Improving Federal Performance in the Information Age: Issues and
Opportunities--Fiscal Years 1996-98 (Letter Report, 10/01/95,
GAO/IAP-95-29).

GAO provided information on its Information Resources Management (IRM)
issue area plan for fiscal years 1996 through 1998.

GAO plans to: (1) identify opportunities to enhance agency management
teams' ability to manage information technology (IT); (2) build
consensus and criteria on the value of using a defined set of strategic
information management practices; (3) provide input to Congress on new
or revised IRM legislation, regulation, and guidance; (4) identify ways
to improve agency control and accountability for IT investments; (5)
help federal agencies reduce the risks associated with IT acquisitions;
(6) identify ways to streamline the procurement process to reduce time
and costs; (7) improve the government's ability to reengineer its
business processes to take better advantage of IT; (8) ensure that the
modernization of all federal information systems supports efficient IRM
processes; (9) increase service across the government through the use of
IT; (10) identify government-wide information security issues and ensure
that they are being adequately addressed by oversight entities; and (11)
identify specific central policy structure and oversight deficiencies
and recommended solutions.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  IAP-95-29
     TITLE:  Improving Federal Performance in the Information Age: 
             Issues and Opportunities--Fiscal Years 1996-98
      DATE:  10/01/95
   SUBJECT:  Reengineering (management)
             Information resources management
             Computerized information systems
             Investment planning
             Strategic information systems planning
             Cost control
             Computer security
             Risk management
             Systems conversions
             Federal procurement

             
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Cover
================================================================ COVER


Accounting and Information Management Division

September 1995

IMPROVING FEDERAL PERFORMANCE IN
THE INFORMATION AGE

ISSUES AND OPPORTUNITIES
FISCAL YEARS 1996-98

GAO/IAP-95-29



Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV

  BPA - business process analysis
  IRM - Information Resources Management
  IT - information technology
  SIM - strategic information management

FOREWORD
============================================================ Chapter 0

As the investigative arm of Congress and the nation's auditor, the
General Accounting Office is charged with following the federal
dollar wherever it goes.  Reflecting stringent standards of
objectivity and independence, GAO's audits, evaluations, and
investigations promote a more efficient and cost-effective
government; expose fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in federal
programs; help Congress target budget reductions; assess financial
and information management; and alert Congress to developing trends
that may have significant fiscal or budgetary consequences.  In
fulfilling its responsibilities, GAO performs original research and
uses hundreds of databases or creates its own when information is
unavailable elsewhere. 

To ensure that GAO's resources are directed toward the most important
issues facing Congress, each of GAO's 35 issue areas develops a
strategic plan that describes the significance of the issues it
addresses, its objectives, and the focus of its work.  Each issue
area relies heavily on input from congressional committees, agency
officials, and subject-matter experts in developing its strategic
plan. 

The Information Resources Management (IRM) - Policies and Issues
group focuses on how the federal government can better manage
information and information technology (IT).  The rapid changes in
information technology and management techniques have greatly
increased the potential to streamline operations and deliver higher
quality services more effectively, quickly, and inexpensively. 
However, the federal government is handicapped by aging and
inadequate systems.  As a result, it is struggling to achieve mission
objectives and provide basic financial and performance data to
support management and congressional decisionmaking and respond to
public requests. 

Federal agencies are relying on major system modernization efforts to
dramatically improve their performance, and in recent years, they
have obligated about $25 billion annually for IT initiatives. 
However, these investments often experience costly delays, do not
provide expected benefits, and sometimes result in outright failure. 
As a result, the government has not been able to take full advantage
of the opportunities that key information technologies offer and
often cannot ensure the integrity and confidentiality of data
critical to its operations. 

If federal performance does not improve, the costs associated with
managing and providing government services will increase while the
quality declines.  More importantly, public confidence in the
government's ability to manage programs, control costs, and measure
effectiveness will continue to erode. 

Our vision is to increase the control and risk-adjusted return on
federal IT investments and increase the quality, value, and security
of federal information.  To achieve these goals, our plan is designed
to support two broad strategies.  Our first strategy is to provide
leadership in identifying and promoting practices that will improve
the return on federal IT investments and management of IT resources. 
Our second strategy is to build the capability to efficiently assess
agency practices and identify needed changes.  In this regard, we
plan to deliver a broad range of products and services, including
widely applicable standard methodologies. 

