Strategic Information 

Technology Plan
Contents

Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................... v

Introduction: HR Lifecycle IT Framework – Strategy to Separation: Aligning IT to Business........................ 1

Chapter 1: Successful Practices and Enabling Initiatives.............................................................................. 7

IT Leadership............................................................................................................................................. 8

IT Governance........................................................................................................................................... 9

Enterprise Architecture (EA)...................................................................................................................11

Agile IT.....................................................................................................................................................14

Data Analytics .........................................................................................................................................15

Information Security ...............................................................................................................................17

Chapter 2: Enterprise Initiatives.................................................................................................................20

Platform Consolidation ...........................................................................................................................20

Collaboration Tools................................................................................................................................. 21

Business Process Management and Case Management Tools...............................................................22

Data Management and Warehousing.....................................................................................................23

Electronic Recordkeeping .......................................................................................................................23

Financial Management ...........................................................................................................................24

Chapter 3: Business Initiatives....................................................................................................................26

From Strategy to Separation...................................................................................................................26

Strategy...................................................................................................................................................28

Acquire....................................................................................................................................................29

USAJOBS®............................................................................................................................................29

Talent Acquisition and Candidate Assessment...................................................................................30

USA Staffing® ...................................................................................................................................30

USA Hire ..........................................................................................................................................31

Background Investigation Systems.....................................................................................................32

Sustain.....................................................................................................................................................33

Performance Management.................................................................................................................34

USA PerformanceSM.........................................................................................................................34

Learning Management and Skills Tracking .........................................................................................34

USALearning®

...................................................................................................................................34
U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Benefits: Healthcare and Insurance....................................................................................................35

Federal Employee Insurance Operations (FEIO).............................................................................35

National Healthcare Operations (NHO) ..........................................................................................35

Separation...............................................................................................................................................36

Retirement Systems............................................................................................................................37

electronic Individual Retirement Record........................................................................................37

Re-Hosting of Legacy Mainframe-Based Systems...........................................................................38

Retirement Data Repository (RDR)................................................................................................. 38

Data Bridge from the ERR to the Retirement Calculator................................................................38

Case Management..........................................................................................................................39

Retirement Data Viewer (RDV).......................................................................................................39

Online Retirement Application .......................................................................................................39

Chapter 4: OPM Enterprise-Wide Shared Platform....................................................................................41

Chapter 5: Preparing the Workforce ..........................................................................................................44

Appendix A: Enterprise Initiatives: Summary of Benefits...........................................................................46

Appendix B: Business Initiatives: Summary of Benefits..............................................................................47

Appendix C: Timelines................................................................................................................................. 49

Appendix D: Developing This Plan ..............................................................................................................53

Appendix E: Acronyms and Initialisms........................................................................................................55

References ..................................................................................................................................................57

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Figures

Figure 1: HR Lifecycle IT Framework........................................................................................................................... viii

Figure 2: HR Lifecycle IT Framework Workflow............................................................................................................. 3

Figure 3: Enabling Initiatives.......................................................................................................................................... 7

Figure 4: NIST's Security Life Cycle ..............................................................................................................................17

Figure 5: Enterprise Initiatives.....................................................................................................................................20

Figure 6: Business Initiatives Placed Along the HR Lifecycle .......................................................................................27

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Tables

Table 1: Benefits of the Enterprise Initiatives..............................................................................................................46

Table 2: Benefits of the Business Initiatives................................................................................................................47

Table 3: Enabling Initiatives Timeline ..........................................................................................................................49

Table 4: Enterprise Initiatives Timeline .......................................................................................................................50

Table 5: Business Initiatives Timeline ..........................................................................................................................51

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Executive Summary

On July 16, 2013, during my confirmation hearing, I made a commitment to Chairman Tester, Ranking 

Member Portman, and members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs to work with my senior management team to create a plan for modernizing 

information technology (IT) at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) within 100 days of 

assuming office. I further committed to identifying new IT leadership, using existing agency expertise, 

and seeking advice from government experts.

This plan fulfills my commitment and more. It provides a framework that is rooted in the use of human 

resources (HR) data throughout a lifecycle (“strategy to separation”), allowing for reuse of that data in 

our HR systems to support agile HR policies; establishes enabling successful practices and initiatives, and 

enterprise and business initiatives that define OPM’s IT modernization efforts; and creates a flexible and 

sustainable Chief Information Officer (CIO) organization led by a strong senior executive with Federal 

experience in information technology, program management, and HR policy. Our CIO is supported by a 

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) with private sector and academic expertise, along with a team of 

dedicated business unit experts within OPM and in our partnering Federal agencies.

In developing this plan, we focused on our current operations, especially retirement programs and 

USAJOBS®, while orienting ourselves toward our vision. In particular, we considered the necessity to 

bridge the current systems to our vision of a shared platform using infrastructure that promotes an 

enterprise, rational, secure, scalable and cost effective way to manage information flows among 

systems. We seek to simplify USAJOBS® to ease the burden on applicants and build the most diverse, 

highly talented workforce. We also seek to ensure data availability and accuracy across the lifecycle for 

faster retirement processing, increased accuracy of annuity calculations, and a reduced backlog of cases. 

We will measure the performance of our IT program using three basic metrics:

— Compliance with laws, policies and successful practices;

— User and stakeholder satisfaction with improved IT capabilities; and

— Cost per IT service or transaction.

While a plan is just a plan, the true value we provide to our customers will be derived from our ability to 

deliver high quality, modern IT services and capabilities that enable us to fulfill our mission (Recruit, 

Retain, and Honor a World-Class Workforce to Serve the American People) and implement our Strategic 

Plan. By structuring our IT modernization around the HR lifecycle using the “strategy to separation” 

approach created by the HR line of business (HR LOB) effort, we can ensure our mission is carried out by:

— Improving policy regarding a wide range of HR functions by enabling it to be more

business process focused, data driven, agile, and responsive;

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

— Aiding agencies in strategic HR planning so they fill the right jobs;

— Helping agencies recruit and hire the most talented and diverse Federal workforce 

possible to serve the American people;

— Ensuring our Federal workforce is properly investigated and can be trusted to serve our 

great nation;

— Providing the training, benefits, and work/life balance necessary for Federal employees 

to serve, prosper, and advance in their careers;

— Ensuring the Federal workforce and its leaders are fully accountable, are fairly 

appraised, and have the tools, systems, and resources to perform at the highest levels 

to achieve superior results;

— Ensuring recognition and reward for exemplary performance of current employees and 

honoring the careers of Federal retirees; and

— Ensuring our Federal workforce and retirees, their families, and their beneficiaries and 

survivors receive appropriate benefits, such as retirement payments, life insurance, and 

health benefits.

Additionally, Congress recognized OPM’s success in making healthcare options available to the Federal 

workforce and made us responsible for warehousing health claims data under the Affordable Care Act. 

For that effort, we take a data lifecycle approach. While this initiative is not immediately relevant to the 

HR lifecycle, we will leverage the efforts described in this document to benefit healthcare data 

warehousing.

By coupling the “strategy to separation” HR lifecycle with successful practices in the six areas of IT 

Leadership, IT Governance, Enterprise Architecture (EA), Agile IT, Data Analytics, and Information 

Security, we can ensure our business units have integrated and shared accountability with their 

processes, data, and technology:

— IT Leadership will structure OPM’s IT organization for optimal performance outcomes, 

ensuring appropriate partnerships with the business community and other stakeholders, 

and providing career-enhancing challenges for our workforce to enable them to remain 

competitive in the IT field.

— IT Governance will enable us to: (1) align business and technology leadership to identify 

investment priorities, (2) properly and proactively manage our IT program, (3) ensure 

we invest wisely in technologies, and (4) identify and transparently manage our IT 

budget while we seek cost avoidance and savings opportunities in sustainment areas,

thereby enabling scarce resources to be used for new efforts.

— Enterprise Architecture will ensure our innovative solutions integrate to support our 

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

desired performance outcomes and that we adopt solutions that provide benefit 

throughout OPM and the Federal government rather than unique solutions in each 

business unit. 

— Agile IT principles will more quickly and efficiently deploy innovative solutions, whether 

they are enterprise or business-unique capabilities, lowering risks by delivering 

capabilities in smaller segments with incremental investment, and allowing better 

stakeholder engagement and feedback throughout the solutions development process.

— Data Analytics will ensure data is structured and standardized, synthesized and 

analyzed to produce information, which can be made available to agency leaders and HR 

specialists, hiring managers, jobseekers, and other stakeholders to better inform our 

decisions. 

— Information Security will ensure we protect the identity and privacy of our citizens and 

employees by implementing and actively monitoring standard security controls in our IT 

systems that effectively protect the large volume of sensitive personal data collected 

and stored by OPM IT systems.

Taking a "strategy to separation" approach, we will adopt an HR lifecycle IT framework as a concept for 

sharing information among the various existing IT solutions and future capabilities at OPM, at other 

agencies, and in industry. We will provide a set of standards that will span the HR lifecycle and support 

information exchange. This framework will drive government and industry in creating solutions and 

supporting processes that provide high-quality, modern IT services and capabilities to citizens, Federal 

employees, and agencies, in a way that also ensures information sharing. HR IT solutions, whether 

developed by government or industry, will be able to share information while they support business 

processes and decisions.

Figure 1 illustrates the HR lifecycle IT framework. The enabling initiatives provide the strong foundation 

necessary for successful operation, development, and management of IT that increases accountability, 

efficiency, and innovation. The enterprise initiatives allow us to organize and leverage resources across 

OPM to benefit all programs by laying the groundwork for fundamental capabilities. All of these 

initiatives together enable the success of current and future business initiatives.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Figure 1: HR Lifecycle IT Framework

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Introduction: HR Lifecycle IT Framework 

– Strategy to Separation: Aligning IT to 

Business

This plan provides a framework for standardizing and integrating government-wide HR IT, modernizing 

OPM’s IT offerings, and ensuring the government-wide HR IT environment is aligned with and supports 

the HR business process as documented in the HR LOB Business Reference Model (BRM) 1

. 

