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GCN Home > 08/16/04 issue

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By Mary Mosquera , GCN Staff

VA’s exhaustive preparation leads to a perfect round of business case approval

The Veterans Affairs Department batted 1.000 this year, when the Office of Management and Budget approved all of its 56 submitted IT business cases for fiscal 2005 on the first try. An Exhibit 300 that fulfills OMB requirements means the IT project has a better chance at funding.

“This was a great discipline for the department, not just to get through the 300 process but to do a better job at program management,” said VA deputy CIO Ed Meagher. Developing a successful business case means nailing the basics, like knowing the customer, the requirements and metrics, and ensuring security throughout the project.

“It’s really a governance model that allows you, at an enterprise level, management of the whole portfolio,” Meagher said. An agency can’t assemble a business case in a few months and expect to meet OMB requirements. It takes a commitment from the department to putting in place the right people and resources for a year’s time, every year, Meagher said.

VA’s business case acceptance rate on the first go-round went from 25 percent in the first year to 87 percent in the second year to 100 percent last year, which no other large federal organization has attained.

“Our success with OMB was due to the content being prepared by the project sponsors and reviewed through the CIO,” said Tim Weigel, acting director for VA’s IT Capital Planning Service, who directs work on the department’s Exhibit 300 documents.

He linked the process between department IT program managers and the engineering staff and zeroed in on acquiring ProSight Portfolio’s Fast Track for Capital Planning and Investment Control, which was installed last year.

VA expects the software, from ProSight Inc. of Portland, Ore., to reduce the amount of work the department has to do on the fiscal 2006 and future budgets, he said.

VA used the software to build a database of its Exhibit 300 information, such as spending sums for project stages, justifications and how the project fits into the overall budget. The software analyzes for the proper mix of investments to fit the department’s strategic goals. It will move VA beyond investment management into IT portfolio management, Weigel said.