http://www.hstoday.us/single-article/where-to-find-at-risk-dhs-programs-in-need-of-help/79ad1a56cf3b2326dd33a6fb7e36571f.html ****
** ** *Where To Find At Risk DHS IT Programs In Need of Help***** By: Stephanie Sullivan, immixGroup, Inc.**** 09/06/2013 ( 9:49am)**** ** ** *Special to Homeland Security Today* The US federal government runs some of the largest IT programs in the world. Some of these programs are in trouble and government is looking to industry for innovative and emerging products, solutions, and services to aid and rehabilitate their performance. There are a number of resources that can help industry find these under-performing and at risk programs and help executives to build the right message before reaching out to program offices and decision makers. One of the first methods is to use publicly available information from the Federal IT Dashboard, Center for Effective Government, and Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports (including the GAO High Risk List). If you’re able to build a business case and really understand the challenges and obstacles a program is facing by doing the necessary research and creating a game plan of how your solutions can and will speed up milestones or reduce cost before reaching out to program managers it can be a great way to create a partnership. It will also help you to gain traction in an agency that may have been completely white space before. Leveraging past performance in areas where you’ve done work well will only help strengthen the business case and build rapport with a federal agency you want to increase business with. The Federal IT Dashboard was launched in 2009 as part of the Obama administration’s effort to shed more light on to the progress of “major” IT investments within 27 agencies by providing year-over-year project performance and milestone information. The dashboard develops program ratings using information from several resources, including assessments and evaluations given by the agency chief information officer (CIO) on the risks and ability for a major IT investment to accomplish its goals and objectives. The dashboard also utilizes budget documents released annually by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) known as the Exhibits 53 and 300 to provide spend information on IT investments within federal agencies. The online resource that used to be known as OMB Watch, released annual reports of troubled programs known as the OMB Watch List. The OMB Watch List was a result of the 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act, which required agencies to submit business plans for IT investments to OMB. In January 2013, OMB Watch became the Center for Effective Government (CEG), which is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization to provide transparency within OMB. CEG helps ensure that the government is effective and responsive to citizen priorities by increasing public engagement and encouraging participation in decision making.. One additional resource utilized to track troubled federal programs is the GAO High Risk List, which is released every two years (last released in 2013) at the start of a new Congress. The list “calls attention to agencies and program areas that are high risk due to their vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, or are most in need of transformation.”**** *Major at risk programs DHS management programs* In 2003, GAO designated implementing and transforming the Department of Homeland Security as high risk because DHS had to transform 22 agencies -- several with major management challenges -- into one department. Further, failure to effectively address DHS’s management and mission risks could have serious consequences for US national and economic security. The department has made considerable progress in transforming its original component agencies into a single cabinet-level department and positioning itself to achieve its full potential. Important strides have also been made in strengthening the department’s management functions and in integrating those functions across the department, particularly in recent years. However, continued progress is needed in order to mitigate the risks that management weaknesses pose to mission accomplishment and the efficient and effective use of the department’s resources, the GAO said.**** * Sharing & managing terrorism data* GAO designated terrorism-related information sharing as high risk in 2005 because the government faces significant challenges in analyzing and disseminating this information in a timely, accurate, and useful manner. GAO has since monitored federal efforts to implement the Information Sharing Environment (Environment) -- an approach that is intended to serve as an overarching solution to strengthening the sharing of intelligence, terrorism, law enforcement, and other information among federal, state, local, tribal, international, and private sector partners. Recent homeland security incidents and the changing nature of domestic threats make continued progress in improving information sharing critical to reducing the risks of threats to the homeland.**** * Cybersecurity* Recent GAO studies found that 19 of 24 major federal agencies reported that information security control deficiencies were either a material weakness or significant deficiency in internal controls over financial reporting. Further, inspectors general at 22 of 24 agencies cited information security as a major management challenge for their agency. Most of the 24 major agencies had information security weaknesses in most of five key control categories: limiting, preventing, and detecting inappropriate access to computer resources; managing the configuration of software and hardware; segregating duties to ensure that a single individual does not control all key aspects of a computer-related operation; planning for continuity of operations in the event of a disaster or disruption; and implementing agency-wide information security management programs that are critical to identifying control deficiencies, resolving problems, and managing risks on an ongoing basis.**** *Protecting national security technology* The US government has a number of programs to identify and protect technologies critical to US interests. These include export control systems for defense articles and services and dual-use items, the Foreign Military Sales program, anti-tamper policies, and reviews of transactions that could result in control of a US business by a foreign person. GAO designated this area as high risk in 2007 because these programs, established decades ago, were ill-equipped to address the evolving 21st century challenge of balancing national security concerns and economic interests. GAO believes that a strategic re-examination of existing programs is needed to identify changes that will ensure the advancement of US interests.**** ** ** __._,_.___ __,_._,___ -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. 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