TechStat: A new way to manage IT projects
President Obama’s Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra has initiated a new accountability process to reduce waste and manage the success of federal IT projects.
TechStat accountability sessions will inform management decisions with a “data-driven, action-focused and results-oriented” process, evaluating federal IT projects across an array of project metrics to satisfy President Obama’s priorities:
- Manage IT investments effectively.
- Leverage technology and its power to create efficiencies for government.
- Improve information security, such as identity management.
- Increase the openness of the government and participation with the public.
Given the size and importance of IT investments at the federal level, the potential savings from improving project oversight is enormous. One example is that Kundra sent a memo to the Environmental Protection Agency’s CIO explaining what he expects to see done to get a project on course again that is now $30 million over its budget and a year behind schedule. If improvements aren’t seen, Kundra could halt projects, as was done earlier last year with a Veterans’ Administration IT project.
The idea of TechStat sessions was adapted from Kundra’s experience as the the Chief Technology Officer for Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration. TechStat sessions were attended by IT leaders in government to identify priorities, share goals, and manage projects. Meanwhile, TechStat initiatives teamed up city workers with contracted consultants who provided technical expertise in high-priority areas to improve city operations. TechStat teams solved problems, broke down information barriers and business process bottlenecks, and governed IT initiatives that brought to fruition what might be the most modernized, integrated, and open information systems architecture in municipal government anywhere in the country.
While District government has enjoyed celebrity for its successes, the city hasn’t been immune from criticism, or investigations for fraud and waste (Kundra was cleared of any knowledge or involvement). The D.C. example provides a cautionary tale about how — even when successful outcomes result — outsourced technology projects must always be accompanied by strong oversight controls.
In New Orleans, modernization and integration of information systems across various agencies should be a high priority. In the past several years, the city’s IT functions have become highly centralized and outsourced with contractors producing poor results, while the technical capacity of departments has been diminished.
The TechStat model provides a strategy that might be adapted to New Orleans to improve agency participation in identifying technology priorities, decentralizing and restoring the technical capacity of agencies, and — only when merited — using contractors to provide technical skills in key areas, but vetting bids in a transparent competitive bidding process, and holding contractors to clearly-defined deliverables.
