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Consistent with Relevant Guidance, but Improvements and Implementation 
Steps Are Still Needed' which was released on September 10, 2007.

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Report to Congressional Committees:

United States Government Accountability Office: GAO:

September 2007:

Information Technology:

DHS's Human Capital Plan Is Largely Consistent with Relevant Guidance, 
but Improvements and Implementation Steps Are Still Needed:

GAO-07-425:

GAO Highlights:

Highlights of GAO-07-425, a report to congressional committees. 

Why GAO Did This Study:

In performing its missions, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 
relies extensively on information technology (IT). Recognizing this, 
DHS’s fiscal year 2006 appropriations act required its Chief 
Information Officer (CIO) to submit a report to congressional 
appropriations committees that includes, among other things, an IT 
human capital plan, and the act directs GAO to review the report. GAO’s 
review addressed (1) whether the IT human capital plan is consistent 
with federal guidance and associated best practices and (2) the status 
of the plan’s implementation. In performing its review, GAO compared 
DHS’s plan and supporting documentation with 27 practices in the Human 
Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework of the Office of 
Personnel Management, and examined plan implementation activities at 
three DHS component agencies.

What GAO Found:

DHS’s IT human capital plan is largely consistent with federal guidance 
and associated best practices; however, it does not fully address a 
number of important practices that GAO examined. Specifically, the plan 
and supporting documentation fully address 15 practices; for example, 
they provide for developing a complete inventory of existing staff 
skills, identifying IT skills that will be needed to achieve agency 
goals, determining skill gaps, and developing plans to address such 
gaps. They also provides for involving key stakeholders—such as the 
CIO, the Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO), and component agency CIOs 
and human capital directors—-in carrying out the skill gap analyses and 
other workforce planning activities. Nevertheless, elements of 12 of 
the 27 practices are not included in the plan or related documentation. 
For example, although the plan and supporting documents describe the 
department’s IT human capital goals and steps necessary to implement 
them, most steps do not include associated milestones. In addition, 
although the plan and supporting documents provide for involving key 
stakeholders, they do not specifically assign these stakeholders 
responsibility and accountability for carrying out planned activities. 
These and other missing elements of the practices are important because 
they help ensure that the plan is implemented efficiently and 
effectively. DHS officials provided various reasons why the missing 
practices were omitted, including uncertainty surrounding the source of 
resources for implementing the plan and the demands of other IT 
priorities, such as consolidating component agency data centers.

To date, DHS has made limited progress in implementing the plan, 
according to officials from the offices of the department’s CIO and 
CHCO and three DHS agencies (the Coast Guard, Customs and Border 
Protection, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency). These 
officials said that they are nonetheless following several of the 
practices because they are required to report quarterly to the Office 
of Management and Budget on progress in meeting such human capital 
goals as filling mission-critical positions and delivering key IT 
training. DHS officials stated that the department’s limited progress 
in implementing the plan was due to its focus on other priorities, and 
ambiguity surrounding plan implementation roles and responsibilities. 
Until DHS has a complete plan that fully addresses all practices and 
the department and components implement the plan, DHS will continue to 
be at risk of not having sufficient people with the right knowledge, 
skills, and abilities to manage and deliver the IT systems that are 
essential to executing the department’s mission and achieving its 
transformation goals.

What GAO Recommends:

GAO is recommending that DHS make completion and implementation of a 
comprehensive IT human capital plan an imperative, and in doing so, 
ensure that implementation roles and responsibilities are clearly 
defined and adequate resources are made available. DHS agreed with 
GAO’s recommendations and acknowledged that IT human capital has been a 
lower priority relative to other IT initiatives. It committed to having 
a highly skilled IT workforce and described efforts planned and under 
way to do so.

[Hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-425].

To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on 
the link above. For more information, contact Randolph C. Hite at (202) 
512-3429 or hiter@gao.gov.

[End of section]

Contents:

Letter:

Results in Brief:

Background:

DHS IT Human Capital Plan and Related Documentation Largely Satisfy 
Relevant Guidance, but Several Key Practices Have Not Been Fully 
Addressed:

DHS Has Made Limited Progress in Implementing Its IT Human Capital Plan:

Conclusions:

Recommendations for Executive Action:

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:

Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology:

Appendix II: Details on IT Human Capital Plan's Satisfaction of 
Practices in OPM's Framework:

Appendix III: Comments from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security:

Appendix IV: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments:

Tables:

Table 1: DHS's Principal Organizations and Their Respective Missions:

Table 2: IT Funding for Fiscal Year 2007:

Table 3: Summary of Extent to which DHS's IT Human Capital Plan 
Satisfies 27 Key Practices in OPM's Framework:

Figure:

Figure 1: DHS Organizational Structure (Simplified and Partial):

Abbreviations:

ACE: Automated Commercial Environment:
CHCO: Chief Human Capital Officer:
CIO: Chief Information Officer:
DHS: Department of Homeland Security:
IT: information technology:
OMB: Office of Management and Budget:
OPM: Office of Personnel Management:

United States Government Accountability Office:
Washington, DC 20548:

September 10, 2007:

The Honorable Robert C. Byrd: 
Chairman: 
The Honorable Thad Cochran: 
Ranking Member: 
Subcommittee on Homeland Security: 
Committee on Appropriations: 
United States Senate:

The Honorable David E. Price: 
Chairman: 
The Honorable Harold Rogers: 
Ranking Minority Member: 
Subcommittee on Homeland Security: 
Committee on Appropriations: 
House of Representatives:

Information technology (IT) is a critical tool in the Department of 
Homeland Security's (DHS) quest to transform 22 diverse and distinct 
agencies into 1 cohesive, high-performing department. Because of the 
importance of this transformation together with the magnitude of the 
associated challenges, we have designated it as a high-risk 
undertaking.[Footnote 1] Among other things, DHS's ability to modernize 
its IT systems and infrastructure to support this transformation 
depends on its human capital, which is an area that we have designated 
as high risk across the federal government.[Footnote 2]

Given the enormous role that IT plays in the department's 
transformation efforts, DHS's fiscal year 2006 appropriations act 
required its Chief Information Officer (CIO) to submit a report to 
congressional appropriations committees that includes, among other 
things, an IT human capital plan, and the act directs us to review the 
report.[Footnote 3] The CIO submitted this report to the committees in 
June 2006 and the IT human capital plan on August 30, 2006.[Footnote 4] 
As agreed with your offices, our objectives in this report were to 
determine (1) whether the department's IT human capital plan is 
consistent with federal guidance and associated best practices and (2) 
the status of the plan's implementation.

To address our objectives, we reviewed the IT human capital plan and 
supporting documentation and evaluated them against the Human Capital 
Assessment and Accountability Framework issued by the Office of 
Personnel Management (OPM).[Footnote 5] This framework, which we 
collaborated with OPM and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in 
developing, is consistent with the practices in GAO's strategic human 
capital management model.[Footnote 6] We assessed the plan and 
supporting documentation against 27 practices in the framework that are 
essential to a well-defined and executable plan. In addition, we 
reviewed plan implementation activities within the department CIO and 
Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO) organizations and within three DHS 
agencies: the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, and the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency. Collectively, these agencies 
account for about 33 percent of the department's IT budget and about 60 
percent of its IT personnel. We performed our work from October 2006 
through July 2007, in accordance with generally accepted government 
auditing standards. Appendix I contains more details about our 
objectives, scope, and methodology.

Results in Brief:

DHS's IT human capital plan is largely consistent with federal guidance 
and associated best practices. Of 27 practices in OPM's human capital 
framework, DHS's plan and related documentation fully address 15 
practices and partially address 12. For example, the plan and 
supporting documentation provide for developing an inventory of 
existing staff skills, identifying future skills needed, and 
determining whether there are gaps between the two and how such gaps 
will be filled. In addition, they provide for involving key 
stakeholders--such as the CIO, the CHCO, and component agency CIOs and 
human capital directors--in carrying out workforce planning activities. 
According to DHS CIO officials, these practices were addressed because 
the OPM framework was used as a guide in developing the plan. 
Nevertheless, important elements of several key practices have not been 
addressed because of other priorities, according to these officials. In 
particular, the plan and supporting documents do not include milestones 
for when most defined activities are to be completed, and they do not 
define detailed roles and responsibilities for carrying out planned 
activities. These missing elements are important because they help to 
ensure effective implementation of planned activities.

Overall, DHS's progress in implementing its IT human capital plan has 
been limited. Although the plan and supporting documentation do not 
explicitly assign detailed roles and responsibilities for executing 
planned activities, the DHS CIO and the DHS CHCO have collaborated in 
executing some steps in the plan. For example, they have performed a 
gap analysis between existing and future skill needs and have begun 
examining strategies for reducing the gaps. However, they have yet to 
take other key steps. For example, while DHS is collecting information 
on the number of increasing, decreasing, and new mission-critical 
occupations, it is not identifying and analyzing year-to-year changes 
and trends to determine whether recruitment and retention strategies 
need to be updated to meet current organizational needs. Moreover, not 
all component agencies have begun to implement the plan. In particular, 
CIO and human capital officials with the Coast Guard, Customs and 
Border Protection, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency told us 
that although they were aware of the plan, they were in large part not 
aware of a requirement to implement it. Nevertheless, these officials 
stated that they have been taking actions consistent with some aspects 
of the plan as part of their quarterly reporting to OMB on such issues 
as progress in filling mission-critical positions and delivering IT 
training. Department and component agency officials attributed the 
status of the plan's implementation to competing priorities, such as 
consolidating data centers, and ambiguity surrounding plan 
implementation roles and responsibilities.

Until DHS has a fully defined IT human capital plan that, among other 
things, clearly assigns roles and responsibilities and ensures 
stakeholder commitment and accountability for implementation, it runs 
the continued risk of not having the people it needs to effectively and 
efficiently leverage IT in support of organization transformation. 
Accordingly, we are recommending that the Secretary of Homeland 
Security make development and implementation of a comprehensive IT 
human capital plan an imperative, and ensure that (1) the plan fully 
satisfies relevant federal guidance and related best practices, (2) 
roles and responsibilities for implementing the plan are clearly 
defined and understood, (3) resources needed to effectively and 
efficiently implement the plan are made available, and (4) progress in 
implementing the plan is regularly measured.