In this introduction, we explain the dual roles of our CIO in supporting OPM's mission. Also, we 

introduce our overall vision and plan for a collection of modern, integrated HR IT standards and 

capabilities, an HR lifecycle IT framework. In Chapter 1, we introduce the six successful practices and 

enabling initiatives that underpin the HR lifecycle IT framework: IT Leadership, IT Governance, Enterprise 

Architecture, Agile IT, Data Analytics, and Information Security. These initiatives form the foundation of 

an organizational culture and behavior that focuses resources on shared, high-priority problems through 

collaboration and increased transparency in decision-making. In Chapter 2, we present six enterprise 

initiatives that will make use of economies of scale to fill needs common to multiple business units at

OPM. In Chapter 3, we describe key HR lifecycle IT framework business initiatives, including retirement 

programs and USAJOBS®. In Chapter 4, we describe OPM's enterprise-wide shared platform, which will 

serve to bring together our many other technologies and enable us to achieve our HR lifecycle IT 

framework vision. Finally, in Chapter 5, we explain how we will prepare our workforce for these 

changes.

Our CIO directly supports OPM’s vision that “the Federal government will become America’s model 

employer for the 21st century.” The CIO has a dual role: (1) setting government-wide HR IT strategic 

direction and standards for HR IT service providers, including OPM, and (2) delivering IT solutions to 

support OPM's programs, Federal agencies, and other stakeholders, such as applicants, retirees, and 

beneficiaries.

In the broader, government-wide role, OPM’s CIO collaborates with Federal partners to ensure HR IT 

supports the HR business process from strategy to separation. This effort will culminate in an HR 

lifecycle IT framework, a set of standards and expectations for HR IT service delivery and operations, 

including those developed by other agencies and industry, that will result in a modern and interoperable 

Federal HR IT environment. As a result of this HR lifecycle IT framework, Federal stakeholders will 

experience a standardized, integrated HR IT environment that will dramatically improve HR business 

1

U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Human Resources Line of Business. Business Reference Model. 

Version 2. Retrieved Jan. 11, 2014 from http://www.opm.gov/services-for-agencies/hr-line-ofbusiness/enterprise-architecture/brm_report_v2.pdf. 

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outcomes such as an optimized retirement process, an efficient investigations process that is responsive 

to 21st Century IT challenges and opportunities, and an enhanced data analytics environment to support 

agile government decision-making.

We envision an end-state IT environment that:

• Enables strategic workforce planning and competency management;

• Informs talent acquisition strategies;

• Empowers agencies to develop policies in more responsive and agile ways;

• Enables agencies to attract and hire highly qualified and diverse Federal employees;

• Enables Federal employees to prepare for challenging situations throughout their careers;

• Enables regular and critical assessments of employees’ performance; and

• Provides benefits to them and their beneficiaries throughout their lives.

As a service provider, our CIO will continue to develop, maintain, and offer innovative, cost-effective, 

and secure IT solutions and services to Federal stakeholders that meet the standards and expectations 

established by the HR lifecycle IT framework, while seamlessly and cost-effectively interoperating with 

other critical HR IT service providers such as payroll providers, Federal shared service centers, and 

agency-specific systems. For this reason, we approach each of the business initiatives described in 

Chapter 3 in terms of the BRM stage in which they begin. Figure 2 depicts the workflow associated with 

the HR lifecycle IT framework at a high level.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Figure 2: HR Lifecycle IT Framework Workflow

Note: This is a high-level workflow and does not incorporate all processes or systems.

The HR lifecycle IT framework will be supported by a strong foundation created by our enabling initiatives

Employee 

searches and 

applies for 

positions through 

USAJOBS

Applicants are 

assessed using 

various Talent 

Acquisition 

Systems (TAS) 

and Assessment 

Systems

Applicant is 

offered and 

accepts position 

pending 

appropriate 

investigation

Applicant 

receives 

appropriate 

clearance

Applicant 

becomes a 

Federal Employee

New position 

onboarding

Career 

Development

Career Change

New position in 

Federal Gov

Retirement from 

Federal Service

Retirement 

Claims 

Adjudication

Retirement 

Benefits

USAJOBS USAStaffing Other Talent 

Acquisition Systems

USAHIRE Other Assessment

Systems

Investigative Systems

EPIC Suite

Federal Employee 

Health Benefits (FEHB)

USA Learning

Other Learning and

Knowledge Management

systems 

Retirement Systems

Annuity Payment 

Processing

Federal

Employee

Federal Job Seeker

Federal Annuitant/Beneficiaries

Federal Employee 

Health Benefits (FEHB)

IT Leadership IT Governance Enterprise

Architecture Agile IT Data Analytics Information Security

Leave Federal 

Employement

Re-entry into 

Federal 

Workforce

Not employed by Federal Government

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

To ensure we consider all Federal HR IT functions, the CIO will take a lifecycle approach and adopt the 

HR LOB BRM as the centerpiece for enterprise architecture. The HR LOB BRM is recognized by the Office 

of Management and Budget (OMB) and Federal agencies as a means of describing the full array of HR 

services. Additionally, it serves to describe the interconnection of the HR business functions to 

numerous other business functions, such as financial management. Using this lifecycle model will 

ensure we share data within the breadth of the HR function and across the Federal government in a 

multi-disciplinary manner.

The HR LOB BRM has four phases. In the Strategy phase, agencies conduct such activities as workforce 

planning, succession planning, and position management. During the Acquire phase, agencies recruit 

and hire employees and ensure their eligibility to serve in public trust positions. The Sustain phase 

encompasses the majority of HR functions, including performance management, training, benefits, and 

compensation. In the fourth phase, Separation, employees conclude their Federal service with many of 

them and their family members or survivors receiving retirement annuities and other benefits.

We have developed and currently operate numerous IT systems providing a wide array of functions 

across the HR lifecycle. These systems are concentrated in the areas of Attain, Sustain, and Separate, 

which together cover the “hire to retire” portion of the HR lifecycle. To fully inform workforce 

structuring and hiring needs for today and into the future, agencies need robust data and tools to plan 

for the future and make smart decisions about the mix of skills their employees will need in the near, 

mid, and long terms. We capture this data in different ways, often manually, and must better 

harmonize, synthesize, and associate this data to inform the way ahead. 

As an example of our vision, during the Strategy phase, jobseekers need better ways to understand the 

Federal government’s needs to inform their education and career decisions. Strategic workforce 

planning results, when presented via a user-friendly, publicly accessible portal, can help them make 

these decisions. For example, such information can inform college-bound students of the degrees and 

courses they should take to qualify for rewarding Federal positions. That same information portal can 

help them choose a college by informing them of opportunities for Federal internships in their career 

fields as they attend school. A data-rich portal can also show college graduates where jobs matching 

their degrees are located to inform their decisions about where to live and begin their careers, and it 

can help people with more established careers decide what new skills they should acquire to ensure 

they remain competitive in the job market.

Similarly, in an era of declining resources, better analytics and reporting capabilities are essential for

agencies to meet their goals. For example, labor market information coupled with government 

workforce information can help agencies plan their recruitment efforts and target communities where 

there is rich, diverse talent. This information can be used to foster the interchange of government 

employment with private sector employment, enriching both environments with employees who have 

broader experiences and perspectives and are able to address challenging issues throughout our 

government.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

This lifecycle approach also ensures we fully engage shared service centers (SSCs) and industry in a costeffective, meaningful way that supports our strategy and end-state vision. SSCs provide significant 

capability already, and will continue to grow their offerings in Federal agencies. Private industry 

partners also provide a varied assortment of capabilities in a wide range of ways to meet the many 

needs of agencies. By defining standards for data collection and interchange, we will enable SSCs and 

private industry solutions to interoperate with OPM-provided systems. This approach will foster 

innovation while ensuring we remain focused on the strategy.

To allow data to move seamlessly through the business processes and IT systems represented by the 

phases of the BRM and to allow critical analyses of our data throughout the lifecycle, we need to adhere 

to data standards and improve process integration. That fact, coupled with the need to provide 

flexibility to agencies and program offices and a better user experience, drives us toward a 

comprehensive HR lifecycle IT framework. Along with standards that will enable OPM, agencies, and 

industry to work within the same framework and share information seamlessly, OPM and SSCs will 

continue to provide technology solutions to other agencies in the form of a modular, integrated, and 

streamlined set of solutions and supporting processes. For example, this sort of integrated solution will 

enable standardized data sharing across the federal space so we can receive all retirement data 

seamlessly from agencies, resulting in faster and more accurate retirement processing. Responsibility 

for the IT systems will rest with our CIO, and ownership of associated business processes will remain 

with program offices, ensuring a partnership in the successful achievement of our vision. Each stage of 

the HR lifecycle has mature solutions that, while not all interoperable, meet the criteria to be reported 

as major investments on an annual basis. OPM has identified 11 capital asset programs and hundreds of 

other systems. Our current capital asset programs are: 

1. Consolidated Business Information System (CBIS)

2. EHRI (Enterprise Human Resources Integration) Data Warehouse

3. EHRI electronic Official Personnel Folder (eOPF)

4. Enterprise Infrastructure Operations (EIO)

5. EPIC Operations and Maintenance (O&M)

6. EPIC Transformation

7. Health Claims Data Warehouse and Analysis (HCDW)

8. Human Resources Line of Business (HR LOB)

9. Multi-State Plan Portal

10. USA Staffing® System

11. USAJOBS®

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

To better serve the American public, Federal employees and retirees, Federal hiring managers, and 

agencies, we must (1) employ successful practices and adhere to an architecture based on OMB’s 

Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA), and (2) leverage OPM’s HR LOB. The FEA will provide the 

acquisition framework required for an IT solution of this size and ensure the end-state solution complies 

with the Clinger-Cohen Act2

. HR LOB will provide the HR business process and framework required to 

complement the rigor imposed by the FEA. Together, the FEA and HR LOB frameworks will provide OPM 

with the architecture approach required by the HR lifecycle IT framework.

The HR lifecycle IT framework will succeed by strictly adhering to successful practices, such as IT 

Governance, EA, and Information Security to build a strong foundation. This foundation will allow the 

HR lifecycle IT framework to remain agile and adapt to changes in policies or regulations. Finally, the HR 

lifecycle IT framework will provide data analytics at the enterprise level. Building this strong foundation 

will enable OPM to address long standing challenges, particularly those related to retirement and 

USAJOBS®.

As we begin to implement the initiatives identified in this strategic plan, we will identify efficiencies 

through synergies of effort and focused leadership of our priorities. We will implement the enabling 

initiatives without additional resource allocations. OPM is already resourced for some of the enterprise 

and business initiatives as well, while some of these initiatives will require us to identify additional 

resources. We will do this through the budget process to ensure rigorous planning and evaluation of our 

efforts.

