IT spending reporting gets a makeover

The Office of Management and Budget has finalized new guidance on reporting IT spending as called for by the Obama administration’s IT reform plan.

According to a July 14 blog entry on CIO.gov, the new framework is “designed to increase the relevance of IT investment data, better align budget with management processes, improve data quality, and reduce the reporting burden on agencies.”

The blog entry noted that the plan specifically charges OMB with revising guidance for Exhibits 53 and 300.

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Each federal agency reports its IT spending portfolio annually to OMB through an Exhibit 53, which provides budget estimates for all IT spending programs and identifies those that are major programs. Exhibit 300s are business case summaries required by OMB for all major IT programs.

OMB’s revised guidance is intended to clarify objectives and give agencies adequate time to put together strong responses.

The new reporting tools aim to help agencies move to modular development by requiring them to monitor whether project teams are delivering better results on a regular basis and will offer flexibility to provide more details on federal IT program performance, administration officials said in the blog entry.

“The substantially updated structures for IT investment reporting are described in official guidance regarding agencies’ [fiscal] 2013 budget submissions for information technology, in guidance for the redesigned Exhibit 53A-B and Exhibit 300A-B,” officials wrote.