In its written comments on a draft of this report, DHS agreed with our 
recommendations, adding that the state of its IT human capital efforts 
varies widely across the department, and acknowledging that these 
efforts have been a lower priority relative to other IT imperatives. 
Nevertheless, it stated that it will dedicate the resources needed to 
ensure that it has a highly skilled and effective IT workforce. In this 
regard, it provided information that it said would update and clarify 
the status of its more recent IT human capital efforts. While our 
report already recognized most of this information, we have 
incorporated or otherwise recognized new information in our report as 
appropriate.

Background:

In March 2003, DHS began operations and set about the daunting task of 
merging 22 separate and autonomous federal agencies with homeland 
security-related missions under the centralized leadership of a single 
department. In doing so, DHS assumed operational control of about 
209,000 civilian and military positions from these agencies. As we have 
previously reported,[Footnote 7] the creation and transformation of DHS 
is critically important and poses significant management and leadership 
challenges, and failure to address these challenges could have serious 
consequences for our national security. Consequently, in 2003, we first 
designated the department's implementation and transformation as high 
risk, and we continue to do so today.[Footnote 8]

IT is a critical tool in DHS's quest to transform itself and carry out 
the department's critical missions on a day-to-day basis. For fiscal 
year 2008 alone, the department is requesting almost $4 billion in IT 
budgetary authority.[Footnote 9] The department's ability to 
effectively and efficiently invest these funds and deliver IT systems 
and infrastructure that perform as intended depends in large part on 
the capabilities of its IT human capital. As we have reported, DHS and 
the other federal agencies historically have been challenged in their 
ability to strategically manage human capital. For this reason, we 
first designated strategic human capital management as a governmentwide 
high-risk area in 2001, and we continue to do so today.[Footnote 10]

Overview of DHS Organizational Structure and Responsibility for IT 
Human Capital Management:

To accomplish its mission, the department is organized into various 
agencies and directorates, each of which is responsible for specific 
homeland security missions and for coordinating related efforts with 
other DHS organizations, as well as external entities. Table 1 shows 
DHS's principal organizations and their respective missions.

Table 1: DHS's Principal Organizations and Their Respective Missions:

Principal organizations: Citizenship and Immigration Services; 
Missions: Administers immigration and naturalization adjudication 
functions and establishes immigration services policies and priorities.

Principal organizations: Coast Guard; 
Missions: Protects the public, the environment, and U.S. economic 
interests in the nation's ports and waterways, along the coast, on 
international waters, and in any maritime region as required to support 
national security.

Principal organizations: Customs and Border Protection; 
Missions: Secures the nation's borders in order to prevent unauthorized 
persons and goods from entering the United States, while facilitating 
the flow of legitimate trade and travel.

Principal organizations: Federal Emergency Management Agency; 
Missions: Prepares the nation for hazards, manages federal response and 
recovery efforts following any national incident, and administers the 
National Flood Insurance Program.

Principal organizations: Immigration and Customs Enforcement; 
Missions: Investigates, identifies, and addresses vulnerabilities in 
the nation's border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure 
security.

Principal organizations: Management Directorate; 
Missions: Manages department budgets and appropriations, expenditure of 
funds, accounting and finance, procurement, human resources, IT 
systems, facilities and equipment, and the identification and tracking 
of performance measurements. This directorate includes the Offices of 
the CHCO, Chief Financial Officer, and the CIO.

Principal organizations: National Protection and Programs Directorate; 
Missions: Supports the department's homeland security risk-reduction 
mission through an integrated approach that encompasses both physical 
and virtual threats and their associated human elements. This 
directorate includes the Offices of Cyber Security and Communications 
and Infrastructure Protection.

Principal organizations: Science and Technology Directorate; 
Missions: Conducts research and development for the department and 
provides federal, state, and local officials with the technology and 
capabilities to protect the homeland.

Principal organizations: Secret Service; 
Missions: Protects the President and other high-level officials and 
investigates counterfeiting and other financial crimes (including 
financial institution fraud, identity theft, and computer fraud) and 
computer- based attacks on the nation's financial, banking, and 
telecommunications infrastructure.

Principal organizations: Transportation Security Administration; 
Missions: Protects the nation's transportation systems to ensure 
freedom of movement for people and commerce.

Source: GAO analysis of DHS data.

Note: This table does not show the organizations that fall under each 
of the directorates. It also does not show all organizations that 
report directly to the DHS Secretary and Deputy Secretary, such as 
Executive Secretary, Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs, Public 
Affairs, Chief of Staff, Inspector General, and General Counsel.

[End of table]

Within DHS, responsibility for IT human capital management resides with 
the Management Directorate--specifically, the Offices of the CIO and 
the CHCO--and with component agency CIO and human capital offices. More 
specifically, the management directive of the DHS Office of the CIO's 
states that the office is responsible for leveraging the best available 
technologies and applying proven IT management and human capital 
practices to provide shared services, coordinate acquisition 
strategies, maintain an enterprise architecture, and advocate and 
enable business transformation, among other things. To assist in 
managing these matters, DHS established the DHS CIO Council made up of 
the CIOs from each of DHS's component organizations. The council 
identified eight priorities, including IT human capital, and for each 
priority, it assigned an executive sponsor that is responsible for 
overseeing the department's efforts in that area. The council also 
established the IT Human Capital Resource Center (formerly called the 
IT Human Capital Center of Excellence) to support the council and the 
executive sponsor responsible for IT human capital. In short, the 
center is responsible for setting a DHS-wide vision and strategy for IT 
human capital and the functions that IT staff perform. The center is 
staffed by the component CIO organizations and, among other things, is 
responsible for coordinating the implementation of the department's IT 
human capital initiatives. Figure 1 shows a simplified and partial DHS 
organizational structure, including the CIO IT human capital-related 
entities.

Figure 1: DHS Organizational Structure (Simplified and Partial):

[See PDF for image]

Source: GAO analysis of DHS data.

[End of figure]

According to the DHS overall strategic human capital plan, which covers 
IT and non-IT personnel, the Office of the CHCO is responsible for 
implementing initiatives to achieve strategic human capital goals in 
support of the department's mission.[Footnote 11] With regard to IT, 
this includes planning and managing human capital to meet current and 
future mission needs, recruiting a high-quality workforce, developing a 
strong and capable workforce, motivating and retaining high performers, 
and fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement. It also 
includes applying human capital best practices in carrying out these 
responsibilities.

Each of the department's component agencies has its own CIO and human 
capital director to, among other things, manage the implementation of 
their respective IT human capital initiatives. According to DHS, this 
includes recruiting staff to close competency and skill gaps, 
coordinating and delivering mission-essential training, analyzing 
workforce data, and aligning component human capital plans with the 
department human capital plans to achieve agency and department 
missions.

IT Is Critical to Achieving DHS's Mission:

To accomplish its mission, DHS relies extensively on IT. For example, 
in fiscal year 2007, about $4.16 billion dollars in funding was 
requested to support 278 major IT programs. Table 2 shows the fiscal 
year 2007 IT funding for key DHS components.

Table 2: IT Funding for Fiscal Year 2007:

Dollars in millions: 
DHS agencies and directorates: Citizenship and Immigration Services; 
Funding: $570.3.

Dollars in millions: 
DHS agencies and directorates: Coast Guard; 
Funding: 196.7.

Dollars in millions: 
DHS agencies and directorates: Customs and Border Protection; 
Funding: 546.4.

Dollars in millions: 
DHS agencies and directorates: Federal Emergency Management Agency; 
Funding: 77.1.

Dollars in millions: 
DHS agencies and directorates: Immigration and Customs Enforcement; 
Funding: 134.0.

Dollars in millions: 
DHS agencies and directorates: Management Directorate; 
Funding: 1,576.0.

Dollars in millions: 
DHS agencies and directorates: Preparedness Directorate[A]; 
Funding: 213.5.

Dollars in millions: 
DHS agencies and directorates: Science and Technology Directorate; 
Funding: 34.1.

Dollars in millions: 
DHS agencies and directorates: Secret Service; 
Funding: 3.8.

Dollars in millions: 
DHS agencies and directorates: Transportation Security Administration; 
Funding: 356.4.

Dollars in millions: 
DHS agencies and directorates: US-VISIT[B]; 
Funding: 407.4.

Dollars in millions: 
DHS agencies and directorates: Other DHS components; 
Funding: 45.1.

Dollars in millions: 
DHS agencies and directorates: Total; 
Funding: $4,160.8.

Source: GAO analysis of DHS data.

[A] On April 1, 2007, this directorate was replaced by the National 
Protection and Programs Directorate.

[B] On April 1, 2007, US-VISIT became part of the National Protection 
and Programs Directorate.

[End of table]

To manage the use of these funds and carry out these programs, the 
department reports that it employs about 2,600 IT personnel. While 
these personnel represent about 1 percent of the department's total 
workforce, they nonetheless perform critical mission functions. 
Specifically, IT personnel develop, manage, and operate mission- 
critical systems that are intended to unify the department under a 
common IT infrastructure and to facilitate agencies' ability to analyze 
intelligence to identify threats, guard U.S. borders and airports, 
protect critical infrastructure, coordinate national responses to 
emergencies, and implement other security measures. Moreover, IT staff 
track and oversee the efforts of a sizable workforce of support 
contractors.

Prior GAO Reviews Have Highlighted DHS IT Human Capital Challenges and 
Called for a More Strategic Approach to Addressing Them:

According to DHS, the need to successfully manage its IT human capital 
is essential to effectively and efficiently leveraging technology in 
achieving the department's mission. This need is compounded by the fact 
that the department faces major near-term IT human capital challenges. 
For example, DHS estimates that between 2005 and 2010, approximately 35 
percent of its IT workforce will be eligible for retirement. Moreover, 
it reports that in light of the continued growth in demand of 
experienced IT professionals and the high rate of turnover experienced 
thus far, the department faces significant risk of critical skill 
shortages, which could hamper its mission imperatives.

During the last 3 years, we have reported on the importance of DHS 
adopting a strategic approach to addressing its IT human capital 
challenges. For example, in August 2004, we reported[Footnote 12] that 
DHS had begun strategic planning for IT human capital at the 
headquarters level, but it had not yet systematically gathered baseline 
data about its existing workforce. We also reported on CIO staffing 
concerns and slow progress in this area. Accordingly, we recommended 
that the department analyze whether it had appropriately allocated and 
deployed IT staff with the relevant skills to obtain its institutional 
and program-related goals. In response, the DHS CIO approved funding 
for the IT Human Capital Resource Center in July 2004. Among other 
things, the center subsequently began work to complete an IT human 
capital plan. Consistent with our recommendation, the center was to 
ensure that the completed plan provided for an analysis of IT workforce 
skill sets. In May 2005, the DHS CIO issued a draft version of the IT 
human capital plan.[Footnote 13] This draft version was sent to the 
Senate and House Appropriations Committees on August 30, 2006, as part 
of the CIO's report pursuant to requirements in DHS's fiscal year 2006 
appropriations act. According to the CIO Council senior executive 
leading the effort to develop this plan, it was developed in 
partnership with the DHS CHCO's office and intended to direct the 
department's IT human capital efforts.