2 40 U.S.C. §11101 et seq.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Chapter 1: Successful Practices and 

Enabling Initiatives

Successful Practices and Enabling Initiatives support and guide the Plan for 21st Century IT

Figure 3: Enabling Initiatives

We will adopt six successful practices and undertake associated enabling initiatives to ensure our IT 

supports and aligns to OPM’s Strategic Plan. They will allow us to operate, manage, and develop IT 

solutions with greater accountability and efficiency while supporting innovation: 

1. Through strengthened IT leadership, we will create a flexible and sustainable CIO organization 

and IT program that will focus on accountability, responsiveness, engagement, transparency, 

and innovation. IT leadership will set the expectation that OPM will take a lifecycle approach to 

IT (especially IT integration) and data.

2. Via a renewed and comprehensive IT governance, we will (1) align IT planning and execution, 

(2) ensure proper oversight and quality and cost control of IT services, and (3) support strategic 

decision-making by leadership and innovation throughout the Federal government.

3. A robust enterprise architecture (EA) will provide the fundamental process, structure, and 

quality to ensure our technology is aligned to meet OPM’s complex, integrated business and 

data requirements.

4. We will adopt agile IT principles to ensure speed in adapting to evolving policies and business 

needs. We will design for the HR lifecycle and increased integration of IT solutions and 

interchange of data.

5. We will inform decisions and drive policy throughout the Federal government as we properly 

manage data and strengthen our data analytics capabilities. We will also enable citizens to 

better understand Federal career opportunities and Federal agencies to better understand 

where the best, most diverse talent is located and what motivates them to Federal service.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

6. Finally, we will improve information security to continue to protect the data, and therefore 

identities, of Federal employees and their beneficiaries, as well as applicants to Federal 

positions, just as they expect and deserve.

We will use an iterative approach to plan, implement, and assess our progress in adopting these 

successful practices throughout OPM.

IT Leadership

Raising the bar, setting a new standard

Our IT leadership will raise the bar and set a new standard for HR IT practices and performance 

outcomes in the Federal government. Our new CIO is a strong senior executive with extensive 

experience in information technology, human resources management, and program management. The 

CIO will create a flexible and sustainable CIO organization and IT program. We also have a CTO with 

private industry and academic expertise to ensure we make informed decisions about our technology 

investments so they can be leveraged throughout the HR lifecycle and across the Federal government.

The CIO and CTO will partner with OPM’s team of dedicated business experts to implement an inclusive, 

transparent IT governance model to drive investment decisions that align with a robust enterprise 

architecture and data analytics strategy while protecting sensitive personnel information. Our 

investment decisions will prioritize initiatives that achieve the best performance outcomes and greatest 

benefit so funding and other resources currently dedicated to operations and maintenance efforts can 

be recapitalized and invested in modernization efforts.

To achieve these goals, the CIO will implement an improved organizational structure, ensure our 

personnel are properly trained to take on these new challenges, and enable accountability through 

detailed work plans that allow progress and performance tracking.

To achieve our far-reaching goals, we will optimize and integrate IT capabilities throughout OPM, 

proactively engage stakeholders at all levels, and innovatively address the needs of the public and 

jobseekers. The CIO will ensure partnership with business leaders for mutual accountability and 

adherence to data standards and enterprise architecture that will be required for the successful 

adoption of the HR lifecycle IT framework.

Through stronger IT leadership, we will attain clear accountability for achieving goals and resolving 

complex IT issues. Business and technology leaders at OPM and across the Federal space will 

collaborate to achieve shared IT-related goals that support shared business outcomes. Finally, we will 

streamline responsibilities throughout OPM, which will allow business leaders to concentrate on the 

higher-level activities of developing policy, business strategies, and processes, and overseeing business 

outcomes rather than the minute details of IT implementation.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

We will update agency policy to establish clear authority and delegations of the CIO, establish 

performance objectives for the CIO and staff, and consolidate IT functions across OPM into the CIO 

organization.

Phase 1 – Plan (June 2014): We will (1) review and establish policies for alignment of CIO authorities 

and delegations commensurate with accountability, (2) establish training and performance objectives 

for the CIO and first-level supervisors in the office of the CIO, and (3) complete an assessment of IT 

functions that are currently distributed throughout OPM. We will also review our IT workforce and 

programs to enable better alignment of IT program and project management skills with our highest risk 

IT programs.

Phase 2 – Implement (September 2014): We will implement a functionally-aligned CIO organization to 

support IT strategies and establish training (including certification) and performance objectives for the 

remainder of the CIO staff.

Phase 3 – Assess (December 2014): We will baseline and begin routinely reporting against our 

performance outcomes:

• Compliance with laws, policies, and successful practices;

• User and stakeholder satisfaction with improved IT capabilities; and

• Cost per IT service or transaction.

No additional funding or manpower is required to implement these initiatives. Stronger IT leadership 

will result in cost avoidance and cost savings that will allow us to shift valuable, scarce resources to high 

priority programs.

IT Governance

Taking a structured approach to IT

We will implement a comprehensive IT governance structure to support top-down (leadership) strategy 

and decisions and bottom-up (program office) innovation and partnership that includes all the activities 

of the business units and aligns CIO planning and execution with agency priorities and available 

resources. The governance process is critical to building an effective management and oversight 

capability. 

By realigning our internal IT governance boards and establishing clear processes for prioritizing 

requirements and reporting, we will position ourselves to hold program offices accountable for working 

collaboratively to achieve the level of interoperability needed to share lifecycle HR data across the 

agency, throughout the Federal sector, and with the public, from strategy to separation. 

We will align our internal governance boards to ensure collaboration across the Federal government 

with other boards, such as the Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) Council (especially its HR IT 

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Workgroup), the CIO Council, the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Council, and the Chief Acquisition 

Officers (CAO) Council. We will also continue to partner with other agencies and SSCs on the HR LOB. 

Collaborating with these boards and agency partners will ensure our funding and contracting strategies 

are sound and enable us to partner with other agencies wherever possible.

An enhanced IT governance capacity will identify and ensure we fund IT investments that are more 

tightly aligned with business unit needs, including current and future policy. It will also allow us to 

manage, evaluate, measure, and monitor IT services, and the resulting work and deliverables, in a more 

consistent and repeatable manner. The result will be services that deliver effective business outcomes 

and quality, along with cost control of these services.

We will manage IT investments with better testing, risk management, Earned Value Management 

(EVM), and cost accounting – and with greater transparency, accountability, and responsibility. We will 

operationalize IT leadership’s commitment to align all IT functions with the principles of the Digital 

Government Strategy3 and adhere to the requirements of the Federal-wide Open Data Policy4

, which 

provides a framework for managing information as an asset throughout its lifecycle. This idea of an 

information or data lifecycle underpins our approach to the HR lifecycle IT framework. 

Phase 1 – Plan (June 2014): We will institutionalize an Investment Review Board (IRB) and supporting 

governance structure, including the revision of charters for continuing IT boards and sunsetting of other 

boards, to improve acquisition and fiscal management accountability. We will also establish decision 

criteria for investment decisions that consider EA, costs, and repurposing of existing solutions and tools 

rather than acquiring new ones, in addition to mission outcome.

Phase 2 – Implement (September 2014): We will establish a centralized technical Project Management 

Office (PMO) to provide oversight for all IT projects using standard review and reporting procedures 

such as PortfolioStat and TechStat to measure the performance and compliance of projects.

Phase 3 – Assess (December 2014): We will baseline and begin routinely reporting on the performance 

of our projects, including compliance with Federal-wide requirements such as the Digital Government 

Strategy. 

No additional funding is required to implement these initiatives. This effort, like the changes to IT 

leadership, will require the reallocation of existing manpower and other resources. Enhanced IT 

3 White House. (May 23, 2012). Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve 

the American People. Retrieved Jan. 11, 2014 from 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/egov/digital-government/digital-governmentstrategy.pdf.

4 See OMB Memorandum M-13-13, Open Data Policy – Managing Information as an Asset, of May 9, 

2013, and Project Open Data (http://project-open-data.github.io/).

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

governance will result in cost avoidance and cost savings through better IT management and oversight, 

identifying funds for high-priority programs.

Enterprise Architecture (EA)

Aligning, standardizing, optimizing

IT leadership and governance form the foundation for strategic decision-making and efficient use of 

resources in pursuit of our mission. Likewise, enterprise architecture further reinforces this critical 

foundation, rendering a cohesive environment to modernizing IT at OPM.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) calls EA a “blueprint for organizational change” that is 

“defined in models that describe (in both business and technology terms) how the entity operates today 

and how it intends to operate in the future; it also includes a plan for transitioning to this future state.”5

GAO contends that the effective use of EA leads to organizational success and is important in achieving 

operational and technology environments that support business, performance, and outcomes. In 

addition, GAO stresses that using an EA can lead to cost savings through shared services, elimination of 

redundancies, data standardization and reuse, data sharing and integration, and streamlining business 

processes and operations. The Clinger-Cohen Act and OMB require the use of architectures.6

The Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) includes 5 models:

1. The Performance Reference Model (PRM) provides standard ways of measuring performance 

and determining which IT investments for the various business initiatives lead to the best 

outcomes. The goal is improved resource allocation and the identification of performance 

improvement opportunities across the HR lifecycle IT framework. 

2. The Business Reference Model (BRM) organizes OPM business operations in terms of function 

(i.e., Strategy, Acquire, Sustain, Separate) and mode of delivery rather than by business unit. It 

is a mechanism that will allow OPM to move away from the long-established “stovepipe” way of 

doing business and developing solutions. 

3. The Service Component Reference Model (SRM) is a horizontal, IT-level view that provides a 

common foundation for reusing applications, application capabilities, components, and business 

5 Government Accountability Office. (Sept. 2012). Organizational Transformation: Enterprise 

Architecture Value Needs to Be Measured and Reported, p. 1. Report to Congressional Committees, 

GAO-12.791. Retrieved Jan. 8, 2014 from http://www.gao.gov/assets/650/648827.pdf. 

6 40 U.S.C. §11315; The E-Government Act of 2002 also provided a more detailed definition of the concept and 

elements of enterprise architecture. See 44 U.S.C. §§ 3601(4) and 3602; OMB Circular A-130 (Nov. 30, 2000); and 

Chief Information Officers Council. (February 2001). A Practical Guide to Federal Enterprise Architecture, Version 

1.0. Retrieved Jan. 8, 2014 from http://www.gao.gov/assets/590/588407.pdf. 

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services. The highest levels here are service domains such as “Customer Services,” “Process 

Automation,” and “Back Office Services” that are entirely independent of OPM’s specific 

business functions.

