OMB has issued a memo highlighting best practices from its PortfolioStat IT management review process and establishing guidance for fiscal 2013 PortfolioStat sessions.
Lessons learned include the importance of empowering agency CIOs and fostering a strong partnership with program and mission officials. According to the memo, agencies lacking an empowered CIO often do not have a complete and accurate inventory of IT assets and services across the enterprise, reducing the capacity to consolidate redundant applications, promote modular development, use enterprise license agreements, and migrate to a service orientation.
The stat sessions have also underscored the need for strong IT portfolio governance and oversight through the use of investment review boards, something that the more advanced agencies use to implement effective IT solutions using savings gained from eliminating unnecessary and lower value investments, reducing operating costs, and freeing up capital to re-invest and pioneer innovative platforms.
The memo said effective IRBs include enterprise architectures linking business and technology in a way that ensures IT solutions meet business requirements, as well as valuation methodologies used by decision makers to evaluate investments based on their value to the agency and the cost to the taxpayer.
It also said PortfolioStats have confirmed that advanced portfolio management includes the use of cloud computing as a more scalable and efficient means of procuring IT services.
The memo further integrates PortfolioStat reviews and the federal data center consolidation initiative and streamlines related agency-reporting requirements.
