Task Area 1 - Chief Information Officer (CIO) Support

Numerous laws, regulations, and policies have been enacted in the last several years to include the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Computer Security Act, Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) #63, Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), and the Clinger-Cohen Act. In particular, the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-106, Division E-Information Technology Management Reform, Title LI-Responsibility For Acquisitions Of Information Technology) established the Chief Information Officer (CIO) position in federal agencies. The objective of CIO Support is to provide support to CIO's in the implementation of these laws, regulations, and polices.

New CIO practices have evolved as they work to implement these laws, regulations, and policies. A non-exhaustive list of examples of the type of work to be performed under this task area is:

  • Agency information technology architecture (ITA) support
  • Program analyses (including cost/benefit analysis and cost effectiveness analyses
  • Grants management and administration application
  • Market research
  • Total cost of ownership (TOC) studies
  • Stakeholders analyses
  • A-76 studies
  • Workforce management
  • IT organizational development

Technical Approach to CIO Support

Using our Ascendant™ methodology as the baseline, we will leverage our institutional knowledge of CIO support and our in-depth senior staff expertise to formulate an approach that is tailored to the needs of each specific task order.

  1. Provide Continuous Support for CIO Organizational Infrastructure
    - Provide on-going assessment and support to continually improve CIO organizational effectiveness
    - Employ appropriate tools and techniques to address internal infrastructure and external IT legislative issues
  2. Assess Infrastructure and Plans
    The objective of our CIO support approach is to maintain an effective CIO Office that:
    - Provides the necessary guidance for successful IT investment
    - Serves as "one-stop-shopping” for agency IT solutions
    - Employs a proactive approach to technology insertion
    This approach has been applied successfully in our last eight CIO support projects

    The starting point of our approach is to fully understand existing business and technology models of an agency:
    1. Assess Business & IT Strategic Plans
      2. - Identify and assess existing and former plans to form a baseline
      - Develop a plan of action starting from the baseline
    2. Review Current IT Infrastructure
      3. - Assess the status quo (i.e. SW, platforms, networks, etc.)
      - Define infrastructure upgrades and technical support needed
  3. Define Strategic Initiatives
    - Develop a prioritized list of CIO/ IT initiatives based on business needs of agency
    - Identify implementation schedule alternatives
  4. Determine a Plan
    - Identify/analyze alternate scenarios for implementing the initiatives
    - Select, justify, and recommend the plan to be implemented
  5. Implement the Plan
    Employing methods and tools such as:
    - Program analyses (CBA/ROI)
    - IT investment
    - System deployment
    - Grants management
    - Workforce assessment
    - IT organization review
    - TCO assessments
    - A-76 studies
    As the business priorities shift, update the plan
  6. Involve Agency Stakeholders
    - Actively involve key agency stakeholders in major IT initiatives in order to create a progressive, productive partnership between the CIO and business lines
    - Select tools and methods that clearly present both the technical and business considerations/issues and thus facilitate active, collaborative decision making encompassing both the IT and business stakeholder communities