4. The Technical Reference Model (TRM) is a super-framework (there are numerous agency-level 

technical models) for categorizing in a uniform way the standards and technologies used by the 

government, with an eye toward encouraging reuse, interoperability, and economies of scale. A 

typical category here is “Service Requirements,” which includes legislative/compliance, 

authentication/single sign-on, and hosting. 

5. The Data Reference Model (DRM) is a standardized way to describe, categorize, and share data. 

The standard description and discovery of common data and the promotion of uniform data 

management practices are extremely important to the implementation of the HR lifecycle IT 

framework.

We depend a great deal on our IT capability to solve complex business challenges and promote 

innovation. A robust EA will ensure these capabilities are: (1) aligned with OPM’s business strategy, 

(2) standardized to promote data sharing, and (3) optimized for maximum resource sharing across the 

Federal space to manage costs, all of which will bolster the HR lifecycle IT framework. As recommended 

in The Common Approach to Federal Enterprise Architecture7

, we view EA as a collaborative 

methodology or process that will enable us to control the growing complexity and requirements of 

OPM’s infrastructure. By setting agency-wide IT standards and collaborating with our business partners 

and external stakeholders, we can minimize costs, maximize resources, and truly take a lifecycle 

approach to HR IT.

Implementing the suggested common approach to Federal EA will yield four primary outcomes: 

(1) service delivery to ensure mission performance, (2) functional integration, meaning interoperability 

of programs, systems, and services, (3) resource optimization, and (4) the introduction of an 

authoritative reference. As an authoritative reference or standard, “EA is uniquely positioned as the 

management best practice which can provide a consistent view across all program and service areas to 

support planning and decision-making.”8 Additionally, the EA will provide a blueprint that will inform 

the governance process by enabling decision-makers to see the current state and, as it evolves, the longterm view of organizational processes, solutions, and technologies. This will enable process innovation 

that will improve value and drive down costs. 

7 White House. (May 2, 2012). The Common Approach to Federal Enterprise Architecture. Retrieved 

Jan. 14, 2014, from 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/egov_docs/common_approach_to_federal

_ea.pdf.

8 Common Approach, p. 5.

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A robust EA will support business units within OPM and external Federal agencies and partners by 

providing the fundamental process and structure to ensure our technology is aligned to meet our 

complex, integrated business and data requirements. With a robust EA, we will achieve the right 

balance between IT efficiency and business innovation. It will create within the HR lifecycle IT 

framework the flexibility required to allow the business units to innovate their business practices in 

pursuit of their mission and goals while considering the organization as a whole with regard to shared IT 

platforms, data, and other resources. The EA will drive an integrated HR IT strategy, enabling the 

greatest possible cooperation and synthesis across the Federal enterprise. This integrated EA will allow 

us to recoup spending from duplicate IT technologies and services so we can invest in improved 

infrastructure and services that better serve OPM’s mission throughout the HR lifecycle.

Phase 1 – Plan (September 2014): We will complete a thorough review of OPM’s business strategies to 

identify gaps in the HR LOB BRM that are a critical part of the FEA approach and the HR lifecycle. We 

will prioritize our efforts across the BRM to focus on high priority work streams that will yield tangible 

results for OPM and other agencies. For example, we are already working on ways to ensure we receive 

HR data at critical points throughout an employee’s career that enables us to more quickly and more 

accurately calculate retirement annuities and benefits rather than waiting until an employee retires to 

collect this necessary data. We will inventory the available technology capabilities and adopt core 

architecture principles from industry to drive an assessment of current capabilities and identify future 

needs. During this phase, we will also develop the performance reference model.

Phase 2 – Implement (iterative, beginning October 2014): We will create detailed architectures for each 

of the prioritized work streams identified in phase 1. This effort will consist of creating or updating the 

reference models. This phase will bring together application, information (data), organization, and 

technology planning to bridge between the current and future states. For each gap we find, we will 

identify alternative solutions to “fill” the gap, e.g., new or repurposed applications, databases, 

technologies, skills, or management processes, and use a business case and our IT governance structure 

to prioritize and fund projects to achieve our end-state architecture. The result will be an enterprisewide architecture and a definitive modernization plan with documented priorities and 

interdependencies, as well as resource requirements.

Phase 3 – Assess (iterative, beginning April 2015): We will continue to evolve our EA by assessing our 

current state against the PRM developed in phase 1. Where our technologies are not providing the 

expected results, we will identify or update our desired end-state to adopt new or updated 

technologies, exercise our governance structure, and implement plans to achieve the desired end-state. 

We will make certain all IT solutions at OPM are integrated within the EA to support business needs and 

the desired performance outcomes across the agency.

Systematically assessing and rethinking our IT programs and projects will take considerable time, and 

OPM has many functions that must continue while we complete our assessment and make needed 

changes. Using an iterative approach, we will expand our EA implementation and assessment work until 

we have a full picture of our current state, desired state, gaps, and solutions, while continuing to 

maintain existing systems and putting new ones into use in accordance with the requirements 

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

developed through our governance structure and EA. OPM will require additional funds to acquire tools 

and additional resources for implementation of this initiative.

Agile IT

Attaining speed, flexibility, and compliance

Excellent IT leadership, IT governance, and EA will provide the foundation for developing and 

maintaining the IT assets that will function within the HR lifecycle IT framework. Agile IT will enable us 

to make effective use of those foundational blocks and quickly adapt to changes in business needs, 

policy, and advances in technology.

Agile IT requires policies and procedures that support iterative development, a flexible EA, and 

dedicated empowered teams. Benefits include:

• The ability to adapt more quickly to changes in business needs resulting from changes in policy; 

• Adoption of new technology throughout a project's lifecycle;

• Detection and correction of flaws earlier in the project’s lifecycle with more frequent and earlier 

testing;

• Increased collaboration between project sponsors and technical staff, which creates common 

expectations, thereby increasing overall satisfaction by all stakeholders; and

• Opportunities for the entire project team to enhance their knowledge and skills throughout the 

project’s lifecycle, contributing to the ultimate success of the project.

We will leverage existing resources and capacities at OPM, including our Project Management 

Community of Practice (PMCoP) and the Lab@OPM (for human centered design), to define OPM’s agile 

IT policies and procedures. We will review the OPM System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)9 policy and 

standards and related templates, OPM’s IT Security and Privacy (ITSP) policy and procedures, and 

successful practices from industry. We will also document tools and techniques used by OPM project 

teams that are already using agile IT principles. Deliverables will include: (1) updated procedures and 

templates supporting agile IT and (2) an inventory of current tools used by OPM’s agile project teams, 

including current licensing agreements.

Many of OPM’s IT projects use EVM, an approach to program planning and control that looks at 

schedule, cost, and work scope in an integrated fashion. We have had an EVM System (EVMS) in place 

since 2004 and have already begun using it in conjunction with agile development. Since EVM is about 

9 http://www.opm.gov/about-us/our-people-organization/support-functions/cio/opm-systemdevelopment-life-cycle-policy-and-standards.pdf.

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management processes, reporting, forecasting, and actions, it helps us make good funding and 

programmatic decisions at each iteration within the agile IT process.

Phase 1 – Plan (September 2014): We will review and refine policies, procedures, and tools for agile IT. 

We will identify programs and projects already using agile IT principles (through April 2014) and take 

advantage of existing skill sets to provide specialized training to our Federal employees. Also, we will 

evaluate our current contracts to ensure our contractors also have the right skill sets (June 2015). As we 

identify gaps in our needs, we will use our governance structure to prioritize our requirements.

Phase 2 – Implement (June 2015): We will implement agile IT principles in two stages. In stage one 

(January 2015), we will provide training on the agile standards to defined pilot groups within the CIO. 

We will monitor the pilot groups’ projects for two quarters (through June 2015) and identify successes 

and challenges in using the standards, then adjust standards as necessary. In subsequent stages, based 

on what we learn in stage one, we will develop a plan to drive agile IT principles into other initiatives. 

We will procure and implement tools to provide needed functionality as approved through our 

governance process.

Phase 3 – Assess (ongoing): We will monitor the pilot groups’ projects to identify successes and 

challenges in using the agile standards and adjust standards as necessary. As we implement changes, 

we will continue to assess our progress.

Creating an agile IT environment at OPM will allow for more efficient response to changing needs. The 

ability to adapt quickly will provide opportunities for savings; reduce the risks and associated costs of 

implementing outdated technologies; lead to more focused efforts, thereby eliminating unnecessary 

activities and, with them, their costs; and provide savings in licensing fees through the consolidation of 

tools. OPM will require additional funds to acquire tools and additional resources for implementation of 

this initiative.

Data Analytics

Better informing business strategy

Data analytics – associating, accessing, and analyzing many data sources – is all about turning data into 

information and presenting it in a way that makes it easier to parse and understand, as well as see 

trends, which, in turn, informs decisions and drives better outcomes. OPM and other Federal agencies 

alike need HR data analytics capabilities to (1) better inform policy, decision-making, and business 

strategies and (2) measure, analyze, and improve performance. Data analytics enables leaders to 

answer big business questions, such as “How much and what kind of education, training, and experience 

increases the likelihood that a supervisor will be able to successfully manage a small staff or large staff, a 

geographically dispersed staff, or a high performing staff?” This information then might be useful in 

budgeting for learning and development. It might be helpful in identifying the best set of candidates for 

a supervisory position. Data analytics will allow us to adopt a rational, fact-based approach to explore 

hypotheses and ideas that can transform our business in ways we might not readily imagine.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

OPM collects a vast amount of data on the Federal workforce. This data must be properly associated 

and presented to enable analysis, depict trends, and identify perspectives that should be explored for 

cause and effect. Agencies can use trustworthy, accessible, and complete data to develop roadmaps to 

understand their future skill requirements or enable responsive, agile policy-making. Agency leaders 

should want to use the data to compare and contrast their agency’s workforce with the rest of the 

Federal workforce, and even private industry. If an agency consistently demonstrates high performance, 

perhaps there are lessons that can be harvested and shared to increase the performance in all agencies. 

Also, if one agency is increasing its dependence on one occupation and another agency is decreasing its 

focus in the same area, data will disclose this and resources may be shared to the benefit of both 

agencies and the employees. The success of the HR lifecycle strategy is heavily dependent on our ability 

to use the right data at the right time for it to inform important decision-making. Across the HR 

lifecycle, there are multiple places where administrators, officials, agencies, and Federal employees 

must make important decisions and need access to the right kind of information. 