In March 2006, we testified[Footnote 14] on a number of IT human 
capital and other management challenges at DHS. We noted that DHS had 
undertaken a departmentwide human capital initiative, MAXHR, which was 
to provide greater flexibility and accountability in the way employees 
are paid, developed, evaluated, afforded due process, and represented 
by labor organizations. Part of this initiative involved the 
development of departmentwide workforce competencies. We testified that 
the department had intended to implement MAXHR in the summer of 2005 
but had encountered delays. More recently, DHS officials stated that 
MAXHR had been canceled and is to be replaced by another initiative 
called the Human Capital Operational Plan. In May 2007, we 
reported[Footnote 15] that while DHS continues work to develop and 
implement departmentwide human capital initiatives, its overall 
progress in managing its IT and non-IT human capital had been limited.

Since 2002, we have also reported on human capital management 
weaknesses associated with key DHS IT programs. For example:

* In September 2005, we reported[Footnote 16] that the program office 
for the Atlas program[Footnote 17] was not adequately staffed. 
Accordingly, we recommended that the Atlas program conduct a staffing 
needs assessment to determine the positions and the level of staffing 
needed for all Atlas projects, and that it develop a human capital 
strategy for meeting its staffing needs. DHS agreed with our 
recommendations and has since completed a needs assessment, developed a 
human capital strategy, and used it to staff the program office and 
projects.

* In February 2006, we reported[Footnote 18] that the US-VISIT 
program[Footnote 19] had developed a human capital strategy, as we had 
recommended[Footnote 20] 2 years earlier, and had begun implementing 
it. However, we also reported that several activities in the plan had 
not been implemented, such as assessing the extent of current 
employees' competency gaps and developing a listing of competency-based 
training courses. To address this shortfall, among other things, the 
program recently developed a new human capital plan. We have not yet 
reviewed the new plan.

* In May 2006, we reported[Footnote 21] that the Automated Commercial 
Environment (ACE) program[Footnote 22] had yet to develop and implement 
a human capital management strategy, as we had recommended several 
years earlier. Instead, program officials told us that they were 
following a less formal approach to bolstering ACE's workforce. 
Accordingly, we recommended that the department report to its 
appropriations committees on its strategy for managing ACE human 
capital needs. DHS agreed with our recommendation and has since been 
working to develop a strategy.

GAO and OPM Have Developed Tools to Help Federal Agencies Strategically 
Manage Human Capital:

A strategic approach to human capital management includes viewing 
people as assets whose value to an organization can be enhanced by 
investing in them. Such an approach enables organizations to 
effectively use their people and determine how well they integrate 
human capital considerations into daily decision making and planning 
for mission results. It also helps organizations remain aware of and be 
prepared for current and future needs as an organization, ensuring that 
they have the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to pursue their 
missions.

On the basis of our experience with leading organizations, we issued a 
model in 2002 for strategic human capital management.[Footnote 23] The 
model is built around four cornerstones: (1) leadership; (2) strategic 
human capital planning; (3) acquiring, developing, and retaining 
talent; and (4) results-oriented organizational cultures. We also 
issued a set of key practices in 2003 for effective strategic human 
capital management.[Footnote 24] These practices are generic, applying 
to any organization or component, such as an agency's IT organization.

Since then, OPM, in conjunction with OMB and us, issued a strategic 
human capital framework--called the Human Capital Assessment and 
Accountability Framework--to provide a consistent, comprehensive 
representation of human capital management to guide federal 
agencies.[Footnote 25] Consistent with our 2002 model, OPM's framework 
provides six standards, along with associated indicators (practices) 
for achieving success. The six standards for success and related 
definitions are as follows:

* Strategic alignment. The organization's human capital strategy is 
aligned with mission, goals, and organizational objectives and 
integrated into its strategic plans, performance plans, and budgets.

* Workforce planning and deployment. Among other things, the 
organization strategically uses staff in order to achieve mission goals 
in the most efficient ways.

* Leadership and knowledge management. The organization's leaders and 
managers effectively manage people, ensure continuity of leadership, 
and sustain a learning environment that drives continuous improvement 
in performance.

* Results-oriented performance culture. The organization has a diverse, 
results-oriented, high-performance workforce and a performance 
management system that effectively differentiates between high and low 
performance and links individual, team, or unit performance to 
organizational goals and desired results.

* Talent management. The organization makes progress toward closing 
gaps or making up deficiencies in most mission-critical skills, 
knowledge, and competencies.

* Accountability. The organization's human capital decisions are guided 
by a data-driven, results-oriented planning and accountability system.

Our recent work has shown that DHS and other federal agencies, such as 
the Securities and Exchange Commission, have begun to use OPM's 
framework as the basis for preparing strategic IT and other human 
capital plans.[Footnote 26] According to DHS CIO officials, they used 
the OPM framework in developing the IT human capital plan that they 
included in the August 2006 report to Congress.

DHS IT Human Capital Plan and Related Documentation Largely Satisfy 
Relevant Guidance, but Several Key Practices Have Not Been Fully 
Addressed:

DHS has developed an IT human capital plan that is largely consistent 
with OPM guidance. Specifically, of 27 key practices in OPM's 
framework, the department's plan and related documentation fully 
address 15 practices and partially address the other 12, meaning that 
these 12 are missing elements that are essential to having a well- 
defined and executable plan. DHS officials responsible for developing 
the plan attributed the missing elements to, among other things, the 
department's decision to focus its resources on other IT priorities. 
These officials also stated that until the missing elements are fully 
addressed, it is unlikely that the plan will be effectively and 
efficiently implemented, which in turn will continue to put DHS at risk 
of not having sufficient people with the right knowledge, skills, and 
abilities to manage and deliver its mission-critical IT systems.

Examples of the key practices that DHS has fully and partially 
addressed in its IT human capital plan and related documentation, 
organized according to OPM's six standards for success, are given in 
the following text. Also, table 3 is a summary of the DHS plan's 
satisfaction of all 27 key practices. Appendix II contains our full 
analysis of the plan's satisfaction of these 27 practices. Both the 
summary and full analysis contain examples to demonstrate full or 
partial satisfaction of the practices. They do not contain all examples 
of DHS's accomplishments or limitations to a given key practice.

* Strategic alignment. DHS's plan and related documentation satisfy a 
number of strategic alignment practices. For example, they specify 
human capital goals for the IT organization and provide for linking 
them to departmental human capital goals. More specifically, the plan 
identifies such IT human capital goals as meeting current and future 
mission needs, recruiting a high-quality IT workforce, and motivating 
and retaining high performers. The plan further states that IT human 
capital programs and initiatives should produce performance outcomes 
that support the overall DHS strategic goal of operational excellence. 
In addition, the plan calls for involving key stakeholders--such as the 
CIO, the CHCO, and their component agency counterparts--in carrying out 
a range of workforce planning activities, such as conducting a 
workforce analysis, developing an inventory of current staff skills, 
and identifying the future skills that are needed for mission-critical 
positions. By addressing these key practices, the plan helps set the 
overall direction and tone for strategic management of IT human capital 
and lays a foundation for demonstrating management commitment and 
promoting buy-in across the organization.

However, the plan and related documentation do not fully satisfy other 
key practices. For example, they do not include specific milestones for 
when most defined activities and steps are to be completed. This is a 
serious limitation because milestones help to ensure that resources 
needed to execute plans are allocated, and they provide a basis for 
measuring progress. In addition, although the plan provides for 
involving key stakeholders, it does not assign stakeholders 
responsibility and accountability for specific activities. Without 
fully addressing these practices, the plan does not provide an adequate 
basis for promoting accountability for results, and thus ensuring that 
the plan will be effectively implemented.

* Workforce planning and deployment. The plan and related documentation 
satisfy a number of key practices in this standards area, including 
provision for incentives for new recruits, training for existing staff, 
and an exchange program to draw on private sector personnel with 
necessary skills. This is important because such practices are 
essential ingredients to acquiring, training, and deploying an 
effective workforce. However, the plan does not provide for regular 
collection and analysis of data on promotions, conversions, 
separations, and retirements to show an understanding of trends and 
related indicators of performance. Without this information, DHS will 
be limited in its ability to know whether the techniques being employed 
are effective, and thus performance results and accountability goals 
are being met.

* Leadership and knowledge management. DHS's plan and supporting 
documentation provide for a number of leadership and knowledge 
management practices. For example, DHS planning documents (e.g., DHS 
Succession Management Plan FY 2006-2009)[Footnote 27] supporting the IT 
human capital plan describe and encourage leadership development across 
all DHS components through application of the department's Leadership 
Competency Framework and succession approach to workforce planning 
efforts. The plan also identifies succession planning goals and 
objectives, implementation strategies, and program evaluation critical 
success factors to achieve expected leadership outcomes. These efforts 
are important because they show how the department and components plan 
for and minimize the impact of changes to its leadership team arising 
from retirements and separations.

However, the plan does not address how these activities are to be 
linked to and reflected in department annual performance plans and 
budgets. Having performance plans and budgets that address the IT human 
capital goals is vital to ensuring that the plan is properly funded to 
ensure implementation.

* Results-oriented performance culture. DHS's plan and supporting 
documentation satisfy key practice elements under this standards area, 
such as identifying outcome-based human capital goals for its IT 
workforce and linking these goals to departmental strategic plans. 
However, the plan does not address linking each work unit's efforts and 
performance to these goals. Linking the work units to goals is 
important because it provides a framework for setting performance 
expectations, determining whether expectations are met, and 
establishing accountability, each of which is critical to effective and 
efficient plan implementation.

* Talent management. DHS's plan addresses important practices related 
to talent management, including documenting mission-critical 
occupations, strategizing how to reduce competency gaps between the 
workforce's current skills and those needed to achieve mission goals, 
and tracking efforts to implement strategies. In particular, it 
provides for a monthly forum hosted by the IT Human Capital Resource 
Center for DHS components to share ideas and strategies for 
recruitment, retention, and training of their workforces. These 
initiatives are important because they provide a disciplined and 
systematic approach to identifying and reducing organizational skill 
shortfalls, and thus contribute to better ensuring that DHS has the 
right people with the right skills. However, neither the plan nor 
supporting documents fully provide for measuring whether its 
recruitment and training efforts are closing competency gaps. Such 
performance measurement is vital to effective plan implementation 
because it provides feedback on the effectiveness of efforts and the 
need for corrective action.

