PART II

Positioning CPIC as a Global Agency Process

Although the Clinger-Cohen Act was enacted primarily in response to the failures of large single projects, it also sought to improve overarching IT management processes such as strategic planning, enterprise architecture, and portfolio analysis. Framers of the legislation were convinced that an agency-wide perspective was necessary and that only the agency head and senior executive leadership were positioned high enough to engage in the kind of agency-wide, cross-functional visioning essential for identifying innovative ways to use IT to accomplish the agency’s mission as well as its program goals and objectives.

The chapters in Part II describe approaches for integrating CPIC processes and enterprise architecture, for understanding FEA, and for analyzing the entire IT portfolio and monitoring its collective performance. In many ways, the techniques described in these chapters lay the groundwork for effective strategic policy and operational decision-making. Enterprise architecture and portfolio analysis necessitate a rigorous assessment of the current inventory of IT assets, including how well the assets are achieving their purposes. The techniques also necessitate brainstorming and forecasting how future events will impact an agency, and the role that IT can play in meeting the challenges those events present.

The critical message in Part II is that agencies can use CPIC techniques to change agency culture and to address issues that confront an agency as a whole. Some of these techniques may be useful in other areas as well—for example, by helping an agency and its program leaders analyze the agency’s overall strategic situation and develop outcome-oriented goals, performance measures, and strategies that ensure efficient and effective operations as well as long-term organizational success.