Agencies need to establish comprehensive policies to address changes to IT project cost, schedule and performance goals, GAO has said.
It said the government plans to spend about $70 billion on IT projects during fiscal 2008, and that sometimes agencies “re-baseline” projects to mask cost overruns and schedule delays.
After surveying the managers of a random sample of 180 projects selected from the 778 major IT projects the 24 major agencies plan to invest in during fiscal 2008, GAO said about 48 percent of the federal government’s major IT projects have been re-baselined, and projects are re-baselined for several reasons, including changes in project goals, changes in funding, or inaccurate original baselines.
Of the re-baselined projects, 51 percent were re-baselined twice or more, and 11 percent were re-baselined four times or more, according to GAO-08-925.
It said the most commonly cited reasons for re-baselining were changes in project requirements, objectives, or scope — 55 percent of IT projects — and changes in funding stream — 44 percent.
Re-baselining policies that agencies have established are not fully consistent with best practices, such as describing a process for developing a new baseline, GAO said.
One reason is because OMB has not specified what those policies should include, according to GAO. It said comprehensive policies are needed to optimize effectiveness and ensure transparency.