* Accountability. The plan addresses the key practice for establishing 
and using applicable merit principles and standards in appraising IT 
staff performance, and for establishing a process for employee 
grievances to be considered and addressed. However, the plan does not 
fully address other accountability-related practices. For example, it 
does not provide for proactively identifying where the department is at 
risk with regard to attaining its IT human capital goals and developing 
initiatives to mitigate any high risks. This is a significant omission 
because proactively managing risks is a proven means for avoiding 
problems before they can occur.

According to DHS officials responsible for developing the plan, the 12 
key practices were not fully addressed for several reasons. 
Specifically, they stated that uncertainty surrounding the source of 
resources for implementing the plan led to a lack of a clear definition 
of stakeholder roles and responsibilities, which in turn made setting 
realistic milestones impractical. They added that a number of other IT 
priorities that were competing for resources, such as consolidation of 
data centers, also contributed to the 12 practices not being addressed, 
while other omissions were purely an unintended oversight, such as not 
addressing central management of risks. According to the officials, the 
next version of the plan, which is tentatively scheduled to be released 
in the second quarter of fiscal year 2008 based on the assumption that 
resources are made available, is to address all of these omissions.

Without a comprehensive IT human capital plan, DHS does not have an 
effective means for ensuring that it has the right people in the right 
place at the right time to achieve the department's mission-related IT 
goals. The department has acknowledged this risk and estimates there is 
currently a medium-to-high level of risk of not meeting DHS's mission 
due to personnel and competency and skill shortages.[Footnote 28]

Table 3: Summary of Extent to which DHS's IT Human Capital Plan 
Satisfies 27 Key Practices in OPM's Framework:

Standard: Strategic alignment; 
Practice: Key stakeholders participate in the development and revision 
of the agency's strategic plan and facilitate workforce planning and 
analysis efforts; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully. 

Standard: Strategic alignment; 
Practice: The organization defines successful achievement of its 
mission in terms of valid and reliable data, including both long-and 
short-term human capital performance goals; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully. 

Standard: Strategic alignment; 
Practice: Trends in mission-critical occupations are analyzed in terms 
of suggested factors in order to continually adjust the agency's 
recruitment and retention strategy to its current state of need; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially. 

Standard: Strategic alignment; 
Practice: An integrated human capital planning process is in use, 
including representatives from the agency/unit human capital team, the 
primary IT human capital officer, and senior leaders and managers from 
mission-specific program areas; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully. 

Standard: Strategic alignment; 
Practice: Mission-critical occupations and competencies are identified 
in the agency's strategic plan and/or performance plan, and its 
strategic human capital plan; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially. 

Standard: Strategic alignment; 
Practice: The strategic human capital plan sets human capital progress 
milestones and identifies those responsible for meeting them; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially. 

Standard: Strategic alignment; 
Practice: Key human capital leaders and agency stakeholders utilize 
collaborative mechanisms/forums that provide a venue for consistent 
dialogue in the planning process (e.g., team members of review boards, 
working groups, or executive off-sites); 
Satisfied[A]: Fully. 

Standard: Strategic alignment; 
Practice: The agency has a documented change management process that 
identifies necessary human capital practices to achieve human capital 
objectives; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully. 

Standard: Strategic alignment; 
Practice: Studies indicate which occupations and competencies are 
essential to achieving the agency's strategic goals; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully. 

Standard: Strategic alignment; 
Practice: Line managers and key staff, including human resources, 
consider and prepare for possible workforce changes in areas such as 
mission/goals, technology, program additions or deletions, functions, 
and outsourcing initiatives; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully. 

Standard: Strategic alignment; 
Practice: Turnover indicators are monitored regularly; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully. 

Standard: Strategic alignment; 
Practice: A workforce analysis process is used on a regular basis for 
assessment and planning, and to drive human capital decisions;
Satisfied[A]: Partially. 

Standard: Strategic alignment; 
Practice: The agency has a clearly defined strategy and plan to 
facilitate human capital changes; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially. 

Standard: Workforce planning and deployment; 
Practice: Staffing data showing trends in appointments, promotions, 
conversions, separations, and retirements are analyzed regularly, and 
management decisions regarding workforce deployment are based on 
documented data; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially. 

Standard: Workforce planning and deployment; 
Practice: The agency uses multifaceted techniques to close competency 
gaps within the organization (e.g., strategic recruitment, midcareer 
hiring, and training);
Satisfied[A]: Fully.

Standard: Leadership and knowledge management; 
Practice: Leadership development and succession needs are considered, 
reflected in human capital plans and strategies, and addressed through 
related human capital management efforts/programs; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully.

Standard: Leadership and knowledge management; 
Practice: The agency has a strategy and plan for communication of human 
capital changes and progress, and to capture employee feedback related 
to human capital practices and needs;
Satisfied[A]: Fully. 

Standard: Leadership and knowledge management; 
Practice: Annual performance plans, budgets, and performance reports 
document plans for and progress toward human capital goals; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially.

Standard: Results-oriented performance culture; 
Practice: Work units have documented performance goals and objectives 
linked to the agency strategic plan and performance plan; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially. 

Standard: Talent management; 
Practice: The agency's strategic planning process documents and tracks 
mission-critical occupations and competency gap reduction efforts; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully. 

Standard: Talent management;  
Practice: Strategies are developed and implemented for reducing 
competency gaps through training, development, or alternative sources; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully.

Standard: Talent management; 
Practice: Staffing, training, and performance data indicate success in 
closing competency gaps; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially. 

Standard: Talent management; 
Practice: Recruitment strategies are created to maintain mission-
critical competencies at the desired level using business forecasting 
and workforce analysis results; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully. 

Standard: Accountability; 
Practice: Human capital risks are tracked, documented, and reported to 
a central advisory or management board, and action is taken to mitigate 
high-risk areas; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially. 

Standard: Accountability;
Practice: Applicable merit principles and standards are upheld, and 
employee grievances are considered and addressed; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully. 


Standard: Accountability;
Practice: Program and initiative implementation efforts include 
published plans that clearly outline periodic review of performance and 
desired outcomes; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially. 


Standard: Accountability;
Practice: Accountability for human capital improvements is clearly 
assigned and assessed regularly, and is an input into future planning 
and resource allocation decisions; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially. 

Standard: Total; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully: 15; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially: 12.

Source: GAO analysis of OPM and DHS data.

[A] "Fully satisfied" means that the agency demonstrated, through 
verifiable evidence, that it has addressed all aspects of the key 
practice. "Partially satisfied" means that such evidence shows that 
some, but not all, aspects of the key practice have been addressed.

[End of table]

DHS Has Made Limited Progress in Implementing Its IT Human Capital Plan:

The DHS departmental offices and component agencies that share 
responsibility for implementing the IT human capital plan have 
collectively made little progress in doing so. In general, the DHS 
Offices of the CHCO and the CIO have done more to implement the plan 
than have the DHS component agencies, as described in the following 
text. The plan's state of implementation is due to both a lack of 
clarity around the respective implementation-related roles and 
responsibilities of the various DHS organizations involved, as well as 
the lower funding priority that these organizations have given to the 
plan's implementation relative to other competing IT efforts. Until a 
complete and well-defined IT human capital plan is effectively and 
efficiently implemented, the department will continue to run the risk 
of not having the people it needs to leverage technology in achieving 
organizational transformation and mission goals.

At the department level, the CIO and the CHCO organizations, working 
with the CIO Council's Human Capital Resource Center, have together 
performed some of the tasks in the plan. For example, they have 
performed a gap analysis between existing and future skill needs and 
have begun examining strategies for reducing the identified gaps. They 
have also identified mission-critical occupations and skills necessary 
to achieve departmental goals. However, it is unclear which 
organization has primary responsibility for the plan. According to 
officials from both the Offices of the CHCO and the CIO, primary 
responsibility for the IT human capital plan and its implementation has 
recently moved from the CIO to the CHCO. However, these officials have 
yet to provide us with documentation of this transfer in responsibility.

Despite the previously noted positive steps toward implementing the 
plan, officials from the CIO and the CHCO offices told us that the plan 
is largely not implemented. For example, while DHS is collecting 
information on the number of increasing, decreasing, and new mission- 
critical occupations, it is not identifying and analyzing year-to-year 
changes and trends to determine whether recruitment and retention 
strategies need to be updated to meet current organizational needs. In 
addition, although the department has documented performance goals and 
objectives for some work units (e.g., managers in Customs and Border 
Protection) and linked them to department-level organizational goals, 
it had not done so for much of the department.

At the component level, none of the three agencies that we reviewed had 
begun implementing the plan, as described in the following text.

* The Coast Guard had not implemented the plan. According to Coast 
Guard officials, including the Director, Future Force, and the Chief of 
Human Resource Information Services, they were aware of the plan's 
existence, but were unaware of any requirement to implement it. 
However, they stated that their own human capital efforts satisfy 
everything in the plan. For example, these officials said that they had 
performed workforce analyses to determine skill and competency gaps and 
have employed a range of strategies, such as strategic recruitment 
through direct hiring authority and internal training, to fill the 
gaps. The Coast Guard has yet to provide us with documentation to 
substantiate these statements.

* Customs and Border Protection had not implemented the plan, although 
officials from its Office of Information Technology and the Office of 
Human Resources Management told us that they were aware of the plan and 
the need to implement it. According to these officials, the agency is 
in the process of developing a strategy to implement the plan. They 
also stated that the strategy was to be completed in June 2007, but it 
is still under development. On August 30, 2007, the officials reported 
that the strategy had been completed. We have not yet received the 
strategy and had an opportunity to analyze it.

