GAO’s director for IT management issues, David Powner, told the subcommittee that further improvements are needed to identify and oversee poorly planned IT projects.
Specifically, he took issue with OMB’s use of its management watch list, which is a tool for analyzing, tracking, and evaluating the risks and results of major capital investments in information systems.
As Powner explained, OMB began using its management watch list several years ago to identify poorly planned projects based on its evaluation of agencies’ funding justifications for major projects, known as exhibit 300s.
In August 2005 OMB began using a parallel process for agencies to identify high-risk projects and to report on those that are performing poorly.
OMB and agencies have identified about 227 IT projects " representing about $10.4 billion in fiscal 2008 spending – as being poorly planned, via the management watch list, or poorly performing, via the high-risk list.
