Bill would increase oversight of federal IT projects

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BY GAUTHAM NAGESH, GNAGESH@GOVEXEC.COM

A bipartisan bill introduced last week would require agencies to report to Congress when information technology projects are behind schedule or over budget, and would create a strike force within the Office of Management and Budget to help struggling endeavors.

Comment on this article in The Forum."What we've learned is that some agencies can't keep the expected cost of their investments down or deliver on time as promised," said Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., one of the bill's sponsors, on the Senate floor on Thursday. "Nor do these agencies, in many cases, have qualified IT experts they can turn to before a project spirals out of control."

The 2008 Information Technology Investment Oversight Enhancement and Waste Prevention Act (S. 3384) would force agencies to think more deeply when establishing cost, schedule and performance baselines for major IT investments. Agencies would be held accountable for their initial projections; if a project varied more than 20 percent from the original baseline estimates according to the standards of earned value management, the chief information officer would be required to notify the head of the agency within two weeks, who would then need to inform the appropriate congressional committee. ....