VA Information Technology: Improvements Needed to Implement Legislative Reforms
AIMD-98-154
Published: Jul 07, 1998. Publicly Released: Jul 14, 1998.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed how the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has implemented specific provisions of the Clinger-Cohen Act and other legislative reforms, including: (1) reengineering business processes before acquiring information technology; (2) completing an integrated information technology architecture; (3) institutionalizing a disciplined information technology investment decisionmaking process; and (4) appointing an agency Chief Information Officer (CIO).
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Veterans Affairs | The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should direct the Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning to develop a departmentwide strategy that details how VA will reengineer its business processes, including identifying and prioritizing process improvement projects, and delineating their interrelationships. |
Closed – Implemented
VA concurred with this recommendation and has incorporated business process reengineering into its One-VA enterprise architecture development effort. According to VA's Enterprise Architecture Strategy, Governance, and Implementation document of August 2001, a key principle of the department's enterprise architecture is to reduce the redundancy of information technology systems and data, and seek commonality across program and business lines. As part of VA's ongoing enterprise architecture development process, VA's chief information officer is expected to review and approve all information technology system proposals for compliance with the enterprise architecture, and for identification of business process reengineering opportunities. In addition, under VA's enterprise architecture governance process, the VA administrations cannot independently develop information technology systems.
|
| Department of Veterans Affairs | To fulfill the requirements of the Clinger-Cohen Act and other information technology legislative reforms, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs should direct VA's CIO to develop a detailed implementation plan with milestones for completing an integrated, departmentwide information technology architecture. |
Closed – Implemented
In April 2001, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs established VA's Enterprise Architecture Innovation Team and directed the acting chief information officer to lead this team to develop a department-wide enterprise architecture program. In August 2001, the team finalized VA's Enterprise Architecture Strategy, Governance, and Implementation document, which is VA's guide to define, implement, and maintain its enterprise architecture. The document contained VA's initial milestones for development of its enterprise architecture. VA subsequently drafted version 1.0 of its enterprise architecture (dated July 2002), which contains elements of its baseline and target architectures, information flows, data descriptions, technical reference manual, and standards profile.
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| Department of Veterans Affairs | To fulfill the requirements of the Clinger-Cohen Act and other information technology legislative reforms, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs should direct VA's CIO to fully implement a disciplined process for selecting information technology investments in which all decisions are based upon complete and current project information including estimated project costs, expected mission-related benefits, projected schedule, and risks. |
Closed – Implemented
VA agreed with the recommendation, and stated that it had developed and implemented a capital investment process for information technology that takes into account a variety of factors, including estimated project costs, expected benefits (mission-related and otherwise), projected scheduling issues, and risks. GAO's review of the fiscal year 2001 process, showed that the new process did provide more detailed information on proposed IT investments.
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| Department of Veterans Affairs | To fulfill the requirements of the Clinger-Cohen Act and other information technology legislative reforms, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs should direct VA's CIO to conduct formal in-process reviews at key milestones in a project's life cycle, including comparing actual estimated project costs, benefits, schedule, and risks, and provide these results, as well as the results of periodic project status reviews performed by VA components, to decisionmakers who will determine whether to continue, accelerate, or terminate information technology projects. |
Closed – Implemented
VA agreed and stated that it is conducting in-process reviews, and has developed a schedule for in-process reviews. In addition, VA has developed a process for determining when an in-process review is needed, and is now providing the results of formal in-process reviews to decisionmakers.
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| Department of Veterans Affairs | To fulfill the requirements of the Clinger-Cohen Act and other information technology legislative reforms, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs should direct VA's CIO to initiate postimplementation reviews for information technology projects within 12 months of implementation, to compare completed project cost, schedule, performance, and mission improvement outcomes with original estimates, and provide the results of these reviews to decisionmakers so that improvements can be made to VA's information technology investment process. |
Closed – Implemented
VA agreed with the recommendation, and is now conducting post-implementation reviews and has developed a schedule of post-implementation reviews. In addition, VA has identified lessons learned, and is now including these in its post-implementation reviews.
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| Department of Veterans Affairs | The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should appoint a CIO with full-time responsibilities for information resources management. |
Closed – Implemented
Although VA has not yet officially responded to the report, in commenting on a draft of the report, the department concurred with the recommendation. VA subsequently established the position of Assistant Secretary to serve as CIO, reporting directly to the Secretary on all information resources issues. This new Assistant Secretary will be responsible for ensuring that all of VA's information technology initiatives support the overall "One-VA" vision.
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Topics
Chief information officersFederal agency reorganizationInformation resources managementInformation technologyPrivate sector practicesManagement reengineeringStrategic information systems planningSystems conversionsSystems designVeterans