Phase 1 – Plan (November 2014): We have already begun the process of creating an enterprise data 

inventory and public data listing10 as prescribed by the Open Data Policy. We will develop a data 

management policy to increase transparency, complete an initial inventory of data, engage business 

owners to identify problems we can solve with data-driven solutions, identify business rules to ensure 

data standards inform future investment decisions, and capture current processes and documents so we 

can share the most effective techniques.

Phase 2 – Implement (June 2015): We will enforce the business rules to improve analytics and promote 

interoperability, make technical adjustments to existing data to enable sharing, and increase the 

availability of the data to various Federal and public stakeholders.

Phase 3 – Assess (ongoing): We will assess our data outputs by maintaining the inventory and public 

data listing, identifying additional data that can be made available as part of the data analytics 

framework, and collecting feedback from our stakeholder community to validate the quality of our data 

outputs.

The return on this investment will come from the cost savings derived from enterprise wide operational 

or maintenance processes, less manual data input, and reuse of data already in legacy systems. Also, 

data will be more structured and readily available across the enterprise to enable better, faster decisionmaking. OPM will require additional funds to acquire tools and additional resources for implementation 

of this initiative.

10 http://www.opm.gov/data.json; see also our Digital Government Strategy page, 

http://www.opm.gov/about-us/open-government/digital-government-strategy/.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Information Security

Protecting Americans' information

OPM is responsible for IT systems used to recruit, investigate, hire, and manage Federal employees. 

These systems contain Personally Identifiably Information (PII) and Protected Health Information (PHI)

of Federal jobseekers, Federal employees, Federal retirees, and their survivors. To ensure the 

protection of these systems and their data, we follow guidance from the Federal Information Security 

Management Act (FISMA),11 NIST 800-53,12 and OMB. We manage our systems according to NIST’s 

Security Life Cycle:13

Figure 4: NIST's Security Life Cycle

11 44 U.S.C. §3541 et seq.

12 See http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/PubsSPs.html.

13 National Institute of Standards and Technology. Computer Security Division. Computer Security 

Resource Center. (2013). Risk Management Framework (RMF) – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s), 

Roles and Responsibilities & Quick Start Guides (QSG’s). Retrieved Jan. 27, 2014 from 

http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SMA/fisma/Risk-Management-Framework/.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

We are also working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to implement Continuous 

Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) using government-wide Information Security Continuous Monitoring 

(ISCM) tools to enhance our ability to identify and respond, in real time or near real time, to the risk of 

emerging cyber threats.14 Through this implementation, we will automate the following information 

security capabilities: software and hardware inventories, configuration management, and vulnerability 

assessments. We will also make data available via a Federal-wide dashboard established by DHS.

We will implement Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) for high-risk OPM systems taking 

advantage of a wealth of information security expertise. The goal of IV&V is to provide an independent 

review as an extra check to ensure our systems are secure. This added precaution will reduce the risk of 

oversights during the engineering, development, and deployment phases of the system lifecycle. We 

have held initial discussions with DHS to identify how they can support IV&V at OPM. 

We will centralize security management and accountability into the Office of the CIO and staff it with 

security professionals who are fully trained and dedicated to information security on a full-time basis. 

This will ensure standard application of OPM IT security policies and procedures for all systems and 

allow quicker adoption of new and improved policies, procedures, and templates.

We will work with OMB, NIST and others to ensure our information security policies are rigorous and 

cost effective based on a risk assessment methodology that considers both current and potential 

threats.

Phase 1 – Plan (May 2014): We will enhance our current ISCM strategy and plan and identify resource 

and skill requirement gaps to manage and coordinate our internal ISCM program. We will develop 

limited procedure guidance and continue to gather requirements for ISCM. We will assess our plan 

against industry benchmarks, including right-sizing of resources (junior- and senior-level security 

specialists) based on current systems and planned initiatives. Taking a scorecard approach, we will 

measure our information security program against compliance criteria.

Phase 2 – Implement (December 2014): We will complete major policy and procedure updates required 

by NIST 800-53 revision 4 and OMB guidance. We will begin deploying DHS security products to support 

ISCM for in-house systems. We will begin to provide training and implement the updated policies and 

procedures related to the ISCM. 

Phase 3 – Assess (December 2015): We will assess the ISCM program and make necessary adjustments 

to improve the effectiveness of the program. 

We will require additional resources to hire and train security professionals, implement Continuous 

Monitoring, and perform IV&V.

14 See Office of Management and Budget. (Nov. 18, 2014). Memorandum M-14-03. Enhancing the 

Security of Federal Information and Information Systems. Retrieved Jan. 27, 2014 from 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2014/m-14-03.pdf.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Continuous Monitoring and Assessments will eliminate the need for ongoing three-year Security 

Assessments and Authorizations (SA&As). All new systems will still require the SA&A to create a 

baseline. Continuous monitoring should reduce the total cost of ownership for OPM systems by 

reducing the need for subsequent SA&As. Continuous Monitoring will also reduce the risk and 

associated costs of data breaches. OPM will require additional funds to acquire tools and additional 

resources for implementation of this initiative.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Chapter 2: Enterprise Initiatives

To achieve interoperability, take advantage of synergies across OPM and throughout the Federal 

government, and best use our resources, we identified six enterprise-level initiatives for programs and 

systems throughout OPM.

The enabling initiatives described in Chapter 1 will help us organize to take advantage of the synergies 

described in Chapter 2. This work to combine efforts and leverage similarities will, in turn, support the 

business initiatives described in Chapter 3 by laying much the groundwork for fundamental capabilities.

Please see Appendix A for a summary of the benefits these enterprise-level initiatives will provide.

Figure 5: Enterprise Initiatives

Platform Consolidation

We will take a “shared first”15 approach to our systems. EA, with its focus on integration and 

standardization, will drive platform consolidation. We will incrementally align legacy applications and 

systems to the new platform. Through platform consolidation, we will:

• Enhance interoperability, increasing data sharing;

• Reduce duplication, saving on licensing fees;

• Support agile IT principles and modular design; and

• Comply with the Digital Government Strategy (separating the information, platform, and 

presentation layers).

15 White House. (May 2, 2012). Federal Information Technology Shared Services Strategy. Retrieved 

Jan. 13, 2014 from 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/egov_docs/shared_services_strategy.pdf.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Examples of activities under this initiative will include re-hosting legacy mainframe systems, increasing 

the use of shared service centers, and modernizing our automated suite of investigative systems known 

as EPIC to make it more agile, adaptable, and capable of rapid change to meet current and evolving 

needs. Please see Chapter 4 for more information on our shared platform approach.

Phase 1 – Plan (December 2014): We will complete an evaluation of our existing mainframe systems to 

understand the feasibility of and resources required for moving them to a shared distributed 

environment.

Phase 2 – Implement (December 2015): We will begin modernization of our IT systems to move them

into a shared distributed environment, eventually eliminating the need for the mainframe. 

While some funding is available for this effort, additional funding will be necessary to completely 

eliminate the need for the mainframe. These resource needs will be documented as part of our 

evaluation in phase 1.

Collaboration Tools

On this platform we will host collaboration tools that will enable teams and other groups to share 

documents and perform work virtually in a secure and easy-to-use manner. These collaboration tools 

will:

• Support efforts to strengthen collaboration between program offices, making data 

management, and therefore data analytics, easier to achieve;

• Make work processes seamless for employees, reducing barriers to collaboration and increasing 

productivity, for example, among personnel who process retirement claims;

• Enable us to better fulfill business requirements; and

• Enable two initiatives under consideration that would provide career maps, training curricula, 

courses, and other developmental resources to employees throughout the Federal Government 

and would provide a government-wide space for talent matching, project-based collaboration, 

and resource sharing.

Phase 1 – Plan (December 2014): We will complete documentation of our needs across OPM and an 

evaluation of available commercial solutions against those needs. We will create an acquisition plan for 

procuring licenses and services necessary for implementing a solution.

Phase 2 – Implement (August 2015): We will create an implementation plan and begin implementing 

the solution in OPM.

Resource requirements for this effort are not yet defined. They will be documented as part of phase 1 

and will be requested as part of the regular budgeting process.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Business Process Management and Case Management 

Tools

Many, if not most, program offices would benefit from business process management and case 

management tools. Currently, offices with documented processes and automated workflows have them 

in the form of custom engineered code. By providing these tools at the enterprise level, we will:

• Track and report on cases, such as applications for retirement, at a more granular level than we 

are currently capable of doing;

• Enable offices to collaborate on workflows. For example, we will better manage our 

correspondence and review process, thereby improving our responsiveness;

• Save on licensing costs;

• Improve standardization which reduces training costs;

• Flatten the learning curves for new employees and existing employees who move into new 

positions;

• Support shorter and more agile implementation of rule changes; and

• Surface excellent processes for reuse or emulation throughout the agency. For example, many 

offices have Resource Management Officers (RMOs) with different collaboration tools and 

business process management tools. With standard tools, they will be better able to learn from 

each other’s processes.

Business process management will be particularly beneficial to large offices or those with many remote 

workers to maintain consistency of work products. Case management will primarily benefit our 

retirement and investigations operations by enhancing their ability to track and report on cases.

Phase 1 – Plan (December 2014): We will complete documentation of our needs across OPM and an 

evaluation of available commercial solutions against those needs. We will create an acquisition plan for 

procuring licenses and services necessary for implementing a solution.

Phase 2 – Implement (August 2015): We will create an implementation plan and begin implementing 

the solution in OPM.

Resource requirements for this effort are not yet defined. They will be documented as part of phase 1 

and will be requested as part of the regular budgeting process.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Data Management and Warehousing

We are responsible for several data warehouses, as identified below, and with improved data analytics 

capabilities, our requirements will continue to grow:

• Health Claims Data Warehouse;

• EHRI Data Warehouse;

• Retirement Data Repository; and

• Electronic Retirement Records.

We will leverage economies of scale by coordinating our work on each of these data warehouses and 

reusing technologies and controls where possible. A robust data management and warehousing 

architecture will allow us to eliminate redundant data and better associate data to meet business 

information needs. As a result, we will be positioned to collect information from other agencies more 

efficiently and avoid redundant requests for information from agencies. Our architecture will include 

robust security controls to enable strict information security access and protections.

Phase 1 – Plan (September 2014): We will complete a detailed plan to implement a data-centric 

environment in OPM.

