United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Accounting and Information Management Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1998-07-07 monographic deposited born digital 34 p. GA 1.13:AIMD-98-154 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-154 P0b002ee18038bcf2 f:ai98154 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-154 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-154 AIMD-98-154 Federal agency reorganization Information resources management Reengineering (management) Strategic information systems planning Chief information officers Systems conversions Information technology Systems design Letter Report AIMD Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed how the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has implemented specific provisions of the Clinger-Cohen Act and other legislative reforms, including: (1) reengineering business processes before acquiring information technology; (2) completing an integrated information technology architecture; (3) institutionalizing a disciplined information technology investment decisionmaking process; and (4) appointing an agency Chief Information Officer (CIO).<p/>GAO noted that: (1) VA has not fully implemented critical provisions of the Clinger-Cohen Act and other legislative reforms; (2) although VA has taken some initial steps, it has not adequately implemented these legislative reforms; (3) specifically, the Clinger-Cohen Act requires agencies to analyze their mission-related and administrative processes, and on the basis of this analysis, revise and improve these processes before making significant investments in supporting information technology; (4) although GAO's business process reengineering guide states that agencies should have an overall business process improvement strategy to accomplish reengineering, VA has not developed such a strategy; (5) VA also has not yet defined the departmentwide integrated information technology architecture needed to efficiently utilize information systems across the department; (6) in addition, VA has not institutionalized a disciplined process for selecting, controlling, and evaluating information technology as investments as required by the Clinger-Cohen Act; (7) specifically, VA decisionmakers did not have current and complete information such as cost, benefit, schedule, risk, and performance data at the project level, which is essential to making sound investment decisions; (8) in addition, VA's process for controlling and evaluating its investment portfolio is incomplete and, as a result, decisionmakers do not have the information needed to: (a) detect or avoid problems early; and (b) improve VA's investment process; (9) as a consequence, the department does not know whether it is making the right investments, how to control these investments effectively, or whether these investments have provided mission-related benefits in excess of their costs; (10) although the Clinger-Cohen Act requires agencies' CIOs to have information management as their primary duty, the responsibilities of VA's CIO are not limited primarily to information management; (11) instead, the CIO also functions as the department's Assistant Secretary for Management and Chief Financial Officer; and (12) as a result, information technology issues are not addressed promptly. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-154/html/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-154.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-154/pdf/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-154.pdf GAO/AIMD-98-154 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-154 Letter Report GAO/AIMD-98-154; VA Information Technology: Improvements Needed to Implement Legislative Reforms; Federal agency reorganization Information resources management Reengineering (management) Strategic information systems planning Chief information officers Systems conversions Information technology Systems design