Goal 3: Improve Customer Experience
Align every IT investment to the business priorities of the agency
Overview
OPM OCIO is a support and service organization to OPM’s program offices. All IT investments should support OPM’s business priorities. OCIO will establish portfolio management and related governance processes so that the OPM program offices are part of the decision-making process in setting IT investment priorities. OCIO will proactively engage with customers through transparency and knowledge sharing, which are both integral to setting IT priorities. Ultimately, OCIO aims to be a trusted and value-added partner to the OPM program offices, optimizing IT spend to support OPM business operations.
Establish and maintain portfolio management and governance processes for business input, feedback, and transparency in OCIO operations
OCIO is a provider to OPM’s program offices. OCIO partners with the program offices to provide effective IT applications that modernize and improve OPM services. OCIO will put governance mechanisms in place to meet program office needs and priorities that are transparently and objectively part of IT investments.
Initiatives for this strategic objective include:
- Review all IT investments through the IRB
- Create a technical architecture and roadmap that supports OPM business modernization
- Incorporate the guidance of the OPM Strategic Plan into OCIO plans and investments
- Create an OPM Digital Governance Board
Establish a relationship management function for OCIO customers
OCIO will establish communication processes needed to facilitate constant communication with OCIO customers, promulgating information about its decisions and soliciting customer feedback on needs and priorities. OCIO will have liaisons for OPM program offices when relevant.
Initiatives include:
- Maintain a forum for stakeholder feedback
- Assign a project manager to major projects
- Eliminate duplicative systems across the enterprise
- Communicate IT plans and actions to customers
Develop a governance structure, processes, and tools to identify, evaluate, prioritize, and track OPM’s IT spend
OCIO will work with OPM program offices to develop a prioritized annual budget operating plan and governance process. This will enable program offices to be involved in setting priorities for IT investment decisions.
Initiatives include:
- Establish a governance structure to prioritize and track OPM IT spending
- Implement processes and tools to track OPM IT spending
- Establish a cloud governance structure and processes to optimize OPM cloud usage
- Implement processes and tools to identify, evaluate, prioritize, and optimize OPM’s cloud utilization
- Establish and implement an IT Working Capital Fund (WCF)
Establish budget plans and execution based on the prioritized business needs defined through the governance process
Using the TBM taxonomy, OCIO will transparently tie each element of the OCIO budget plan and execution to identified and prioritized customer needs. Further, OCIO will track legacy systems and capture new planned investments in the OCIO IT modernization plan as well as the OPM enterprise architecture.
Initiatives include:
- Establish a prioritized budget for all OCIO expenditures
- Develop and implement strategic sourcing, so that OCIO spending aligns with customer and agency priorities
- Submit all TMF-eligible projects to OMB for potential funding
- Proactively review and evaluate contracts to appropriately support the OCIO’s short- and long-term goals and objectives
- Establish formulation and execution mechanisms and financial management policies and controls that align with federal financial management and business priorities
- Establish acquisition program management mechanisms to efficiently use resources
Implement standards and practices to reduce the number of audit recommendations and findings
Tracking progress and resolving open audit recommendations is a key initiative.
Initiatives include:
- Develop policies and a team to address outstanding GAO and IG recommendations
- Resolve outstanding GAO and IG recommendations
- Improve the agency-wide FISMA and FITARA scores
- Work to reduce new GAO and IG recommendations