* The Federal Emergency Management Agency had not implemented the plan. 
Agency officials, including the Deputy CIO and the Chief of the Human 
Capital Branch, stated that they were aware of the plan but were 
unaware of a requirement to implement it. They also stated that their 
agency human capital efforts nevertheless were fully consistent with 
the plan. However, the officials have yet to provide analysis and 
related documentation to support these statements. In addition, the 
officials added that they are in the process of developing an 
agencywide human capital plan--addressing both IT and non-IT personnel-
-that is to be consistent with the plan and is to be issued on October 
1, 2007.[Footnote 29]

The lack of implementation progress can be attributed in part to 
ambiguity surrounding implementation roles and responsibilities. In 
particular, the plan itself is in large part silent on implementation 
roles and responsibilities as well as implementation accountability 
mechanisms. Moreover, as we have previously noted, the plan does not 
address important aspects of OPM's key practices that are 
implementation related. To help clarify the plan, including 
implementation roles and responsibilities, the DHS CIO Council's Human 
Capital Resource Center developed an implementation briefing and 
provided it to the CIO Council members in November 2005. However, the 
briefing does not assign specific implementation activities to specific 
organizations. Rather, it groups implementation activities into 
solution sets and then broadly assigns these sets to department and 
component agency CIOs, CHCOs, and human capital directors. As a result, 
department and component agency officials told us that they were not 
clear on who was responsible for what, particularly with regard to the 
sources of funding and staff. Moreover, as we have previously noted, 
officials for at least one component agency were not even aware that 
they were required to implement it, or what their roles and 
responsibilities were relative to implementation.

The lack of implementation progress can also be attributed to resources 
being assigned to competing IT initiatives that were judged to be 
higher priorities. According to DHS CIO officials, including the CIO 
Council senior executive leading the effort, when it came time to fund 
implementation of the plan, the department and components decided to 
fund other priorities, such as DHS's effort to consolidate multiple 
component data centers and create a unified departmental network. 
Furthermore, the IT Human Capital Resource Center program manager 
responsible for implementing the plan resigned in January 2006, and his 
replacement left in November 2006. According to DHS CIO and CHCO 
officials, the department has not provided funding to fill the 
position, which still remains vacant.

Department and component officials agreed that the IT human capital 
plan is largely not implemented. However, they stated that they are 
nonetheless following many of the OPM framework practices in the plan 
as a by-product of fulfilling their periodic reporting requirements to 
OMB on the President's Management Agenda[Footnote 30] human capital 
initiatives. Specifically, the department and its components are 
required to report quarterly to OMB on progress in meeting certain 
human capital goals, such as filling mission-critical positions and 
delivering training to strengthen key IT knowledge, skills, and 
abilities. For example, the actions reported to OMB require the 
department and components to identify mission-critical occupations and 
competencies, develop recruitment strategies to maintain mission- 
critical competencies at desired levels, and report on progress toward 
achieving human capital goals, which are also called for by the plan 
and OPM's framework. Our analysis showed that efforts related to this 
reporting requirement align with about 12 of the 27 practices that we 
examined. DHS officials did not disagree with this analysis. This means 
that despite a number of IT human capital-related activities, the 
department and its component agencies are not implementing the full 
range of practices needed for effective management of IT human capital.

Conclusions:

An effective DHS IT workforce is essential to the department's efforts 
to leverage technology in transforming itself and achieving mission 
goals and outcomes. Central to creating and sustaining such a workforce 
is developing a comprehensive IT human capital plan that reflects 
relevant guidance and best practices, and ensuring that the plan is 
effectively implemented. While much of such a plan has been developed, 
and thus a planning foundation exists upon which to build, this plan is 
nevertheless lacking with respect to relevant guidance and best 
practices aimed at, among other things, ensuring that the plan is 
effectively implemented. Moreover, actual implementation of the plan to 
date has been limited, with much remaining to be accomplished by the 
department CIO and CHCO organizations as well as their DHS component 
agency counterparts. The status of the plan and its implementation is 
largely attributable to the lack of clarity surrounding implementation 
roles and responsibilities, and the lack of priority being given to the 
plan's implementation relative to competing IT priorities at the 
department and component agency levels. Until DHS has a comprehensive 
plan and follows through to ensure that it is effectively implemented 
departmentwide, it will remain challenged in its ability to have 
sufficient people with the right knowledge, skills, and abilities to 
effectively leverage technology in support of transformation and 
mission goals.

Recommendations for Executive Action:

To strengthen DHS's management of IT human capital, we recommend that 
the Secretary of Homeland Security direct the Under Secretary for 
Management and the head of each DHS component agency to instruct their 
respective CIOs and human capital directors to make development and 
implementation of a comprehensive IT human capital plan an imperative 
within each organization. In this regard, we recommend that the 
Secretary direct the Under Secretary and the component agency heads to 
ensure that (1) IT human capital planning efforts fully satisfy 
relevant federal guidance and related best practices, (2) roles and 
responsibilities for implementing the resulting IT human capital plan 
and all supporting plans are clearly defined and understood, (3) 
resources needed to effectively and efficiently implement the plans are 
made available, and (4) progress in implementing the plans is regularly 
measured and periodically reported to DHS leadership and Congress.

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:

In written comments on a draft of this report, signed by the Director, 
Departmental GAO/Office of Inspector General Liaison and reprinted in 
appendix III, the department stated that it agreed with our 
recommendations. Consistent with our report, it also stated that the 
state of IT human capital management varies widely across DHS component 
organizations, and it acknowledged that a lower priority has been 
assigned to IT human capital relative to other IT-related matters. In 
addition, DHS stated that it understands the importance of IT human 
capital planning and that it will dedicate the resources needed to 
ensure that it has a highly skilled and effective IT workforce.

DHS also provided what it termed additional information about ongoing 
and planned activities to update and clarify the status of its IT human 
capital efforts, particularly with regard to the key practices that we 
determined to be "partially satisfied." Among other things, DHS stated 
that some of our determinations were based on the DHS IT Human Capital 
Strategic Plan (2005), which was not intended to include certain 
details relative to achieving results, such as milestones, time frames, 
and roles and responsibilities. According to DHS, this plan is a high- 
level strategy and not a "blueprint for execution." Rather, it said 
that the IT Gap Analysis Report and Improvement Plan (2007) is the 
department's "operative diagram" for achieving its human capital goals 
and results. We agree that the IT Gap Analysis Report and Improvement 
Plan (2007) is relevant to our determinations. However, we disagree 
that our determinations were based solely on the strategic plan. As 
described in our report's scope and methodology, our determinations 
were based on examining all relevant documentation that the department 
provided for each key practice, including the IT Gap Analysis Report 
and Improvement Plan (2007), as well as on interviews with key 
officials from DHS's Offices of the CIO and CHCO, the CIO Council 
executive sponsor for Human Capital issues, and officials from the 
department's IT Human Capital Resource Center. Accordingly, the 
determinations in our draft report already recognized most of the 
additional information that DHS provided. In cases where new 
information was provided, we have incorporated, or otherwise 
recognized, this information in our report as appropriate.

We are sending copies of this report to the Chairmen and Ranking 
Members of the Senate and House committees that have authorization and 
oversight responsibilities for homeland security and other interested 
congressional committees. We are also sending copies to the Directors 
of OMB and OPM; the DHS Secretary, Undersecretary for Management, CHCO, 
and CIO; the component agency heads; and other interested parties. In 
addition, the report will also be available without charge on GAO's Web 
site at [Hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov].

Should you have any questions about matters discussed in this report, 
please contact me at (202) 512-3439 or by e-mail at hiter@gao.gov. 
Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public 
Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. Key contributors 
to this report are listed in appendix IV.

Signed by:

Randolph C. Hite:
Director, Information Technology Architecture and Systems Issues:

[End of section]

Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology:

The objectives of our review were to determine (1) whether the 
Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) information technology (IT) 
human capital plan is consistent with federal guidance and associated 
best practices and (2) the status of the plan's implementation.

To address our first objective, we reviewed the department's May 20, 
2005, IT human capital plan,[Footnote 31] which DHS labeled as "Draft 
Final for Discussion Purposes" and submitted on August 30, 2006, to the 
Senate and House Appropriations Committees pursuant to requirements in 
DHS's fiscal year 2006 appropriations act. We evaluated this plan and 
supporting documentation against selected practices in the Office of 
Personnel Management's (OPM) Human Capital Assessment and 
Accountability Framework.[Footnote 32] We used this framework because 
it is the federal guidance that DHS used in developing its plan, and 
because the framework reflects the human capital best practices in 
GAO's strategic human capital model.[Footnote 33] In addition, this 
framework provides a method for assessing the adequacy of a human 
capital plan. In applying this method, we focused on 27 practices in 
the framework that are essential to a well-defined and useful plan and 
that span the six standards areas in the framework.[Footnote 34] We 
also validated our use of the 27 practices with OPM.

Using the framework's method, we compared the DHS IT human capital plan 
and supporting documentation with each of the elements comprising the 
27 practices.[Footnote 35] We also interviewed (1) officials from DHS's 
Offices of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the Chief Human 
Capital Officer (CHCO); (2) the CIO Council executive sponsor for Human 
Capital issues; and (3) officials from the department's IT Human 
Capital Resource Center, which helped develop the IT human capital plan 
and supporting documentation. In performing our comparative analysis, 
we determined if the practice was fully satisfied, partially satisfied, 
or not satisfied. For purposes of this review, we defined "fully 
satisfied" to mean that the agency demonstrated, through verifiable 
evidence, that it had addressed all aspects of the key practice; 
"partially satisfied" to mean that such evidence showed that some, but 
not all, aspects of the key practice had been addressed; and "not 
satisfied" to mean that such evidence showed that none of the aspects 
of the key practice had been addressed.

In addition, we shared all of our preliminary determinations with 
officials from the DHS CIO Council and the DHS Office of the CHCO and 
provided them with an opportunity to comment on these determinations. 
These officials agreed with many of our determinations but also 
provided additional evidence to support revising others, which we have 
done and incorporated in this report.

For our second objective, we reviewed plan implementation activities 
within the DHS Offices of the CIO and the CHCO and three DHS component 
agencies: the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, and the 
Federal Emergency Management Administration. We selected these 
components because based on DHS's fiscal year 2006 budget, they were 
among the largest with respect to total budget, IT budget, and IT staff 
positions. Thus, the scope of our component agency coverage extended to 
about $20 billion of DHS's $40 billion total budget; $720 million of 
the department's $2.2 billion IT budget; and 60 percent[Footnote 36] of 
its IT personnel. In each of these organizations, we requested and 
reviewed available documentation on its respective efforts to implement 
the plan, including development of supporting implementation plans, 
completion of tasks, and the status of ongoing efforts related to IT 
human capital. We also interviewed responsible officials from DHS's 
Offices of the CIO and the CHCO; the Coast Guard's Human Resources 
Directorate; Customs and Border Protection's Office of Human Resources 
Management; and the Federal Emergency Management Administration's 
Office of the CIO and its Office of Human Resources Management.

We performed our work at DHS headquarters in Washington, D.C., from 
October 2006 through July 2007, in accordance with generally accepted 
government auditing standards.