Phase 2 – Implement (September 2014): In fiscal year (FY) 2014,16 we will replace aged infrastructure 

and relocate our eastern data center to Boyers, PA. In FY 2015, we will begin to consolidate our 

databases and begin the transformation to a data-centric environment.

Additional funding will be required to move beyond the efforts currently planned. They will be 

documented as part of phase 1 and will be requested as part of the regular budgeting process.

Electronic Recordkeeping

The August 24, 2012 Managing Government Records Directive, signed by the Acting Director of OMB 

and the Archivist of the United States, “requires that to the fullest extent possible, agencies eliminate 

paper and use electronic recordkeeping. It is applicable to all executive agencies and to all records, 

without regard to security classification or any other restriction.”17

16 Federal fiscal years begin on October 1 of the previous year and end on September 30, so FY 2014 runs from 

October 2013 through September 2014.

17 Office of Management and Budget and National Archives and Records Administration. (August 24, 

2012). Memorandum M-12-18. Managing Government Records Directive, p. 2. Retrieved February 10, 

2014 from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2012/m-12-18.pdf

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

We will leverage our consolidated platform, robust business process management, and improved data 

management to automate recordkeeping and integrate electronic recordkeeping into employees’ 

everyday workflows. We will ensure our electronic records, especially email, are captured and 

maintained effectively so they are usable and retrievable. We will also put in place plans to migrate 

records to new storage media to avoid data loss due to media decay or technological obsolescence.

Electronic recordkeeping will not only ensure compliance with the Managing Government Records 

Directive, but also facilitate openness by making it easier to respond to Freedom of Information Act 

(FOIA) and Privacy Act (PA) requests and easing the burden of the discovery phase in litigation. For 

example, our offices frequently receive requests from current or former employees and their survivors 

for their case files.

With seamless electronic recordkeeping, much of our work to manage our records will happen without 

employees’ intervention and, where employees must take action, recordkeeping will occur within the 

flow of employees’ work. This will make recordkeeping less onerous for employees and increase the 

likelihood of compliance. Finally, by destroying records on time (at the appropriate point in their 

lifecycle and according to the records schedule approved by the Archivist of the United States) and no 

sooner, we will save on server costs, further reduce the burden of legal discovery, and have the records 

we need to work efficiently and effectively.

Phase 1 – Plan (September 2014): We will develop the requirements for an Electronic Records 

Management Application (ERMA).

Phase 2 – Implement (December 2016): We will complete implementation of our ERMA.

Resource requirements for implementing an ERMA will be documented as part of phase 1 and will be 

requested as part of the regular budgeting process.

Financial Management

Traditionally, Federal financial management systems have effectively supported budgeting. We need 

even better cost accounting with increased data fidelity that enables us to better understand our 

planned and actual expenditures so we can better allocate our costs by customer and project. By taking 

a platform approach, we will further modernize our financial systems to:

• Provide a comprehensive source of financial, budget, and performance information;

• Improve cost control for the benefit of other agencies that use our services;

• Manage our resources more effectively, which will help us make informed decisions about 

realigning resources to fund high-priority initiatives;

• Improve support for key trust fund-related business processes, such as communicating with 

benefit carriers via a web portal, efficiently managing cash balances and investments to achieve 

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

the best possible returns, automating and streamlining processes, and increasing transparency 

in reporting; and

• Adapt more quickly to changes in government-wide financial management requirements and 

mandates.

We will improve the following processes for Federal retirees, payroll providers, and agencies:

• Collection of retirement, health benefits, and life insurance withholdings and contributions 

information from Federal payroll providers;

• Collection of service credit deposits, voluntary contributions, direct premium remittances, and 

debt repayments through Pay.gov; 

• Cash management and asset allocation;

• Payment disbursements and tracking of payment confirmations and history;

• Financial oversight of Experience Rated Carriers (ERCs) and life insurance carriers;

• Management of improper payments; and

• Management of service credit deposits and voluntary contributions.

• By increasing our financial management capabilities, we will more accurately account for costs 

and better attribute efficiencies enterprise-wide to make the best possible use of taxpayer 

money.

In short, through the enhancement of our financial management systems and processes, OPM’s 

leadership team will be able to manage resources more collaboratively, easily, and effectively.

Phase 1 – Plan (September 2014): OPM will develop a plan for piloting a Cost Accounting Model (CAM). 

Once the model is created and data is analyzed, we will develop the baseline costs for limited activities, 

such as an investigation. 

Phase 2 – Implement (2015): We will continue to create baseline costs for additional activities, will 

analyze our costs in those areas, and seek ways to gain efficiencies. 

Additional funding will be required to move beyond the efforts currently planned. They will be 

documented as part of our efforts and will be requested as part of the regular budgeting process.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Chapter 3: Business Initiatives

From Strategy to Separation

Our many systems provide functionality to agencies across the areas of Acquire, Sustain, and Separate. 

Agencies use our systems to post vacancies, recruit and hire employees, rate applications, rank and 

assess qualified applicants, process investigations, conduct on boarding, retain employee records, 

manage performance, and train and educate employees. We also provide self-service benefit systems, 

and we accept and process retirement applications. Increasingly, the interaction and potential data 

exchange between these separate systems has become critical to servicing the Federal workforce. 

Other Federal systems, systems developed in the private sector, and OPM systems must be able to share 

data throughout the HR lifecycle. 

The comprehensive, common, and integrated Federal HR lifecycle IT framework will:

• Provide a base offering of OPM mandated systems that can seamlessly integrate with other 

optional OPM, shared service center, and private sector systems;

• Streamline the entire employment lifecycle, achieving efficiencies and economies of scale across 

the Government, thereby providing better value to Federal agencies;

• Enhance the value to our users through improved access to information;

• Offer single sign-on and user authentication to multiple systems to ease the burden on 

employees and improve security;

• Deliver enhanced ability to modify system functionality quickly to align with changes in Federal 

HR policy;

• Drive an employee-centric approach for easier use and elimination of duplicate data entry; and 

• Allow all data to flow easily between systems that provide hiring information (e-QIP,18 eOPF, 

payroll, etc.), employee management information (Performance Based Management, Learning 

Management Systems), and retirement information.

In recent years, many of our systems have made remarkable advances in integration, interoperability 

and data exchange. For example, we rebuilt and implemented USAJOBS®, the Federal Government's 

official source for Federal job listings and employment opportunity information with a “universal trailer 

hitch,” that is, a standard integration technique using Human Resources Extensible Markup Language 

(HR XML) standards. The OPM Talent Acquisition System (TAS), USA Staffing®, also developed and 

implemented an on-boarding feature that integrates seamlessly with OPM's eOPF, providing data flow 

and record retention capability for Federal employees.

18 Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing.

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

To address agreed upon, standardized security requirements, we will follow NIST and FISMA standards 

and guidance. The modular design of the HR lifecycle IT framework will assist in further refining 

security. A modular system approach permits more control and allows choices for the most secure 

method of segmenting and securing the data.

One of the most critical components of the success of the HR lifecycle IT framework is having a universal 

technical “language” all participants can use to communicate. The data convention already used in 

USAJOBS® and USA Staffing® is based on the industry-accepted HR XML; we will leverage this work. The 

HR lifecycle IT framework will also incorporate existing OPM data standards as established in the Guide 

to Human Resources Reporting (GHRR) and Guide to Retirement Data Reporting (GRDR). These data 

standards are crucial to the successful electronic data exchange between the systems using the HR 

lifecycle IT framework. Additionally, these standards are already in production within HR LOB.

In the remainder of this chapter, we present a range of business initiatives, placed along the HR lifecycle 

(see Figure 6). See also Appendix B for a list of benefits of these business initiatives organized by major 

stakeholder group.

Figure 6: Business Initiatives Placed Along the HR Lifecycle

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Strategy

In the Strategy phase of the BRM, agencies strategize, organize, plan, and develop strategies for 

managing their workforce. The Strategy phase has two sub-functions: HR Strategy and Organization and 

Position Management. The sub-functions, in turn, have associated processes.

HR Strategy "includes: conducting both internal and external environmental scans; developing human 

resources and human capital strategies and plans; establishing human resources policy and practices; 

managing current and future workforce competencies; developing workforce plans; developing 

succession plans; managing the human resources budget; providing human resources and human capital 

consultative support; and measuring and improving human resources performance."19 Organization and 

Position Management "designs, develops, and implements organization and position structures that 

create a high-performance, competency-driven framework that both advances the agency mission and 

serves agency human capital needs."20

The Strategy phase focuses on policy, both OPM policies and agencies' policies. Successful policy 

requires accurate and timely information. Therefore, we are exploring many ways to use data analytics 

to support both sub-functions of the Strategy phase.

For example, as discussed in the Data Analytics section, OPM collects information on agencies' 

performance; harvesting and sharing this information can be immensely powerful. Agencies could learn 

from one another and improve performance. Agencies could also look at the intersection of education 

or training with performance to draw conclusions about what kinds of training are most likely to be 

effective in improving individuals' performance. This would help low-performing improve and 

contribute more effectively to their agencies and high-performing individuals might be given training to 

help them adjust to new, greater responsibilities.

Robust data analytics capabilities provide agencies the ability to analyze trends in their workforce and 

use that information to plan their hiring strategies collaboratively within and across departments. For 

example, if one agency noticed that it would soon need fewer employees with particular competencies 

or in a certain job series while another agency expected to hire more such employees, the agencies 

could use HR flexibilities to transfer some people. Organizations within the same agency could perform 

similar analyses and make similar decisions. Such arrangements are more cost-effective for agencies 

and less disruptive for employees than some alternative workforce shaping tools.

Indeed, rich and easily available information about employees' competencies and agencies' current and 

future needs for employees with particular competencies has nearly endless possibilities. Jobseekers 

could more easily map their skills to the competencies required by various job series and particular jobs, 

19 BRM, p. 4.

20 BRM, ibid.

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which would help them better target their job searches. Agencies could more easily find skilled 

personnel from other agencies for important short-term projects that would advance the agencies' 

missions while enhancing the employees’ career and network. The Senior Executive Service (SES) is 

designed for mobility of Federal executives. While members of the SES must share the same basic 

competencies, they all have rich resumes; detailed information about their competencies could help 

match executives to new positions.

Data becomes even more powerful when combined with information from other sources. For example, 

agencies could combine regional or geographic information regarding where Federal employees live and 

work with HR data to forecast their need for office space or identify looming labor shortages in 

particular job series in specific locations even when the job series is unlikely to present a shortage 

problem in the government as a whole.

