On May 2, 2012 Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel issued a memo to the federal CIOs titled Increasing Shared Approaches to Information Technology Services. The memo announced “policy guidance and management tools to use in increasing shared approaches to information technology (IT) service delivery across mission, support, and commodity areas”.
The memo says:
Taking a shared approach will:
Improve return on investment across the Agency’s entire IT portfolio through the coordinated use of TechStat program reviews; PortfolioStat investment reviews; and the consolidation of commodity IT systems, services, and related contracts as described in the Information Technology Shared Services Strategy.
Close productivity gaps by implementing integrated governance processes and innovative IT service solutions at the program, bureau and agency levels. Agency implementation is to be consistent with guidance contained in the Federal Cloud Computing Strategy and Digital Government Strategy, as well as the Common Approach to Federal Enterprise Architecture (Common Approach) … The Common Approach provides agile, standardized methods and tools for designing the next generation of IT resources and shared services that Federal Agencies will need to successfully accomplish their missions in the face of tight resources and rising customer needs.
Increase communications with stakeholders as shared service managing partners, customers, and providers work together to ensure transparency, accountability, and ongoing collaboration in the full lifecycle of intra- and inter-agency IT shared service activities. Collaboration resources that are available to support this are CIO.gov, ITDashboard.gov, Perfonnance.gov, and BusinessUSA.gov.
To ensure that IT shared services are implemented in a coordinated and expedited manner, VanRoekel asks the federal CIOs to submit an “Enterprise Roadmap” to OMB by August 31,2012 that covers Fiscal Years (FY) 2012-2015. The roadmap must include:
Business and Technology Architecture: a high-level, integrated description of the agency’s business objectives and enabling IT capabilities across all operating units and program areas using enterprise architecture concepts and methods from the Common Approach to describe the agency-wide current architecture, future architecture, and transition plans. The transition plan will include a description of the two IT areas that Federal Agencies will migrate to a shared service model by December 31,2012 in accordance with OMB guidance.
The enterprise roadmap must also include a number of supporting documents:
- IT Asset Inventory: a list of IT assets agency-wide to include all IT systems and services that support mission, administrative, and commodity IT programs, using the Federal Enterprise Architecture Reference Model taxonomies provided in the Common Approach.
- Commodity IT Consolidation Plan: a synopsis of the agency-wide IT investment portfolio review conducted annually using methods and tools provided in OMB M-12-10.
- Line of Business Service Plan: the Program Manager of each Federal-wide Line of Business will submit a Plan to OMB via the Managing Partner agency’s CIO that addresses increasing the quality and update of the IT shared services that are provided through that LOB by the end of FY 2013. Current LOBs include: Human Resources, Geospatial Systems, Information Systems Security, Financial Management (including Grants Management), Performance Management, Federal Health Architecture, and Budget Formulation and Execution.
- IT Shared Service Plan: a description, list, and transition plan for all intra- and inter-agency IT shared services that the agency intends to provide or consume during FY 2012-2015.
Going forward, Federal Agency CIOs will submit an updated Enterprise Roadmap to OMB by April 1 each year.