18 months later, 25-point plan language vastly different

Jun 11

From: FierceGovernmentIT

By Molly Bernhart Walker

The Office of Management and Budget’s 25 point plan to reform federal information technology passed its final milestone, the 18-month mark, on June 9. Just how well the federal government tracked against the plan is unclear, however, as the rhetoric out of OMB has shifted considerably since the plan’s December 2010 unveiling.

Since Spring 2011, itemized updates from OMB on plan pacing at the 6-, 12-, and now, 18-month marks have been scarce.

Back in April 2011, then-Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra provided the last and only concrete update on plan progress. Fourteen items were due by June 9, 2011, and Kundra declared that seven were complete, five were on track for completion by the 6-month mark and two items were behind schedule.

In a June 7 White House blog post recognizing the 18-month mark, Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel said, “The 25 Point Plan has without question served its purpose as a shock to the system.”

But when Kundra launched the plan in December 2010 he did not say its purpose was to “shock the system.” Rather than portraying the points as a catalyst for eventual change, Kundra expressed the need for execution.

“We know we can deliver results because we already have,” Kundra said during a March 11 House Appropriations subcommittee hearing. “We’re focused on executing the plan, obviously, and I’m committed to making sure we’re executing,” he said during an April 12, 2011 Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee hearing.

In his June 7 blog post, VanRoekel did not itemize how the government has performed against each point in the plan, but he did call out several areas where the government has made headway. OMB published a shared services strategy, OMB and the Office of Personnel Management created an IT program management career path, more agencies are using cloud services and data center consolidation efforts have been extremely successful, said VanRoekel.

“The 25 points have not solved all Federal IT challenges,” acknowledged VanRoekel.

For more:
– see the White House blog post