It was just over a year ago, in June of 2009 that Vivek Kundra, Federal CIO, launched the first version of the IT dashboard,  targeting the over $30 billion of IT projects that were either behind schedule or over budget. Last week OMB launched IT Dashboard  2.0 with new, improved features that provide mobile access, the ability to dive deeper into the data, and more options in creating program comparisons.  

The navigation between options is easy, creating data comparisons and trends is relatively institutive, and projects now have multiple agency scores over their timelines, indicating the changed status of spending versus budget, timeliness, and CIO ratings. However, as in version one, the performance metrics in many projects could use improvement. Some agencies rated future performance metrics, those occurring in 2015 as “red” meaning “not met” creating startling summary images, while others are still are not current on past years' metrics ratings. The standard and stale statement of “actual results to be recorded by end of Q4 FY09; reported by end of Q1 FY10” - with nothing reported - appeared in the first version of the IT dashboard and is still evident in some projects. 

While not perfect, the IT Dashboard is a transparency weapon in Kundra’s *** to assault the government’s over budget and over schedule IT programs. OMB TechStat Accountability Sessions  are another weapon.  These agency by agency IT reviews started in January 2010, are intended to detect IT investment problems early, reduce wasteful spending, and thus increase successful project completions. Thirty agency Tech Stats have been completed to date. In addition to stopping non performing programs, Tech Stat reviews are forcing agencies to rethink spending, and cut out fat.  An example illustrated on the IT Dashboard home page indicates that the Small Business Administration was able to reduce the cost to issue a Personal Identity Verification (PIV) smartcard from $1,641 per card to $240 per card. As important as saving taxpayer dollars, TechStat sessions also explore the reasons behind poor performance, including poorly defined goals, siloed management, and lack of communication/cooperation within agencies. Corrective actions and lessons learned from Tech Stats can carry over to other agency business, and may start to change government behavior to be more open, and collaborative. 

So what does this mean, transparent data on IT spending and review sessions that explore agency actions with the goal of communication and collaboration to better manage taxpayer investments in IT? That’s right; it’s all part of open government, providing accountability to citizens, and ensuring better stewardship of taxpayer dollars.  And it’s about changing a culture that spends nearly $80 billion a year on IT investments that often lack best in class management and results.  The end game may just be a better managed government with more efficient and effective processes that allow government to increase productivity. This would be a good thing.