
the Federal government and operated by an agency, contractor, or other 
organization on behalf of the agency. They present government 
information or provide services to the public or a specific non-Federal 
user group and support the proper performance of an agency function.
  GSA's Office of Citizen Services and Communications manages the 
operations of FirstGov.gov and recently upgraded their search capability 
and changed its name to USA.gov in order to improve public access to 
Federal government information.
  An interagency ``web content'' working group, sponsored by GSA, 
regularly hosts training for Federal agency webmasters and public 
affairs officers. Recent courses provided instructions for making agency 
websites more effective and relevant to popular search engines. 
Additionally, a web content working group maintains www.webcontent.gov, 
conducts interagency meetings to assist agencies in managing their 
websites, and exchanges best practices among other agencies. These 
activities support agency efforts to provide access to and dissemination 
of government information to the public. GSA plans to complete the 
online tutorial by April 2007. This service will complement other 
services at USA.gov and elsewhere to aid the public in locating 
government information.

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                SUCCESSFULLY USING ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT

  The departments and agencies continue to leverage information 
technologies to make government services available to citizens while 
ensuring security of those systems, the privacy of the citizen 
information and the prudent use of taxpayer money. E-Government is about 
providing direct and measurable results supporting departments' and 
agencies' mission and goals. For departments and agencies, the benefits 
will far outweigh the cost of implementation. Increased agency adoption 
and customer utilization will become the primary measures of success. 
The expanded availability of government information and the utilization 
of an increased percentage of transactions between the Federal 
government and citizens will be measured, where appropriate and made 
available on line at www.egov.gov.
  Examples of how the tenets of E-Government are helping to deliver 
services to the citizen and make the government more effective include:
   Department of Commerce. The Online Positioning User Service (OPUS) 
transforms how users of global positioning systems obtain highly 
accurate geographic coordinates and elevation data (see: 
www.ngs.noaa.gov/OPUS/). The system allows users, such as professional 
surveyors, to electronically submit geospatial information via the 
Internet to the Department, where data are processed to determine 
corresponding three-dimensional positional coordinates. As a result, the 
Department is able to provide access to and disseminate more accurate 
and quality geospatial information to the public. For example, 
construction, transportation, and mapping industries reduce surveying 
time and costs (estimated $270 million cost savings to the public) of 
creating specific maps and other products needed to operate their 
business to a fraction of those previously reported.
  User forums and workshops to obtain feedback are held regularly across 
the country, and usage of the system has grown from 1,000 data 
submissions per month in 2002, to over 13,000 per month in 2006. 
Extensive interaction between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration (NOAA) and system users takes place during these 
sessions, and NOAA is currently identifying and surveying 
representatives from individual counties to ensure their diverse needs 
are being met. Additionally, users can complete an online survey to 
provide the Department comments and suggestions on how to improve the 
system and related positioning products and services. OPUS users include 
more than 175 organizations, including other Federal agencies, state and 
local governments, universities, the private sector, foreign 
governments, and others who share the goal of making more accurate 
positioning available worldwide. Users without Internet access and those 
with disabilities can mail their GPS observations to NOAA on a compact 
disk and receive the results back via the same mechanism on a 
prearranged basis.
   U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Animal and Plant Health 
Inspection Service (APHIS) launched its new electronic permitting system 
(ePermits) on April 3, 2006. The system allows customers to apply for a 
permit, check its status, and view it online. The ability to submit 
applications and receive permits via the Internet and in some cases the 
ability to pay applicable permit application fees online, saves 
customers and APHIS the time and effort associated with the paper-based 
process. Additional information on system features can be found on the 
Web site at www.aphis.usda.gov/permits/.
  To successfully implement the system, USDA demonstrated a desire to 
team with customers, state officials, and peer agencies by facilitating 
outreach sessions and customer tests. USDA continues to maintain ongoing 
dialogue with system developers, users, partners, and stakeholders to 
plan and implement additional features. Customers without Internet 
access at their facility can still use the paper permit application 
process and USDA developed the system to be compliant with Section 508 
of The Rehabilitation Act of 1998.
  Previously, the permit processing workload was growing to become 
unmanageable with current staff and resources. By eliminating the cost 
of processing paper and automating the system, more efficiency will 
result, with benefits to the Federal Government, state governments, and 
the general public estimated at $1.2 million per year in the first full 
year of operating the system. APHIS estimated that when the system is 
fully deployed it will cut in half the time it takes to process 
applications to import enterable plants and timber when the applications 
are entered online. In addition, the system will make it more difficult 
to tamper with a permit because the system provides immediate access to 
information relating to applications and permits
  The Administration continues the focus of the department and agency 
specific services movement to citizen-centered services. Overall funding 
for the President's E-Government initiatives has reduced annually since 
Fiscal Year 2004 as the initiatives have met their milestones and have 
become incorporated into the daily operations of Federal departments and 
agencies. This reduction has come as result of moving the initiatives to 
fee-for-service models where appropriate, thereby eliminating the need 
for agency contributions. Table 9-4, ``Status of the Presidential E-
Government Initiatives,'' included on the CD-ROM, provides an update for 
each project.

                      CONTINUING TO ACHIEVE RESULTS

  The Administration will continue to use the Federal Enterprise 
Architecture data for business analysis to focus our efforts to direct 
information technology investments to improve service delivery to 
citizens and other

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entities. The Administration will continue to improve performance and 
achieve results by continuing our efforts in linking IT investments to 
program performance as demonstrated by the analytical tool called the 
Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART).
  In 2008 and beyond, the Federal government will continue to identify 
IT opportunities for collaboration and consolidation while improving 
services. Although the Federal government continues to improve, much 
more work is needed to better serve the citizen. Through the PMA, the 
Clinger-Cohen Act, the E-Government Act, FISMA, budget guidance and 
other management tools, the Federal government has the ability to be the 
best manager, innovator and user of information, services and 
information systems in the world. The Federal Government has huge 
potential and opportunities for growth and to ensure program success and 
results through the effective use of information technology. Each 
department and agency will leverage existing capabilities to the maximum 
potential while ensuring reliability, security, privacy and continuity 
of services. The institution of the management practices within each 
department and agency and throughout the government will ensure these 
results.