Acquire

In the Acquire phase, agencies recruit and hire employees. This phase has one sub-function, Staff 

Acquisition, which "includes: developing a staffing strategy and plan; establishing an applicant 

evaluation approach; announcing the vacancy, sourcing and evaluating candidates against the 

competency requirements for the position; initiating pre-employment activities; and hiring 

employees."21

OPM systems that support these activities include USAJOBS® for posting job announcements, USA 

Staffing® for staffing and assessment, USA Hire for testing both during and after the hiring process, and 

the group of background investigation systems known as “EPIC.” Trends we identify from data in these 

systems can help agencies see which kinds of positions are of greatest interest, which ones will be 

harder to fill with excellent candidates, and what skills applicants possess or lack. This information can 

inform HR strategy and position management.

USAJOBS®

USAJOBS.gov is a web-based job board enabling Federal jobseekers free access to thousands of job 

opportunities across hundreds of Federal agencies and organizations. USAJOBS® enables agencies to 

post public notice for Federal employment opportunities22. 

For USAJOBS® to be the most effective, its universal trailer hitch must be as modern and complete as 

possible so it can integrate fully with the TASs that agencies use for accepting and evaluating 

applications. For the best user experience possible, these TASs must provide a similar look and feel to 

21 BRM, ibid. 

22 5 U.S.C. §3327 and 5 U.S.C. §3330.

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USAJOBS® and not request redundant information, which allows users to feel they are using a single 

system rather than disparate ones. Therefore, we must update the universal trailer hitch and insist on a 

minimum level of standardization. Improvements to USAJOBS® will proceed in four potentially 

overlapping phases. We will:

1. Update the universal trailer hitch;

2. Establish or revise standards

3. Develop policy for the universal trailer hitch and revised standards, along with a scorecard to 

gauge agencies’ progress toward complying with the standards; and

4. Conduct an evaluation of the usability of the USAJOBS® interface.

During fiscal year (FY 2014), we will implement profile and resume builder enhancements for USAJOBS®, 

pilot a resume mining feature, implement an application wizard, and implement reporting and analytics 

features. In addition to regular software updates, we will begin facilitating planning and analysis 

activities in support of the next iteration of USAJOBS®. These activities will begin at the end of the 

second quarter of FY 2014 and continue through the end of the fiscal year.

During FY 2015, we will maintain the current iteration of USAJOBS® and will continue planning and 

analysis activities to design a proof of concept, delivered iteratively using agile IT, for the next iteration 

of USAJOBS®. Specifically, through 3-week sprints incorporated into releases that occur every 6 to 9 

weeks, we will deliver a proof-of-concept that allows time for approval processes such as that of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act while enabling us to respond rapidly to policy changes.

Talent Acquisition and Candidate Assessment

USA Staffing®

USA Staffing® is OPM's Talent Acquisition System and enables federal agencies to recruit, assess, certify, 

and onboard qualified candidates efficiently and cost effectively. USA Staffing® currently accounts for 

over 83% of all Federal Agency job postings on USAJOBS®. 

USA Staffing® is currently in the midst of a multi-year project to rebuild or transform the system using 

agile software development methods. We are transforming USA Staffing®’s underlying system 

technologies for improved assessment capability, increased system capacity, improved usability, and 

expanded metrics. These improvements will not only help agencies in the Acquire phase of the HR LOB 

BRM, but they will also assist in planning during the Strategy phase.

Benefits of the new USA Staffing® include:

• Workload Management and Timeliness Tracking

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• Hiring Manager Interface Improvements – Includes Request Creation/Tracking, Integrated 

Reviews of Assessments and Announcements, and Improvements to Certificate Reviews 

• Improved Applicant Maintenance with Flexible Applicant filtering, Inline editing from Lists and 

New Review Capabilities

• USAJOBS® Preview – Without Having to Release

• Visible Audit Trail

• Completely Redesigned Applicant Notifications

• Data Self Service for Complete Control Over Data Interconnections and Improved and 

Standardized Request Processing and Workload Tracking Interconnections

• Fully Integrated Onboarding

• Improved Usability – Tabbed Interface, Better Report Integration, Auto Complete, Filtering, 

Dashboards, Optimized Page Designs and More!

• Eligibilities with Adjudication Integrated with the Applicant’s USAJOBS® Profile

• Competency and Item Libraries and Improved Organization and Sharing of Library Items via 

Tagging

• Improved Assessment Capability – New Weight-Based Rating Method for Easier and More 

Accurate Assessment Development; Tracking of Competency Scores, Integrated HR Manager 

Data

• Requests Linked to and Tracked Across Multiple Vacancies Across Different Offices

In the summer of 2014, we will begin planning the transition to the new technology and software. We 

will run the legacy and new versions in parallel for about two years to allow for a full and orderly 

transition. We expect to complete the technology and software upgrade in FY 2015. 

USA Hire

USA Hire provides an online assessment suite of products and services supported by industrial and 

organizational psychologists, HR specialists, and IT specialists. In a nutshell, USA Hire offers secure, 

proctored and unproctored Web-based testing services for agencies’ hiring, employee development, 

and leadership assessment and development.

USA Hire is helping to standardize testing capabilities across the Federal space and is used to administer 

three kinds of tests: (1) OPM and commercial off-the-shelf assessments, individually or in combination; 

(2) automated versions of agencies’ own tests; and (3) custom-made tests.

USA Hire is used by a wide range of agencies of all sizes. This includes high stakes testing for the 

selection processes for civilian positions and provides assessments for programs such as the Presidential 

Management Fellows (PMF) and Administrative Law Judges (ALJ) Programs.

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Benefits of USA Hire include:

• The ability to administer any type of online assessment, ranging from multiple-choice to 

sophisticated simulations, video-based assessments, and computer scored writing and language 

translation assessments;

• Access to a growing suite of OPM-owned and commercially-owned off-the-shelf assessments for 

dozens of occupational series and hundreds of competencies or skills;

• Better, more valid assessments, especially of job applicants;

• Efficiencies and economies of scale gained from agencies’ not having to stand up and maintain 

their own testing systems;

• Reduced burden on both applicants and agencies by allowing applicants to self-schedule 

(proctored testing) or access required assessments from the comfort of their home or another 

location, such as a public library or job training center (unproctored testing); and

• Ease of use. For example, when agencies use USA Hire for assessing job applicants, they can 

provide a link right in the job announcement on USAJOBS®, thereby providing a seamless 

experience for applicants.

Furthermore, user satisfaction with USA Hire is exceptionally high: most applicants who completed a 

post-assessment survey expressed satisfaction with the testing process and agreed the platform is user 

friendly.

The data collected by USA Hire will provide countless insights into the skills agencies are hiring for or 

developing in their employees. Data on such trends is invaluable for workforce planning.

Background Investigation Systems

OPM’s Federal Investigative Services (FIS) conducts background investigations to support Executive 

Branch hiring, security clearance, and credentialing determinations. In fact, FIS conducts over 95% of 

the Government’s background investigations. The processes supporting these investigative activities are 

highly integrated, automated, and consistently measured against quality and timeliness performance 

standards for Federal hiring and security clearance process reform. Performance data for these 

background investigation products are regularly reported to the Director of National Intelligence, 

Executive Branch agencies, OMB, and Congress.

The growing security threat and critical need for quick, valid, and detailed vetting of individuals for 

national security and Federal employment demands a responsive and agile process for background 

investigations. We are continuously enhancing our automated suite of background investigation 

systems (collectively referred to as EPIC) designed to meet our current and future investigative and 

personnel security process needs.

The initiative will also support reform in the investigative process and, drawing on the enabling initiative 

of information security, protect and secure the volumes of sensitive information in the EPIC systems.

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The remainder of FY 2014 will be spent implementing various phases of the EPIC Transformation. We 

will assess the success of the above initiatives throughout FY 2014 and FY 2015. Metrics will be defined 

to measure the accuracy and completeness of the data exchanges and track efficiencies.

Sustain

Employees spend most of their time in the Sustain phase, and most HR systems and functions pertain to 

this phase, which has by far the most sub-functions, six:

• Performance Management involves "managing employee performance at the individual level 

and evaluating the overall effectiveness of the agency’s employee development approach," as 

well as creating and implementing performance management strategies.

• Compensation Management encompasses "developing and implementing compensation 

programs; administering bonus and monetary awards programs; administering pay changes; 

managing time, attendance, leave and pay; and managing payroll."

• Benefits Management entails "establishing and communicating benefits programs; processing 

benefits actions; and interacting as necessary with third party benefits providers."

• Human Resources Development "includes conducting employee development needs 

assessments; designing employee development programs; administering and delivering 

employee development programs; and evaluating the overall effectiveness of the agency’s 

employee development approach."

• Employee Relations involves "addressing employee misconduct; addressing employee 

performance problems; managing administrative grievances; providing employee 

accommodation; administering employees assistance programs; participating in administrative 

third party proceedings; and determining candidate and applicant suitability." 

• Labor Relations "includes negotiating and administering labor contracts and collective 

bargaining agreements; managing negotiated grievances; and participating in negotiated third 

party proceedings."23

OPM programs that support the Sustain phase include USA Performance for performance management, 

learning management, and skills tracking tools, as well as the benefits systems Federal Employee 

Insurance Operations (FEIO) and National Healthcare Operations (NHO). Data generated by these 

systems can be used for forecasting. For example, we can compare the skills employees have or are 

acquiring to those skills we believe, based on other data, our workforce will need in the future.

23 BRM, pp. 4-5.

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Performance Management

USA PerformanceSM

USA PerformanceSM has a wide range of functionality. It enables agencies to automate their 

performance appraisal process throughout the entire performance rating cycle. Through USA 

PerformanceSM, we will:

• Increase efficiencies by streamlining processes and providing both dashboard views and 

standardized reports. These features will reduce paper, printing, and postage costs;

• Increase the visibility and transparency of the performance management process;

• Enhance accountability of the existing performance management process;

• Improve alignment between individual and organizational performance and between 

individuals’ performance and development; and

• Enable better, faster decision-making.

USA PerformanceSM is undergoing final security evaluation currently, and we expect the system to be in 

production in summer 2014. It is funded through FY 2015

Learning Management and Skills Tracking

USALearning®

USALearning® (previously known as GoLearn) is the Federal Government’s online education and training 

platform. This program was established under the E-Gov (E-Training) initiative as the principal resource 

for Federal online training. The program has two business lines: Learning Management System (LMS) 

Service branch and The Knowledge Portal (TKP), which provides an array of services for small and 

medium agencies. TKP’s open-source tools allow small agencies to operate in a shared environment and 

share in the reduced costs of hosting, helpdesk, and the development and implementation of 

enhancements that are unique to a particular agency. TKP’s offerings provide users access via the 

Internet.

