The Office of Management and Budget’s initiatives for
reforming federal financial management systems
government-wide could help address the key causes of
system implementation failures, but further actions are
needed to fully define and implement the processes
needed to complete the initiatives, the Government
Accountability Office has said.
It said most implementation failures stem from
undisciplined processes for requirements management,
testing, data conversion and systems interfaces, as well
as shortfalls in risk and project management.
Problems with human capital management and IT management
practices — especially regarding enterprise architecture,
investment management, and information security, have also
led to system failures, according to GAO-06-184.
It identified four concepts central to OMB’s approach at
resolving issues in these areas: a concept of operations
provides the foundation; standard business processes promote
consistency; a strategy is used to implement the financial
management line of business; and, disciplined processes help
ensure successful implementations.
OMB’s collaborative, broad-based attempts to reform financial
management operations government-wide include developing
federal enterprise architecture products and requiring mapping
of agency architectures to the federal architecture, according
to GAO.
It cited as another key OMB initiative the financial
management line of business, which has established centers
of excellence to consolidate financial management activities
for major agencies through cross-servicing arrangements.