[End of section]

Appendix II: Details on IT Human Capital Plan's Satisfaction of 
Practices in OPM's Framework:

Key practice: Strategic alignment; 
Key stakeholders participate in the development and revision of the 
agency's strategic plan (e.g., DHS's IT human capital plan) and 
facilitate workforce planning and analysis efforts; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully; 
Comment: Key stakeholders--identified by DHS as including the CIO, the 
CHCO, component agency CIO and human capital directors, and the IT 
Human Capital Resource Center--participated in the development of the 
department's IT human capital plan and workforce planning and analysis 
efforts. For example, in March 2005, DHS held an off-site meeting with 
these stakeholders to facilitate collaboration and to gather 
stakeholder input as part of plan development efforts. DHS's IT human 
capital plan also states that the department intends to involve these 
stakeholders in efforts to periodically revise the plan to reflect 
current priorities and conditions. Furthermore, the plan and supporting 
documentation identify these stakeholders as participating in analyzing 
and identifying the department's workforce needs and in developing a 
departmentwide workforce plan to fill identified gaps.

Key practice: Strategic alignment;
The organization defines successful achievement of its mission in terms 
of valid and reliable data, including both long-and short-term human 
capital performance goals; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully; 
Comment: In its IT human capital plan and supporting documentation, DHS 
defines accomplishing its near-term and long-term IT human capital 
goals and objectives in terms of qualitative and quantitative measures 
that are to be based on valid and reliable data, and links them to 
accomplishing DHS's mission. Specifically, the plan identifies 
departmental human capital goals, such as recruiting a high-quality IT 
workforce, training its IT workforce to be capable, and retaining high 
performers. It also describes how these goals support the strategic 
goal of empowering the IT workforce and how this helps to achieve DHS's 
mission.

Key practice: Strategic alignment;
Trends in mission-critical occupations are analyzed in terms of 
suggested factors in order to continually adjust the agency's 
recruitment and retention strategy to its current state of need; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially; 
Comment: In the IT human capital plan and supporting documentation, the 
department provides updates for fiscal years 2004 and 2005 on, for 
example, the number of mission-critical occupations that are 
increasing, decreasing, or new. However, the plan and supporting 
documentation generally do not identify and analyze the year-to-year 
trends. For example, supporting documentation (e.g., the DHS Workforce 
Plan FY 2005-2008) has data for 2003 and 2004, but the year-to-year 
changes and trends in occupations are not identified and analyzed to 
determine whether the recruitment and retention strategy needs to be 
updated to meet the current state of organizational need. In addition, 
while DHS officials noted an example of one component agency 
(Transportation Security Administration) adjusting its recruitment and 
retention strategy to meet the current state of need, they stated that 
most components are not adjusting recruitment strategies on the basis 
of available occupation data.

Key practice: Strategic alignment;
An integrated human capital planning process is in use, including 
representatives from the agency/unit human capital team, the primary IT 
human capital officer, and senior leaders and managers from mission-
specific program areas; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully; 
Comment: DHS's IT human capital plan and supporting documentation 
identify use of a human capital planning process that includes 
stakeholders from across the department and component agencies. For 
example, in developing the IT human capital plan, the department used a 
process involving representatives from the department's CHCO, CIO, and 
component offices, among others. This was also the case with regard to 
other supporting documentation. For example, in developing the DHS 
Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008, the department brought together 
stakeholders from across the department to collaborate on and produce 
this product. This workforce plan also defines a human capital planning 
process whose stated purpose is to help identify, in an integrated and 
cost-effective manner, the human capital resources needed to meet 
mission goals and develop strategies for developing or acquiring those 
resources.

Key practice: Strategic alignment;
Mission-critical occupations and competencies are identified in the 
agency's strategic plan and/or performance plan, and its strategic 
human capital plan; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially; 
Comment: Although documentation supporting DHS's IT human capital plan 
identifies mission-critical occupations (e.g., IT project managers and 
IT security specialists), the IT human capital plan and other DHS 
strategic and human capital plans do not. Specifically, DHS's IT Human 
Capital Plan to Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps and the DHS 
Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008 identify technical competencies and skills 
needed for IT occupations. However, the DHS IT human capital plan and 
the departmentwide strategic and human capital plans do not identify 
mission-critical IT occupations and competencies.

Key practice: Strategic alignment;
The strategic human capital plan sets human capital progress milestones 
and identifies those responsible for meeting them; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially; 
Comment: While documents supporting DHS's IT human capital plan (e.g., 
the November 2005 implementation briefing and the May 2007 IT Gap 
Analysis Report and Improvement Plan) include milestones and assign 
roles and responsibilities, neither these documents nor the IT human 
capital plan include specific time frames or milestones for when most 
defined activities and steps are to be completed. In addition, although 
the supporting documents and the plan provide for involving key 
stakeholders, they do not assign stakeholders responsibility and 
accountability for specific activities.

Key practice: Strategic alignment;
Key human capital leaders and agency stakeholders utilize collaborative 
mechanisms/forums that provide a venue for consistent dialogue in the 
planning process (e.g., team members of review boards, working groups, 
or executive off-sites); 
Satisfied[A]: Fully;
Comment: DHS's IT human capital plan and supporting documentation 
describe the department's collaborative mechanisms and forums for 
planning strategic human capital activities. They include, for example, 
the DHS CIO Council, which is made up of component agency CIOs and 
which has monthly meetings to discuss, among other things, human 
capital matters. The council used this forum and off-site meetings to 
collaborate with the DHS CHCO office, the IT Human Capital Resource 
Center, and component human capital directors, among others, in 
developing the IT human capital plan. In addition, the department tasks 
the Human Capital Resource Center to bring together representatives 
from DHS and the components on a monthly basis to share ideas and 
strategies on emerging IT human capital issues. Furthermore, DHS 
established a Workforce Planning Council, comprising department and 
component agency officials, to develop a workforce plan and provide for 
analysis across DHS.

Key practice: Strategic alignment;
The agency has a documented change management process that identifies 
necessary human capital practices to achieve human capital objectives; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully; 
Comment: In the IT human capital plan and supporting documentation, DHS 
documents a change management process that identifies human capital 
practices needed to achieve the department's human capital objectives. 
For example, in the DHS Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008, the department 
describes its change management process that includes steps such as 
identifying departmental goals, identifying workforce requirements, 
developing a workforce strategy, and evaluating the effectiveness of 
the planning process. In addition, the IT human capital plan identifies 
certain practices--such as analyzing workforce needs and capabilities, 
developing an IT training strategy, implementing an IT leadership 
development program, and developing performance measures for 
accountability--as being critical to achieving DHS human capital 
objectives. Moreover, supporting documentation (e.g., DHS's November 
2005 implementation briefing) identifies traceable linkages between the 
practices it is intended to implement and IT human capital goals and 
objectives.

Key practice: Strategic alignment;
Studies indicate which occupations and competencies are essential to 
achieving the agency's strategic goals; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully; 
Comment: Documentation supporting the IT human capital plan (e.g., 
DHS's IT Human Capital Plan to Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps) 
identifies occupations and competencies to achieve the agency's 
strategic goals. For example, the department identified competencies 
within IT project management, information security, and enterprise 
architecture as being critical to achieving the department's mission 
goals.

Key practice: Strategic alignment;
Line managers and key staff, including human resources, consider and 
prepare for possible workforce changes in areas such as mission/goals, 
technology, program additions or deletions, functions, and outsourcing 
initiatives; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully; 
Comment: DHS's IT human capital plan and supporting documentation 
include guidance for managers and key staff to consider, plan, and 
prepare for changes in the department's mission, programs, and 
workforce composition. Specifically, DHS's IT human capital plan states 
that DHS managers should consider and prepare for changes in 
organizational goals, personnel, and technology. In addition, 
supporting documentation (e.g., the DHS Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008) 
acknowledges the possibility of workforce changes due to retirements 
and attrition. The workforce plan also states that it will serve as an 
integrated approach for addressing future business needs, and 
identifies steps that department managers should go through in planning 
for changes, including considering how changes will impact mission 
goals, programs, functions, and workforce composition. The workforce 
plan also states that managers should consider using alternative 
strategies, such as outsourcing.

Key practice: Strategic alignment;
Turnover indicators are monitored regularly; Satisfied[A]: Fully: 
Comment: Documentation supporting the IT human capital plan 
(specifically, the DHS Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008) identifies several 
factors to be monitored, including appointments, separations, and 
retirements, and assigns the responsibility for monitoring the factors 
to the department's Office of the CHCO. This documentation also reports 
on the department's appointments, separations, and retirements during 
fiscal years 2004 and 2005.

Key practice: Strategic alignment;
A workforce analysis process is used on a regular basis for assessment 
and planning, and to drive human capital decisions; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially; 
Comment: The IT human capital plan and supporting documentation show 
that DHS uses a workforce analysis process for human capital 
assessment, planning, and decisions. For example, supporting 
documentation (e.g., the DHS Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008) identifies 
workforce trends analyzed among cross-cutting and high-profile mission- 
critical occupations and the process established and followed to 
develop such trend data. Furthermore, the documentation also shows that 
DHS established a Workforce Planning Council that is responsible for 
ensuring that workforce planning and human capital initiatives are 
integrated consistently and cost-effectively across DHS. According to 
DHS CHCO officials, the department intends to conduct workforce 
analysis efforts every 2 years. However, these officials also report 
that not all components are using the workforce data on a regular basis 
to drive human capital decisions.

Key practice: Strategic alignment;
The agency has a clearly defined strategy and plan to facilitate human 
capital changes; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially; 
Comment: The IT human capital plan and supporting documents clearly 
identify human capital strategies and goals, but do not fully provide 
for how and when human capital changes will be made. For example, the 
plan defines strategic goals and objectives and states that an 
implementation plan is to be developed and executed with performance 
measures, such as milestones, deadlines, and assignment of personnel 
responsible for achieving them. However, as we have previously 
discussed, DHS developed such a plan in November 2005 (i.e., the 
November 2005 implementation briefing) and later updated it in the May 
2007 IT Gap Analysis Report and Improvement Plan, but these documents 
do not include specific time frames or milestones for when most defined 
activities and steps are to be completed. In addition, although the 
document provides for involving key stakeholders, it does not assign 
stakeholders responsibility and accountability for specific activities.

