18: Supporting Materials and Guidance

Develop supporting materials and guidance for flexible IT budget models

Other Information:

In order to support agencies and appropriations staff in leveraging budget flexibility, the Federal CFO Council, in collaboration with the Federal CIO Council, will develop a set of best practices and materials that explain the need for these types of funding, and prescribe a path to achieving more flexible models. As a first step, the Federal CIO Council will create a segmentation of common IT program types and the associated funding requirements. The Federal CFO Council will then work with the Federal CIO Council to create detailed “playbooks” mapping each IT program type to specific budget vehicles based on examples of past investments and IT needs (e.g., multi-year funding for programs with several discrete deliverables). The playbooks will also explain in detail how the recommended budget flexibility improves delivery of the corresponding IT program results. Agencies will utilize these templates and training to clearly outline their financial needs to successfully deliver IT programs. Program leaders and CIOs with increased budget flexibility will face higher expectations around successful delivery from agency leaders and Congress. Achieving greater flexibility in funding also requires greater transparency into spending effectiveness. Agencies will need to engage in more frequent dialogues with appropriations staff and to clearly demonstrate the performance of IT investments in achieving mission goals. The Federal CFO and CIO Councils will create a set of guidelines for increasing transparency in the utilization of IT funds. Agencies will follow these guidelines and institute additional review processes for multi-year funds and portfolio funding to prevent mismanagement of increased funding flexibility (e.g., masking program delays or overruns).

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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