|
|
FEDERAL SECTOR
REPORT
March 2005
IN THIS ISSUE
Quick Solutions for
Agency-Wide Exhibit 300 Preparation
CPIC Training
Link of the Month:
Proposal Writing
Consulting
Services
Home
Page
(c) 2005 by the P2C2 Group,
Inc.
QUICK SOLUTIONS FOR AGENCY-WIDE EXHIBIT 300
PREPARATION
Summer was once the season for preparing Exhibit 300 business
cases for justifying IT investments to the Office of Management and
Budgets (OMB), but this year the startup activity is already underway
in many agencies. Paperwork for the Fiscal Year 2007 IT budget cycle is
growing like weeds, even before a warm spring sun can beckon dandelions
and crabgrass. And even before OMB issues its guidance in an updated
Circular A-11, which sometimes is full of surprises!
This article outlines a few of the approaches we recommend.
These are admittedly short-term fixes, but we will defer our grand plan
for CPIC process improvement and integration until a future newsletter.
So this month we focus only on short-term, tactical solutions for
Exhibit 300 business cases.
Use an Agency-Wide Approach. IT budgets are an
enterprise-wide issue, and this requires leadership, prioritization,
and direction from the top of the agency. This should involve the
agency head, the deputy, the Chief Information Officer, the budget
officer, Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Procurement Officer, and
ideally other members of the agency decision-making board required by
the Clinger-Cohen Act.
Provide Leadership for Your Exhibit 300s. We don't
think it's enough for an Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO)
to merely act as rule maker, reviewer or referee of business cases. The
OCIO organization needs to play a leadership role--of aligning IT with
agency business mission and helping the entire organization to work
together to prepare successful business cases. This is a responsibility
that cannot simply be offloaded to subordinates or contractors.
Work as a Team on All 300s. You need to collaborate on
an agency-wide basis when preparing your Exhibit 300s. All of the
business cases should map to a common set of goals, performance
metrics, acquisition, EA, security, project management methodology, and
E-Gov Strategy. It is an incredible waste of money and time to allow 5,
12, or 30 individual projects to prepare separate, disconnected
business cases. And the result is a free-lance hodgepodge that doesn't
fit together.
Agree Upfront on Enterprise Investment
Priorities. Avoid agency horse races, where Exhibit 300s compete
with each other for funding. A smarter approach is for the CIO and
other members of the agency leadership team to agree in advance on
priorities that identify how IT spending will support mission and
business requirements. This enables you to focus 100% of your energies
on core needs … and winners.
Link to the Agency Performance Plan and Metrics.
Upfront, you should plan to link IT to agency goals and performance
objectives. Metrics for IT performance should map to performance
measures in the annual performance plan and to PART data.
Share the Best Specialists. Use your best talent for
specialized sections of the Exhibit 300. Have your smartest, most
articulate acquisition specialist provide the blueprint for your
Acquisition Strategy. Your EA guru should be helping system managers
map IT investments to business and service architecture. The same goes
for all the other areas--risks, security, EVMS, E-Gov Strategy Reviews,
etc.
Plug the Common Holes in Your 300s. Your agency
probably has some weaknesses among the OMB's 10 scoring categories.
Through collaboration and use of your best specialists, you should be
able to upgrade your management of these categories on an agency-wide
basis.
Develop a Model (Template) 300. OK, each project
in your agency has a unique personality and different age, but they
should look like they're related … at least first or second cousins.
Ask your best specialists to work together to develop a model Exhibit
300 that generally reflects your agency's mission, management, and
technology environment.
Train Your Individual Projects. Conduct workshops that
give IT project teams hands-on experience in adapting the enterprise
approach to unique requirements of the individual business case.
Complete and Evaluate Your Individual Business Cases.
Quite a bit of refinement and polishing will still be needed for the
individual business cases. This is where the year-long efforts of the
Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC) process will pay off.
The details and documentation will be highly useful in adapting the
individual business cases.
Provide Follow-Up First Aid. You should run trial
scores on all of your Exhibit 300s. Any that are at risk of being
rejected or going on OMB's Watch List should be fixed immediately.
Designate Your OMB Response Team. The Office of
Management and Budget could change guidelines for capital planning at
the last minute, as it has done in some previous years. Be prepared by
designating a response team who will take charge of the change and
adjustment process.
|
|
|
Bring Jim Kendrick to your site for knowledge-packed,
hands-on workshops. You get facts, examples, and practical
exercises. Take a workbook and CD-ROM back for ongoing reference.
Off-the-shelf and customized courses available. The cost is amazingly
affordable!
Your instructor has a record of performance and results in
the Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC) process. Jim's
hands-on experience includes 25 Exhibit 300s for multiple U.S.
agencies. We have successfully supported new enterprise initiatives,
and we have dramatically improved existing Exhibit 300s.
|
|
|
LINK
OF
THE
MONTH: PROPOSAL WRITING
Our readers who are federal contractors or grantees spend
considerable time preparing proposals. Dan Safford produces one of the
free newsletters about proposal writing, and you can subscribe by going
to
http://www.psassociates.com/newsletter-signup.asp.
The P2C2 Group, Inc. is the consulting practice of Jim
Kendrick, who teams with outstanding experts and works on a subcontract
and 1099 basis through leading federal contractors.
|
|
|
HOME PAGE
Elena and I took the
dogs on a long walk in Rock Creek Park today. The scenery is still
winter-like, but we will be investigating the gradual transformation to
green and the springtime symphony of wildflowers. We live less than a
quarter of a mile from Beech Drive, and access is therefore just steps
away. Bright sunshine and a clear day attracted a larger number of
walkers, joggers, runners, and cyclists … and a wide variety of furry
friends.
Best wishes,
Jim Kendrick
Enterprise Management
Consultant
4101 Denfeld Avenue
Kensington, MD 20895
301-942-7985
NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
|
|
|
|
|
|
The P2C2 Group, Inc.
4101 Denfeld Avenue | Kensington, MD 20895
Point of Contact: Jim Kendrick, President
e-mail: kendrick@p2c2group.com
phone: 301-942-7985 | fax: 301-942-7986 |
|
|
|