Key practice: Workforce planning and deployment; 
Staffing data showing trends in appointments, promotions, conversions, 
separations, and retirements are analyzed regularly, and management 
decisions regarding workforce deployment are based on documented data; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially; 
Comment: The IT human capital plan and supporting documentation include 
analyses of staffing data for appointments, separations, and 
retirements that are reported to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) on a quarterly basis. In addition, these documents (e.g., the DHS 
Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008) include workforce trends analyses among 
cross-cutting and mission- critical occupations. However, trends in 
these data are not fully analyzed, and, according to DHS CHCO 
officials, not all components are using the data on a regular basis to 
drive human capital decisions.

Key practice: Workforce planning and deployment; 
The agency uses multifaceted techniques to close competency gaps within 
the organization (e.g., strategic recruitment, midcareer hiring, and 
training); 
Satisfied[A]: Fully; 
Comment: The IT human capital plan and supporting documentation provide 
for a variety of recruitment and training techniques to be used in 
closing competency gaps. For example, supporting documents (e.g., DHS's 
IT Human Capital Plan to Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps) 
describe efforts planned and under way to mitigate gaps using strategic 
recruitment through outsourcing, private/public cross training, 
internal training, and e-training.

Key practice: Leadership and knowledge management;
Leadership development and succession needs are considered, reflected 
in human capital plans and strategies, and addressed through related 
human capital management efforts/programs; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully; 
Comment: The IT human capital plan and supporting documentation, in 
particular DHS's Succession Management Plan FY 2006-2009, describe 
practices to be followed in developing the leadership skills of DHS 
personnel. These documents also identify succession planning goals and 
objectives, implementation strategies, and program evaluation critical 
success factors to measure whether expected outcomes are being achieved.

Key practice: Leadership and knowledge management;
The agency has a strategy and plan for communication of human capital 
changes and progress, and to capture employee feedback related to human 
capital practices and needs; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully; 
Comment: In its IT human capital plan and supporting documentation, DHS 
identifies strategies and plans for communicating changes and progress 
to employees. For example, the IT human capital plan includes 
initiatives to improve communication on human capital changes and 
progress, such as developing training materials and courses to educate 
supervisors on how to (1) take advantage of hiring flexibilities; (2) 
promote the use and accessibility of departmentwide training 
opportunities, including e- learning; and (3) provide Web-based 
information on training and human capital policies and procedures. In 
addition, supporting documentation, such as the DHS Workforce Plan FY 
2005-2008, includes a communications plan on how to keep DHS personnel 
informed on workforce changes, including the department's progress in 
implementing them. Furthermore, according to DHS CHCO and CIO 
officials, the department captures employee feedback on its practices 
through representatives to the IT Human Capital Resource Center and 
also through annual IT staff surveys.

Key practice: Leadership and knowledge management;
Annual performance plans, budgets, and performance reports document 
plans for and progress toward human capital goals; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially; 
Comment: As directed by OMB, DHS reports quarterly on its progress on 
human capital goals. However, DHS's IT human capital plan and 
supporting documentation do not provide for developing annual 
performance plans, budget documents, or performance reports that 
discuss plans for and progress against human capital goals. In 
addition, the information reported to OMB is primarily on DHS efforts 
to close IT competencies and skills gaps, which is just one of the 
multiple goals and objectives in DHS's plan and supporting 
documentation.

Key practice: Results-oriented performance culture;
Work units have documented performance goals and objectives linked to 
the agency strategic plan and performance plan; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially; 
Comment: Although DHS's IT human capital plan and related documentation 
support having measurable performance goals for work units, such 
performance plans and measures have not been fully developed. For 
example, DHS CIO and CHCO officials stated that although the department 
has documented performance goals and objectives for some work units 
(e.g., managers in Customs and Border Protection) and linked them to 
department-level organizational goals, it had not done so for much of 
the department. Specifically, only managers in the DHS CHCO's office 
and also at Customs and Border Protection have performance objectives 
that are linked to strategic plans.

Key practice: Talent management;
The agency's strategic planning process documents and tracks mission-
critical occupations and competency gap-reduction efforts;
Satisfied[A]: Fully; 
Comment: DHS's IT human capital plan and supporting documentation 
provide details on the department's strategic planning process, 
including the reporting and tracking of mission-critical occupations 
and efforts to reduce competency gaps. For example, in supporting 
documentation (e.g., the DHS Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008), the 
department describes a workforce planning process that is to help 
identify the human capital resources needed to meet mission goals and 
develop strategies for developing or acquiring those resources. In 
addition, other supporting documentation (e.g., the IT Human Capital 
Plan to Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps) identifies mission- 
critical IT occupations and high-level efforts needed to close its 
competency gaps. The department uses its OMB quarterly reports to 
document and track the status of efforts to close those competency gaps.

Key practice: Talent management;
Strategies are developed and implemented for reducing competency gaps 
through training, development, or alternative sources; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully; 
Comment: As described in its IT human capital plan and supporting 
documentation, DHS's strategies to close its competency gaps consist of 
a number of human capital initiatives, including training, staff 
development, and an outside executive exchange program. Specifically, 
DHS's IT Human Capital Plan to Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps 
details planned and ongoing efforts to mitigate gaps using, for 
example, strategic recruitment through outsourcing, private/public 
cross training, internal training, and e-training.

Key practice: Talent management;
Staffing, training, and performance data indicate success in closing 
competency gaps; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially; 
Comment: The IT human capital plan and supporting documentation state 
that data on its progress toward meeting human capital goals will be 
reported to OMB and DHS management as required; they do not, however, 
specify what data are to be reported. The department reports quarterly 
to OMB on the status of efforts to close competency gaps. In addition, 
a recently completed (May 2007) DHS workforce survey and gap 
analysis[B] identify existing IT competency gaps, but do not indicate 
any progress in closing them. According to DHS CHCO and CIO officials, 
the department to date has had limited resources and data available to 
assess the effectiveness of ongoing efforts to close competency gaps. 
They further stated that they intend to use the newly completed 
analysis as a baseline for measuring the success of future efforts.

Key practice: Talent management;
Recruitment strategies are created to maintain mission-critical 
competencies at the desired level using business forecasting and 
workforce analysis results; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully; 
Comment: Documentation supporting DHS's IT human capital plan provides 
for developing recruiting strategies based on workforce forecasting and 
analysis results. For example, the DHS Workforce Plan FY 2005-2008 
states that the department is to use a strategic approach to 
recruitment and workforce planning. In addition, it identifies a DHS 
corporate recruitment workgroup, which includes senior human resources 
and civil rights staff throughout DHS, who are to assess departmentwide 
recruitment activities and tools; coordinate participation in 
recruitment fairs; and develop recruitment strategies and activities 
for crosscutting occupations, primarily entry-level positions. In May 
2007, the department developed an improvement plan that provides 
updated strategies for addressing competency gaps and maintaining 
mission-critical competencies. This plan is based on the analysis of a 
recently completed workforce survey.

Key practice: Accountability;
Human capital risks are tracked, documented, and reported to a central 
advisory or management board, and action is taken to mitigate high-risk 
areas; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially; 
Comment: Documents supporting DHS's IT human capital plan (e.g., the IT 
Human Capital Plan to Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps and the IT 
Gap Analysis Report and Improvement Plan) identify and document some 
but not all key human capital risks and do not provide for reporting 
risks to management or a management board. More specifically, these 
plans document that failure to fill critical competency and skill sets 
(e.g., IT project management and IT security) poses a medium-to-high 
human capital risk to DHS's ability to achieve mission goals. However, 
DHS CHCO and CIO officials acknowledged that the department does not 
track these risks through any formal mechanism. In addition, they 
stated that DHS has not established a comprehensive effort to identify 
and track the full range of human capital risks facing the department, 
as well as reporting those risks to management or a central advisory or 
management board.

Key practice: Accountability;
Applicable merit principles and standards are upheld, and employee 
grievances are considered and addressed; 
Satisfied[A]: Fully; 
Comment: DHS's IT human capital plan and supporting documentation 
provide for the application and enforcement of merit principles and 
standards and for considering and addressing employee grievances. For 
example, the plan recognizes that the department has legislative and 
regulatory requirements to implement performance-based management 
practices, including merit principles and standards, for its IT 
workforce. In addition, an OPM analysis of DHS's human resources 
management operations reports that the department's human resources 
management operates in a consistent manner with merit principles.[C] 
Moreover, DHS has a policy directive that defines the process for 
administering its employee grievance system. The department also 
regularly reports to management and employees on the number of 
grievances filed and resolved as well as the number of cases 
outstanding.

Key practice: Accountability;
Program and initiative implementation efforts include published plans 
that clearly outline periodic review of performance and desired 
outcomes; 
Satisfied[A]: Partially; 
Comment: DHS's IT human capital plan and supporting documentation 
provide for performance reviews of desired outcomes. For example, 
supporting documentation (specifically, DHS's IT Human Capital Plan to 
Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps and IT Gap Analysis Report and 
Improvement Plan) provides analyses and snapshots of the department's 
performance in trying to close gaps in mission-critical competencies. 
However, these competency gap snapshots do not constitute a 
comprehensive review and evaluation of progress against all of the 
objectives established in the human capital plan. In addition, DHS's IT 
human capital plan and supporting documentation do not clearly outline 
or identify time frames for periodic review. DHS CHCO and CIO officials 
stated that they intend to address this in future revisions to the plan.

Key practice: Accountability;
Accountability for human capital improvements is clearly assigned and 
assessed regularly, and is an input into future planning and resource 
allocation decisions; 
Satisfied[A]:Partially; 
Comment: DHS's IT human capital plan does not clearly assign 
accountability for human capital improvements or provide for regular 
assessments of that accountability. However, documents supporting the 
plan (specifically, the department's November 2005 implementation 
briefing and the May 2007 IT Gap Analysis Report and Improvement Plan) 
do assign accountability and responsibility for human capital 
improvements. For example, the documents assign accountability to the 
DHS CHCO, DHS CIO, and component agency heads to make improvements 
related to closing selected competency gaps. However, the documents do 
not provide for assessing accountability on a regular basis and using 
the results as an input into future planning and resource allocation 
decisions. DHS CHCO and CIO officials stated that while data related to 
competency gaps are used as an input, data regarding accountability are 
not. 

Source: GAO analysis of OPM and DHS data. 

[A] "Fully satisfied" means that the agency demonstrated, through 
verifiable evidence, that it has addressed all aspects of the key 
practice. "Partially satisfied" means that such evidence shows that 
some, but not all, aspects of the key practice have been addressed.

[B] DHS, Office of the Chief Information Officer/Office of the Chief 
Human Capital Officer, IT Gap Analysis Report and Improvement Plan (May 
1, 2007). 

