Big changes unlikely for biz cases

No major changes are in the works this year for agency business case justifications for major information technology investments, according to a government IT official.

Office of Management and Budget officials are considering whether to revise Circular A-11, which governs agency budget submissions, said Karen Evans, OMB's administrator for e-government and IT. “That’s under review right now,” she told Federal Computer Week. The circular outlines how agency officials submit business cases in accordance with Exhibit 300 requirements.

Embedded in the Exhibit 300 forms “will be one or two data elements that will be strengthened, but it’ll primarily be the same,” a federal IT official close to the situation said.

OMB officials' move last year to introduce new Exhibit 300 requirements encountered resistance from agency officials.

“It wasn’t cantankerous, it wasn’t confrontational and it wasn’t debilitating,” the official said. “The agencies used it so much and so much progress has been made that the decision was a no-brainer this year -- just leave it alone,” the official added.

Evans said agencies' rebuff of the proposed revision is an example of the CIO Council's process working as intended. "We give them draft documents...they make recommendations and I make the final decision," she said.

Agency officials have already begun planning for their Exhibit 300 submission to OMB by September for inclusion in the fiscal 2007 budget.