Over the last 2 years, our unique governmentwide perspective has
allowed the IRM Policies and Issues group to play a critical role in
helping change how federal agencies manage their IT resources.  Our
work to date has focused primarily on establishing criteria and
transferring knowledge in the areas of strategic information
management (SIM), business process analysis (BPA), and IT investment. 
These efforts directly address two areas of major congressional
interest:  how to ensure that the government is getting its money's
worth for its IT investments and how federal agencies can
dramatically improve operations while cutting costs. 

Our plans for future work focus on (1) assisting agencies in
implementing "best practices" and reinforcing accountability for
results in these areas and (2) beginning to more thoroughly address
issues related to data and network management, especially regarding
information security.  The following pages describe key aspects of
our plans. 

Because events may significantly affect our plan, GAO's planning
process allows for updating the plan and responding to emerging
issues.  If you have any questions or comments about this plan,
please call me at (202) 512-6208.  I can also be contacted at
[email protected]. 

Christopher Hoenig, Director
AIMD-IRM/Policies and Issues


CONTENTS
============================================================ Chapter 1


   FOREWORD
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:1

1


   TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:2

4


   TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:3

6


   TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:4

8


TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
============================================================ Chapter 2

Issue                          Significance
-----------------------------  -------------------------------------------------
Strategic information          To meet increasing demands, federal managers must
management: How can federal    keep pace with evolving management practices and
agencies improve their         skills needed to (1) define critical information
ability to use practices that  needs and (2) select, apply, and control changing
result in effective long-      information technologies. However, while leaders
term management of their       have emerged in the private sector and the
information resources?         states, few federal agencies have learned how to
                               strategically manage information and information
                               technology to achieve effective results.












IT investment and              In recent years, the federal government has
procurement:                   obligated about $25 billion annually for IT-
How can agencies improve       related expenses. However, these investments
their ability to make cost-    often suffer from high failure rates and limited
effective IT investment        benefits. As a result, the government has not
decisions that support their   been able to take full advantage of the
mission-related goals?         opportunities that key information technologies
                               offer, such as interagency information sharing
                               and electronic delivery of benefits.











Business process analysis:     The Clinton administration's National Performance
How can the government         Review and recent congressional initiatives,
effectively use information    coupled with rising taxpayer expectations for
and information technology to  service delivery and severe resource limitations,
reduce costs and increase      have produced an environment in which the
service levels to the public?  effectiveness of the government's decisionmaking
                               and service delivery depends directly on its
                               ability to take advantage of IT. To obtain the
                               greatest value from IT investments, agencies must
                               analyze and modernize the business processes that
                               support their mission-related objectives before
                               acquiring technology.









--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Objectives                               Focus of work
---------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------
--Identify opportunities to enhance the  --Initiate three to five SIM assessment
capability of agency management teams    pilots annually using a GAO assessment
to manage information and technology.    guide.

--Communicate new criteria directly to   --Continue developing and refining GAO
key federal decisionmakers.              SIM assessment methodologies used by
                                         agencies, GAO auditors, and Inspector
--Build consensus and criteria in the    General staff.
federal community on the value of using
a defined set of strategic information   --Assist in developing improved
management practices in government       approaches to executive branch IRM
agencies.                                regulation and guidance.

--Assist Congress by providing input on  --Pursue additional case study research
new/revised governmentwide IRM           to maintain IRM leadership, enhance GAO
legislation, regulation, and guidance.   knowledge and understanding, and stay
                                         abreast of new emerging practices.

                                         --Provide legislative assistance for
                                         the development of new or revised
                                         legislation (e.g., Chief Information
                                         Officer Act) and key oversight hearings
                                         of governmentwide IRM issues.

--Identify ways to improve agency        --Develop, with the Office of
control and accountability for the       Management and Budget, an IT portfolio
billions annually spent on information   investment guide for federal agency use
technology investments.                  to improve IT selection, control, and
                                         evaluation.
--Identify ways to maximize return and
minimize risks in governmentwide IT      --Assess whether agencies have the
expenditure and investment.              criteria and processes to reduce the
                                         risk to their IT investments.
--Help agencies take early corrective
action to reduce the risks that their    --Assess accuracy and usefulness of
IT acquisitions will (1) cost            obligated, actual, and performance data
substantially more than estimated, (2)   for IT spending essential for making
take much longer than planned, or (3)    investment decisions.
be unsuccessful in lowering costs,
improving productivity, or enhancing
program service delivery.                --Identify the best industry and
                                         government procurement practices that
--Identify ways to streamline the        can be applied across the government.
procurement process to reduce both time
and costs and better meet users'
needs.