[C] OPM, Department of Homeland Security: Human Resources Operations 
Audit Report Q2 FY 2006 (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 23, 2006). 

[End of table] 

[End of section] 

Appendix III: Comments from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security:

U.S. Department of Homeland Security: 
Washington, DC 20528: 

Homeland Security:
August 30, 2007:

Mr. Randolph C. Hite:
Director, Information Technology:
Architecture and Systems Issues:
U.S. Government Accountability Office: 
441 G Street, N.W.:
Washington, DC 20548"

Dear Mr. Hite:

RE: Draft Report GAO-07-425, Information Technology: DHS's Human 
Capital Plan Is Largely Consistent with Relevant Guidance, but 
Improvements and Implementation Steps Still Needed (GAO Job Code 310632)

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appreciates the opportunity 
to review and comment on the draft report referenced above. Based on 
our review, the Department concurs with the recommendations. However, 
we offer the following additional information which we believe will 
help clarify and update the current status:

1. Although human capital and workforce planning efforts in DHS have 
been fairly decentralized in the past, yielding programs that vary 
widely in maturity and effectiveness, DHS has recently issued a 
Workforce Planning Guide to educate all managers, including Information 
Technology (IT) managers, on the tools and techniques for effective 
human capital and workforce planning. The Guide incorporates relevant 
federal guidance and best practices from several Federal agencies.

2. To facilitate future workforce planning efforts within DHS, the 
Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer is also collaborating with 
DHS offices/components to develop the following human capital 
management tools and programs:

* E-Recruitment, to include workforce data analysis tools: 
* Automated Competency Assessments for Mission Critical Occupations: 
* Competency-based Qualifications for 115 DHS Occupations: 
* Component and Corporate Intern Programs: 
* Career Path Programs: 
* Workforce Planning Training, and the: 
* DHScovery Learning Program

Some of the U.S. Government Accountability Office's (GAO's) 
observations were based on its interpretation of the DHS IT Human 
Capital Strategic Plan (2005), a high-level strategy document for 
achieving human capital goals, as opposed to a tactical or operational 
plan that outlines intricate details for achieving results. The GAO 
mentioned a lack of milestones, time frames, responsible parties and 
other problems in this document. The purpose of the DHS IT Human 
Capital Strategic Plan was to paint a broad picture of IT workforce 
strategy, not to draw a blueprint for execution.

3. We acknowledge that IT-related strategic and business priorities 
have shifted from human capital planning to building and strengthening 
DHS' information technology infrastructure. However, despite pressing 
fiscal constraints, DHS continues to dedicate resources towards 
reducing skill and competency gaps in our information technology 
occupations.

4. The IT Gap Analysis Report and Improvement Plan (2007) is the 
current diagram for achieving human capital goals. DHS is accountable 
to the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and 
Budget for ensuring that specified competency targets are achieved en a 
quarterly basis.

We have separately provided technical comments with respect to those 
key practices determined to be "partially satisfied" by the GAO.

We understand the importance of IT human capital planning and will 
continue to dedicate resources to ensure a highly skilled and effective 
IT workforce that can meet the challenges required to protect the 
homeland.

Sincerely,

Signed by: 

Steven J. Pecinovsky Director:
Departmental GAO/OIG Liaison Office:

[End of section]

Appendix IV: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments:

GAO Contact:

Randolph C. Hite, (202) 512-3439, or hiter@gao.gov:

Staff Acknowledgments:

In addition to the individual named above, Gerard Aflague, Mathew 
Bader, Justin Booth, Barbara Collier, S. Mike Davis, Bill Doherty 
(Assistant Director), and Gary Mountjoy (Assistant Director) made key 
contributions to this report.

[End of section]

Footnotes: 

[1] GAO, High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-07-310 (Washington, D.C.: 
January 2007).

[2] GAO-07-310.

[3] In addition to the human capital plan, the act also required the 
CIO to include in the report the department's enterprise architecture 
and a description of its IT capital planning and investment control 
process. The results of our reviews of these aspects of DHS's report 
were provided to the committees in April and May 2007. See GAO, 
Information Technology: DHS Needs to Fully Define and Implement 
Policies and Procedures for Effectively Managing Investments, GAO-07-
424 (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 27, 2007) and Homeland Security: DHS 
Enterprise Architecture Continues to Evolve but Improvements Needed, 
GAO-07-564 (Washington, D.C.: May 9, 2007).

[4] DHS, Empowering the IT Workforce, DHS IT Human Capital Strategic 
Plan (2005-2010), Draft Final for Discussion Purposes (Washington, 
D.C.: May 2005).

[5] OPM, Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework 
(Washington, D.C.: October 2002).

[6] See, for example, GAO, A Model of Strategic Human Capital 
Management (Exposure Draft), GAO-02-373SP (Washington, D.C.: March 
2002).

[7] GAO-07-310.

[8] GAO, High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-03-119 (Washington, D.C.: 
January 2003); High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-05-207 (Washington, 
D.C.: January 2005); and GAO-07-310.

[9] OMB, Fiscal Year 2008 Report on Information Technology Budgets 
(Washington, D.C.: Feb. 6, 2007).

[10] GAO, High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-01-263 (Washington, D.C.: 
January 2001), and GAO-07-310. 

[11] DHS, Human Capital Strategic Plan FY 2004-2008 (Washington, D.C.)

[12] GAO, Department of Homeland Security: Formidable Information and 
Technology Management Challenge Requires Institutional Approach, GAO-04-
702 (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 27, 2004).

[13] DHS, Empowering the IT Workforce (2005-2010).

[14] GAO, Homeland Security: Progress Continues, but Challenges Remain 
on Department's Management of Information Technology, GAO-06-598T 
(Washington, D.C.: Mar. 29, 2006).

[15] GAO, Homeland Security: Management and Programmatic Challenges 
Facing the Department of Homeland Security, GAO-07-833T (Washington, 
D.C.: May 10, 2007).

[16] GAO, Information Technology: Management Improvements Needed on 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Infrastructure Modernization 
Program, GAO-05-805 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 7, 2005).

[17] Atlas is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement program to 
modernize IT infrastructure. 

[18] GAO, Homeland Security: Recommendations to Improve Management of 
Key Border Security Program Need to Be Implemented, GAO-06-296 
(Washington, D.C.: Feb. 14, 2006).

[19] US-VISIT (United States-Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator 
Technology) is a DHS program to collect, maintain, and share 
information, including biometric identifiers, on foreign nationals 
entering and exiting the United States. US-VISIT uses these identifiers 
(digital fingerscans and photographs) to screen persons against watch 
lists and to verify that a visitor is the person who was issued a visa 
or other travel document. Visitors are also to confirm their departure 
by having their visas or passports scanned and undergoing 
fingerscanning at selected air and sea ports of entry.

[20] GAO, Homeland Security: First Phase of Visitor and Immigration 
Status Program Operating, but Improvements Needed, GAO-04-586 
(Washington, D.C.: May 11, 2004); and Homeland Security: Risks Facing 
Key Border and Transportation Security Program Need to Be Addressed, 
GAO-03-1083 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 19, 2003).

[21] GAO, Information Technology: Customs Has Made Progress on 
Automated Commercial Environment System, but It Faces Long-Standing 
Management Challenges and New Risks, GAO-06-580 (Washington, D.C.: May 
31, 2006).

[22] ACE is a Customs and Border Protection program to modernize trade 
processing systems and support border security. Its goals include 
enhancing analysis and information sharing with other government 
agencies; providing an integrated, fully automated information system 
for commercial import and export data; and reducing costs for the 
government and the trade community though streamlining.

[23] GAO-02-373SP.

[24] GAO, Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective Strategic 
Workforce Planning, GAO-04-39 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 11, 2003).

[25] OPM, Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework.

[26] See, for example, GAO, Securities and Exchange Commission: Some 
Progress Made on Strategic Human Capital Management, GAO-06-86 
(Washington, D.C.: Jan. 10, 2006).

[27] DHS, DHS Succession Management Plan FY 2006-2009, draft.

[28] DHS, Office of the Chief Information Officer, IT Human Capital 
Plan to Mitigate IT Competency and Skill Gaps (March 2006).

[29] With respect to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's overall 
management of human capital, we recently reported that it lacks a 
strategic workforce plan and related human capital strategies--such as 
succession planning or a coordinated training effort--which are 
integral to managing resources. They enable an agency to define 
staffing levels, identify the critical skills needed to achieve its 
mission, and eliminate or mitigate gaps between current and future 
skills and competencies. (For the report, see GAO, Budget Issues: FEMA 
Needs Adequate Data, Plans, and Systems to Effectively Manage Resources 
for Day-to-Day Operations, GAO-07-139 (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 19, 
2007).)

[30] Started by OMB in fiscal year 2002, the President's Management 
Agenda is an initiative intended to help reform federal government 
management in several areas, one of which is the strategic management 
of human capital. More specifically, the initiative calls for agencies 
to, among other things, link human capital strategies to their mission 
goals, use workforce planning and flexible strategies to recruit and 
train staff, and determine the most effective means of achieving 
mission goals through identifying the organization's core competencies.

[31] DHS, Empowering the IT Workforce, DHS IT Human Capital Strategic 
Plan (2005-2010), Draft Final for Discussion Purposes (Washington, 
D.C.: May 2005).

[32] OPM, Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework 
(Washington, D.C.: October 2002).

[33] GAO, A Model of Strategic Human Capital Management (Exposure 
Draft), GAO-02-373SP (Washington, D.C.: March 2002).

[34] OPM, Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework.

[35] DHS, Office of the CIO, IT Human Capital Plan to Mitigate IT 
Competency and Skill Gaps (March 2006); Empowering the IT Workforce: 
Solutions to Address Critical IT Human Capital Gaps--Executive Brief 
and Detailed Implementation Plan (Nov. 1, 2005); Empowering the IT 
Workforce: DHS IT Human Capital Strategic Plan (2005-2010) Draft Final 
for Discussion Purposes (May 20, 2005); DHS Workforce Plan FY 2005- 
2008; and DHS, Offices of the CHCO and CIO, IT Gap Analysis Report and 
Improvement Plan (May 1, 2007). 

[36] This percentage is based on 1,276 of the 2,165 full-time 
equivalent positions in fiscal year 2006.

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Public Affairs:

Susan Becker, Acting Manager, Beckers@gao.gov: 
(202) 512-4800: 
U.S. Government Accountability Office: 
441 G Street NW, Room 7149: 
Washington, D.C. 20548: