CIO Council releases 2004 plan

CIO Council fiscal 2004 Strategic Plan

In fiscal 2004, CIO Council officials plan to focus heavily on implementing the e-government initiatives and promoting cross-agency collaboration.

"The CIO Council will continue to guide, support and champion the various projects and initiatives resulting from legislative mandates, executive decisions and other administration policies," states the council's fiscal 2004 strategic plan, released this week. "The CIO Council's vision is to improve the operations of the federal government through better use of the information, people, processes and technology."

CIO Council members have four goals: expanding e-government, encouraging collaboration, ensuring a secure technology infrastructure and improving information technology human resources management.

As part of the first goal for fiscal 2004, the CIO Council will work with agencies to complete the e-government initiatives and achieve good grades on the President's Management Agenda e-government scorecard. The council will govern the IT initiatives to ensure they meet the objectives and serve as a liaison between the Office of Management and Budget and agencies, the plan states.

The second goal involves maximizing the use of shared solutions and best practices through the use of the federal enterprise architecture. The council plans to continue providing leadership in the design and governance of the federal architecture, advocate enterprise licensing efforts and leverage best practices.

The council will also continue to modernize agencies' management around common lines of business, which have been identified as the next phase of e-government: financial management, human resources, criminal investigations and public health monitoring.

"Due to the nature of this effort and impact these initiatives will have across the federal government, collaboration among agencies is essential," the plans states. "Because the CIO Council guides IT-related decisions with a governmentwide perspective, it must continue to champion modernization of IT investments around" lines of business.

Under the third goal, the council will provide guidance and support for meeting the requirements of the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 by promoting security and privacy best practices and the dissemination of clear IT security guidelines.

The final goal requires the CIO Council to help improve IT product and service delivery through the development of a qualified workforce. The council's Workforce and Human Capital for IT Committee will perform a gap analysis and develop plans to fill critical workforce needs. The council will also work with the Chief Human Capital Officers Council, among others, to inventory the workforce skills and enhance IT training programs.

Also, the council's plan outlines metrics for measuring the success of goals developed by the council and OMB, such as having 80 percent of the 24 e-government initiatives fully deployed and 80 percent of all agencies having properly secured major IT systems.

The plan also lists what the council views as its most notable accomplishments for fiscal 2003:

* Expanding e-government through the progress of the first 24 initiatives.

* Developing four of the five reference models in the federal enterprise architecture.

* Implementing the SmartBuy program for enterprise licensing.

* Creating the lines of business.

* Improving the IT workforce and guidance for project managers.

* Releasing agency guidance for the E-Authentication initiative