OMB official cites progress on e-gov business cases

Agencies have made progress in developing e-government business cases, but an Office of Management and Budget official said today that there is still room for improvement, particularly in project management and enterprisewide procurement.Dan Chenok, OMB’s information policy and technology branch chief, said OMB has, in some area, seen more than six times the number of business cases from agencies on major IT projects between fiscal 2003 and 2004.“That’s progress we expect to see throughout the year.” Previously, he said, OMB was shouldering 750 insufficient business cases worth $21 billion, a category that’s experiencing turnaround. Chenok spoke at Federal Sources Inc.’s 18th annual Federal Outlook Conference in McLean, Va.Despite the gains, some projects in the 2004 budget are encumbered by redundancy, paper-based processes, a lack of cooperation and cost overruns. The answer? “We need to focus more on project management,” he said.He said OMB is working on further defining the project manager’s role. He also said agencies are in serious discussions with the General Services Administration and the CIO Council to develop a model for enterprisewide buying.