Agencies mixed on meeting OMB's goals
The Office of Management and Budget reports that almost all agencies are meeting goals for enterprise architecture, but less than a third have met the standard for business cases.
Although agencies are doing well with enterprise architecture, they falter on submitting acceptable business cases and are in the middle level on project management goals, according to a report from the Office of Management and Budget.The CIO Council is pursuing activities to support the continued development of the information technology workforce and the sharing of best practices, said Karen Evans, OMB's administrator for e-government and IT, in a memo to Deputy Director for Management Clay Johnson. However, "there is still more [that] can be accomplished between now and the end of this administration," Evans wrote.Agencies continue to improve, she added. The report covers fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30. However, the first six months of fiscal 2008 have already seen progress.For example, at the end of fiscal 2007, 23 of 27 agencies, or 85 percent, met the standard for a green score on enterprise architecture goals, indicating full success. By the midpoint of fiscal 2008, that assessment had risen to 25 agencies, or 93 percent.Agencies’ use of earned value management also improved. At the end of fiscal 2007, 48 percent of the agencies OMB tracks --13 of 27 -- had implemented EVM. At fiscal 2008's halfway point, that had risen to 52 percent, or 14 agencies.Evans also reported that 22 of the 27 agencies, or 81 percent, rated a green score in implementing e-government initiatives halfway through fiscal 2008.However, the news isn't all good. In the memo, Evans said only 30 percent, or eight, of the agencies met the green criteria for submitting business cases to justify expenditures. OMB also found only 42 percent of the submitted cases -- 337 out of 810 -- to be acceptable.