OMB sets new standards for e-government grades

The Office of Management and Budget handed agency chief information officers more information Monday on what's needed to achieve top grades for managing e-government projects.

To reach a green light--the highest possible mark--in e-government on OMB's quarterly management score card, agencies must show that they use a technique called "earned value management" to justify and track technology investments, according to an Aug. 23 memorandum. The technique entails determining the level at which existing IT systems perform and analyzing the extent to which a given investment has enhanced that baseline performance.

Karen Evans, OMB's e-government administrator, said agencies striving for top e-government marks must show they use the earned value management technique to evaluate projects, and must indicate whether investments are boosting performance as much as expected.

Chief information officers should incorporate earned value analysis into documentation of success at meeting performance goals on IT projects, staying within budget and keeping initiatives on schedule. In particular, agencies must indicate: the type of IT performance data they gather, the people in charge of reviewing and analyzing the data, the tools used to manage the data, the method of reporting performance information to senior management, and how the information is then used.

OMB's score card standards already require agencies seeking a green light to show that, on average, their IT projects strayed less than 10 percent from cost, schedule and performance goals. To earn a yellow light, which indicates "mixed results," agencies must prove they strayed 30 percent at most.