The above article was published in the September 2004 edition of FEDTECH Magazine. It provides my thoughts on the use of strategy to establish performance goals and measures that are aligned to mission. The article is one in the series I write entitled "The Business of IT."

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THE BUSINESS OF I.T.: MANAGING I.T. PERFORMANCE BY SETTING STRATEGY
Paul Wohlleben: “The CIO needs to begin IT
strategy development with the agency’s strategic plan
as the starting point.”
D
uring the past decade, government at
every level has been called to account
for investments of taxpayer dollars in
IT initiatives and to document the
results produced. Several municipal
governments have revolutionized the way they
provide services to citizens by institutionalizing
performance management as a key focus of
government-citizen interactions. Several foreign
governments have also implemented performance-
and results-based budgeting and performance-based management. In
management systems. this column, I address the challenge of
And, of course, the federal inculcating performance and results
government has been in the thick of considerations into the development
the trend toward performance-based of organizational IT strategy. In a
management and accountability. subsequent column, I will address the
This trend has been both challenges of managing IT operations
constant and increasing in using performance management tools
intensity since passage and techniques.
of the Government
Performance and The Lay of the Land
Results Act (GPRA) It’s important to understand the
in 1993. planning environment in which federal
The ensuing CIOs operate: It is one that is rich in
management process but poor in information. GPRA
reform initiatives of and the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996
the Clinton and Bush established requirements designed to
administrations placed produce planning products that are
further emphasis on the important to CIOs, including agency
delivery of quantifiable strategic plans, IT strategic plans,
results to citizens. Under architecture and capital planning.
the Bush administration’s However, getting the information
President’s Management Agenda, needed to fully inform decision-making
the concepts of performance and is problematic for the federal CIO.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE BARRETT
results are central to each of the Most agencies do not accumulate
five areas that make up the agenda. cost data related to the functions or
With the issue of performance activities that the costs support. Even
occupying so prominent a place in fewer have more than an inkling of the
federal management reform, I’d like current performance levels achieved in
to offer some observations on how those functions and activities. That’s one
CIOs can adapt to the pressure of reason why A-76 studies take a long

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time. (Office of Management and Budget
Circular A-76 specifies how agencies
must conduct cost comparison studies
between an agency tender offer and
private sector offers.) Agency financial
data needs to be mapped to the
functions performed, and current and
baseline performance must be defined.
With these limitations in mind, I current and future performance by
propose that federal CIOs address the business process and to examine
following steps when establishing an IT component parts to be used to deliver
strategy that defines results and expected on those needs. At this juncture, the
performance: strategy should identify what is needed:
Align IT to mission. The CIO needs performance description of how IT will It should be calibrated to achieve
to begin IT strategy development with contribute to effectively and efficiently the necessary overall performance
the agency’s strategic plan as the starting achieving desired mission outcomes. requirements, not how each component
point. This plan will describe the Develop the information foundation. of that need will be satisfied.
organization’s mission goals and include Most agencies do not have an information Study sourcing alternatives. One
strategies for achieving them. The CIO base that lets them effectively manage might think of this step as high-level
needs to identify a complementary goal cost and performance. As a result, capital planning. The CIO will examine
for how IT will be used to help achieve the CIO may need to convert the feasible implementation alternatives for
each component of the strategy. Some
may be established by policy or
The CIO needs to ensure that a directive—for example, your payroll
‘‘
will be cross-serviced by another
serious project management organization.
Most components, however, will
focus is placed on implementing require a sourcing decision. The
the strategy.” foundation of cost and performance
information the CIO has developed will
be essential here, since it will provide
each mission goal. If the mission goal is information obtained from the agency’s the basis for economic analysis of the
enforcement of a set of statutes and financial system, which is reported as alternatives and for benchmarking
the outcome expected is successful budget-oriented classes of expense, to performance.
enforcement of those laws, the IT goal an activity or functional basis. Implement the strategy. I will
might be to provide enforcement The good news is that the CIO can leave most of my observations on
organizations with information systems do this with a reasonable resource implementation and operational aspects
that flag enforcement actions and investment, using such tools as activity- to my next column. But one that bears
support enforcement decision-making. based costing. Once the initial activity mentioning at this point is that the CIO
Describe needed performance. Once mapping is completed, the actions needs to ensure that a serious project
the IT enablers of mission goals are needed to periodically refresh the cost management focus is placed on
identified, the CIO needs to examine data are quite modest. implementing the strategy.
in more depth how the enablers will The CIO also needs to take a close A strategy is only as good as its
contribute to mission success and detail look at the organization’s current weakest component. Each component
the link between IT performance and performance level and define that needs to be successfully implemented in
mission performance. A key result of performance, as much as possible, in the its own right, but dependencies across
this step will be a definition of the level same context as that adopted by private components mean that the success
of IT performance required. At this sector firms. This will let the CIO of the strategy is really a shared
point, the IT performance should be benchmark organizational performance responsibility.
specified in terms that can easily be against the best in class.
linked to—and seen as supportive Craft the enterprise strategy. At
of—the mission goals. this point, the CIO will have an Paul Wohlleben is a former
To use the example above, the understanding of the mission and federal CIO and a partner at
required IT performance might be business needs of the organization, the Grant Thornton LLP His
.
described as the performance required underlying performance reference column undertakes the
for each of the key desired attributes of points, and the current cost and critical examination of key
the enforcement information system: performance of the IT enterprise. issues in managing IT in
quality, usability, availability and user The enterprise architecture is the government organizations.
satisfaction. It might also include a contemporary tool to use in comparing
FEDTECHMAG.com SEPTEMBER 2004 FEDTECH 11