Show Me The Plan!

I don't know if Roger Baker is a "rock star" CIO, but I do think Mr. Baker is an extremely competent one who seems intent, along with his boss, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki, on creating a new standard for IT governance, risk management and project accountability in the federal government.

Last week, Shinseki announced that the VA

"will temporarily halt 45 information technology projects which are either behind schedule or over budget. These projects will be reviewed, and it will be determined whether these projects should be continued."

In addition,

"Each of the 45 projects will be temporarily halted. No further development will occur and expenditures will be minimized. A new project plan that meets the requirements of Program Management Accountability System (PMAS) must be created by the project manager and approved by VA's Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology before resuming."

That total is the most IT projects ever stopped at once by any governmental agency or department ever, at least in the last 30 plus years that I can remember, and probably is as many that have been stopped for review across all of government IT in the past decade, if not longer.

To which we say, "Well done," along with, "It's about time."

There is a mighty difference between IT failures and IT blunders, and for those that are blunders, invoking the IT mercy rule can't happen fast enough.

As Shinseki said, the

"VA has a responsibility to the American people, who are investing millions of dollars in technology projects, to deliver quality results that adhere to a budget and are delivered on time. They need to have confidence that the dollars they are spending are being effectively used to improve the lives of our Veterans."

Amen.

Viva La Revolucion - and show me the plan!