--Increase the government's              --Develop a body of knowledge and
understanding of reengineering and its   research, including case study
benefits, costs, and risks.              examples, that define reengineering,
                                         describe costs and benefits, provide
--Help improve the government's ability  process modeling tools and simulation
to effectively and efficiently           techniques, and identify best practices
reengineer its business processes to     in applying reengineering to improve
take advantage of information            performance.
technology.
                                         --Build and support IRM Core Group and
--Help ensure that the modernization of  program division capacity to identify
every federal information system         reengineering opportunities and
supports effective and efficient         evaluate reengineering efforts.
processes.
                                         --Work with federal agencies and
--Contribute to reducing cost and        Congress to identify and address
increasing service levels across the     opportunities where reengineering can
government through the effective use of  help achieve the goals of major
IT.                                      government improvement initiatives
                                         (e.g. the National Performance Review)
                                         and reduce the risk of misdirected
                                         efforts.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Issue                          Significance
-----------------------------  -------------------------------------------------
Data and network management:   The government is increasingly relying on
Are federal agencies           information technology to store, process, and
effectively and efficiently    transmit information that is critical to its
ensuring the availability,     operations. Securing this information to ensure
integrity, and                 appropriate levels of integrity, confidentiality,
confidentiality of             and availability is essential. In addition,
information resources          agencies must learn to efficiently manage growing
critical to their operations?  volumes of data and the increasingly complex
                               support systems used to process and access this
                               data. However, most agencies are in the early
                               stages of learning to efficiently manage these
                               information resources and identify, evaluate, and
                               address the associated risks.







--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Objectives                               Focus of work
---------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------
--Identify governmentwide information    --Survey federal agencies to determine
security issues and ensure that they     if they are performing required
are being adequately addressed by the    security reviews and to identify data
central policy-setting and oversight     security management issues.
entities.
                                         --Assess the federal security-related
--Identify specific central policy-      policy-setting and oversight
structure and oversight deficiencies.    structure.

--Identify common problems, root         --Coordinate security-related work
causes, and recommend solutions.         among IRM Core Groups.

                                         --Monitor the results of computer-
                                         related control assessments done as
                                         part of Chief Financial Officer
                                         financial audits

                                         --Develop strategy for assessing data
                                         and network management issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
============================================================ Chapter 3

Issue                    Planned major job starts
-----------------------  -------------------------------------------------------
Strategic information    ï¿½Initiate two additional SIM agency self-assessments.
management               ï¿½Produce version 2 of the SIM Assessment Guide
                         ï¿½Initiate research and case study evaluation of IT
                         performance measurements.
                         ï¿½Produce version 1 of IT Performance Measurement
                         Guide.


IT investment and        ï¿½Assess federal controls over IT investments.
procurement              ï¿½Assess whether agencies are appropriately organized
                         and managed to reduce the risk to their IT
                         investments.
                         ï¿½Review IT investment and procurement oversight.
                         ï¿½Produce IT Investment Guide (joint effort with Office
                         of Management and Budget).


Business process         ï¿½Identify best practices of leading organizations in
analysis                 applying reengineering to improve performance.
                         ï¿½Provide support to AIMD IRM core group and program
                         division assignments that require assessing agency
                         process reengineering efforts.
                         ï¿½Pilot test the Reengineering Assessment Guide at the
                         Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue
                         Service.


Data and network         ï¿½Survey federal agencies' data security management.
management               ï¿½Review central policy-setting and oversight structure
                         for security.
                         ï¿½Identify leading practices in data and network
                         management.
                         ï¿½Produce version 1 of computer-based controls
                         assessment guide.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
============================================================ Chapter 4


   ISSUE AREA DIRECTOR
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:1

Christopher W.  Hoenig, (202) 512-6208
 E-mail:  [email protected].
 FAX:  (202) 512-6451

 Mailing address:  Techworld Plaza, Room 10010
 441 G St., NW
 Washington, DC 20548


   ISSUE AREA ASSISTANT DIRECTORS
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:2


      STRATEGIC INFORMATION
      MANAGEMENT
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:2.1

David McClure, (202) 512-6257
Dan Latta, (202) 512-6206


      IT INVESTMENT/PROCUREMENT
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:2.2

David McClure, (202) 512-6257


      BUSINESS PROCESS
      REENGINEERING
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:2.3

John Finedore, (202) 512-6248
Deborah Davis, (202) 512-6261
Edith Pyles, (202) 512-9582


      DATA AND NETWORK MANAGEMENT
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:2.4

Jean Boltz, (202) 512-5247

*** End of document. ***