USALearning® provides a breadth and depth of data on employees’ training and skills that, when 

combined and analyzed, will paint a rich picture of the Federal workforce. While USALearning® is in a 

steady state with only minor enhancements and is currently funded, additional capabilities under 

consideration would result in an even richer experience for the user. These additional capabilities, if 

adopted, would be reimbursably funded by agencies.

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Benefits: Healthcare and Insurance

Federal Employee Insurance Operations (FEIO)

FEIO is responsible for the government-wide administration of health benefits through the Federal 

Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) and insurance programs and services for Federal 

employees, retirees, and their families.

Our current FEIO IT initiatives include the rollout of the Benefits Plus system to internal and external 

users, a collaboration wiki for internal Healthcare and Insurance resources, and automation of various 

Open Season applications and products, including the Guides to Federal Benefits and Brochure Creation 

tools.

Benefits Plus will eliminate the multiple data entry and storage points for identical data from insurance 

carriers and consolidate the data into a single central repository. We have conducted user research and 

are in the initial stages of development. We plan to present the concept at the March 2014 Carrier 

Conference to the FEHB plans. Benefits Plus will:

• Reflect the structure of modern FEHB plans;

• Be flexible in supporting new plan structures and more easily maintained;

• Gather and manage a range of metrics for program and health plan performance evaluation;

• Generate plan comparison data for consumers;

• Reduce the complexity of contract and program management operations in this area; and

• Enhance data availability to actuaries and provide a range of reports for program and contract 

oversight.

In short, these changes will (1) make data entry easier for insurance carriers, (2) make data available to 

Federal employees and annuitants to inform their decisions about benefits, and (3) make data about 

programs and contracts easier for us to manage and adapt. These changes will be accomplished in FY 

2014 and FY 2105 and are funded.

National Healthcare Operations (NHO)

NHO was established by OPM in response to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and is the OPM component 

responsible for implementing and overseeing the Multi-State Plan Program (MSPP). Multi-state plans 

are one of several health insurance options from which small employers and uninsured individuals will 

be able to choose. In total, health care exchanges are expected to provide health insurance coverage 

for 31 million Americans.

NHO also helps to administer the Federally-run Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plans (PCIP) in states 

that do not establish PCIP programs themselves. NHO does this on behalf of the U.S. Department of 

Health and Human Services, which has primary responsibility for the PCIP program. PCIP operates in 24 

states and the District of Columbia and covers more than 45 percent of the U.S. population.

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Our Multi-State Plan Portal (also MSPP) is designed to:

• Provide external customers with a mechanism to file a request for external review, file a 

complaint, or offer other acceptable communication;

• Process and track incoming communications; and

• Produce a range of administrative reports to enable oversight.

Agile development and numerous stakeholder interviews have played a key role in the successful 

completion and implementation of the various phases of the MSPP:

• Since October 2013, we have accepted State Level Issuers (SLIs) plan data has been accepted via 

a web-facing portal with data transfer functionality to the Department of Health and Human 

Services (HHS);

• We have also completed two stages of contract modification functionality. Users and testers 

have reported satisfactory ratings; and

• The MSPP Expedited External Review and Complaints Systems phase of the system is in 

progress. This initial release will be internally facing and the next phase will be an externally 

facing web application that enrollees or their authorized representative can use to send NHO an 

expedited external review, complaint, disputed claim, or other acceptable case type.

The Expedited External Review system’s design was approved in mid-December and the internally facing 

functions of the External Review system are scheduled to go live with various iterations of the tool being 

rolled out on 30-90 day intervals, depending on the scale of development being done for that particular 

phase.

Plan recertification functionality and reporting capabilities will be in the next phase of development, 

testing, and implementation in calendar year 2014, which is funded.

Separation

Separation is the final phase of the BRM. Employees depart from the Federal service, usually for 

another job or to retire. The term “separation” should not be taken too literally. This phase is one of 

transition; “separating” employees may later return to Federal service, and many of them and their 

family members or survivors receive retirement and other benefits. For example, they may continue to 

receive the healthcare they began receiving in the previous phase, Sustain. Separation also involves 

knowledge transfer from departing employees, which our collaboration tools will facilitate.

This phase has a single sub-function:

Separation Management conducts efficient and effective employee separation 

programs that assist employees in transitioning to non-Federal employment; facilitates 

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

the removal of unproductive, non-performing employees; and assists employees in 

transitioning to retirement.24

Our IT efforts for this phase focus on processing retirement claims of various kinds and providing 

benefits to retirees and their survivors. Through enhanced data analytics, the data we collect and create 

in the course of our retirement work can be used to inform the workforce planning efforts of the 

Strategy phase at OPM and throughout the Federal space.

Retirement Systems

We are responsible for administering benefits and services for Federal employees, retirees, and their 

families under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees Retirement System 

(FERS). The IT we use to support and administer retirement benefits is for all practical purposes a set of 

legacy systems. 

A variety of system activities focused on making changes to our existing retirement systems are ongoing. 

For instance, current changes mandated by law or regulation include:

• Conversion of all retirement payments to Electronic Fund Transfers;

• Updating annuity calculators to factor increased retirement contributions for certain Federal 

Employees Retirement System-Revised Annuity Employees and Federal Employees Retirement 

System-Further Revised Annuity Employees (FERS-RAE and FERS-FRAE) employees;

• Updating annuity calculators to increase phased credit for unused Sick Leave for FERS;

• Updating annuity calculators for voluntary Roth contributions; and

• Numerous updates to existing calculators or support systems to automate complex business 

rules.

We envision transitioning the retirement program to a paperless system that will truly honor a Federal 

employee’s service by authorizing accurate retirement benefits on the day they are due, answering 

customers’ questions in a timely manner, and promoting self-service account maintenance. 

We will use agile IT to incrementally implement the following initiatives, with each iteration building on 

previous enhancements so service improves on a consistent and continuous basis.

electronic Individual Retirement Record

The eIRR system is a repository of limited historical retirement data submitted to us by agencies that 

have closed out their payroll systems. The eIRR system eliminated the need for payroll offices to 

provide hundreds of thousands of paper IRRs each year. It is now time to merge this data with other 

pre-retirement data we receive from agencies and payroll providers to provide a more comprehensive 

24 BRM, p. 5.

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record of employees’ service and provide savings from decommissioning a redundant system. This will 

consolidate various sources of retirement data into a single Retirement Data Repository (RDR). 

During FY 2014, we will develop requirements and co-locate data from the eIRR to the RDR, making it 

more broadly available to Retirement Services adjudication specialists and agency Benefits Officers 

through the Retirement Data Viewer (RDV). This work is dependent on additional funding as it is only 

partially funded through an appropriation that supports development work for all stakeholders in the 

EHRI Data Warehouse.

Re-Hosting of Legacy Mainframe-Based Systems

The mainframe hardware and software systems that support retirement processes are expensive to 

maintain. We anticipate cost increases at magnitudes of 10 percent to 15 percent annually as personnel 

with the necessary coding expertise retire and cannot easily be replaced. With other OPM programs 

already transitioning away from mainframe environments, escalation of future costs would need to be 

taken from discretionary sources, reducing flexibility for other program areas. As part of our enterprise 

platform consolidation effort, we will transition retirement systems to a distributed environment. 

Additional funding will be needed for this effort and will be requested as part of the budgeting process.

Retirement Data Repository (RDR)

We have established the RDR, which is a centralized data repository to store employee retirementrelated data defined in the Guide to Retirement Data Reporting and submitted via the Electronic 

Retirement Record (ERR) feed and will make that data available to other OPM systems and processes. 

The RDR will include retirement-ready data from agency HR and payroll systems, applicant data

submitted via the online retirement application, and any scanned documents necessary for retirement 

adjudication. There are several benefits to the RDR: 

• We will migrate from a paper-based environment to an electronic system, thereby saving money 

on printing, moving, and storing paper and making it possible to improve processing times;

• Integration with the major Federal payroll centers will provide valuable data for the Retirement 

Data Repository; and

• Data stored in the RDR is required for integration with our retirement calculator – that is, we 

need the information to calculate annuities.

In FY 2014, OPM and the Interior Business Center (IBC) SSC will continue testing of IBC test files to 

ensure that GRDR-compliant data is being sent to the RDR. During FY 2015, we will expand the technical 

compliance to other SSCs as they make changes to their systems to provide GRDR-compliant data. This 

work is dependent on additional funding as it is supported through an appropriation that supports 

development work for all stakeholders in the EHRI Data Warehouse.

Data Bridge from the ERR to the Retirement Calculator

A data bridge is an essential component in our iterative process toward retirement automation, 

mapping ERR data to the fields in our Retirement Calculator. Almost all data needed for retirement is 

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contained in the ERR files. Once this bridge is built, we will receive automated data feeds to the 

Calculator with information on retiring employees. This will reduce data entry and increase data 

accuracy.

During FY 2014, we will create a web service and interface to enable the retirement calculator to pull 

RDR data. Additionally, we will support testing to ensure the data is pulled correctly and accurately. 

This work is dependent on additional funding as it is only partially funded through an appropriation that 

supports development work for all stakeholders in the EHRI Data Warehouse.

Case Management

As noted under “Enterprise Initiatives,” business process management and case management solutions 

will benefit most organizations within OPM. For retirement processing, having a state-of-the-art case 

management system will mean being able to easily track and report on documents and cases as they are 

processed through various operating sections. The investment will significantly reduce manual data 

entry. The upgraded functionality will provide process monitoring and analysis, workflow definition and 

execution, and administration oversight and capabilities. It will support interactions with real time 

results and provide user-friendly reports. It will therefore enable better management oversight, process 

analysis, reporting, and monitoring.

Retirement Data Viewer (RDV)

The RDV is a web-based application in OPM’s Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI) retirement 

data repository environment. It enhances productivity and reduces errors by aggregating information 

from multiple systems and enabling users to see retirement-related data submitted via data feeds and 

imaged documents based on the users’ defined roles and responsibilities in the system. Employees use 

it to review test submissions from providers as a part of the technical compliance process, view scanned 

documents, and access data in other systems through a single interface while adjudicating a retirement 

case file. Several agencies participated in a pilot to use the Data Viewer in fiscal year 2013 (October 

2012-September 2013). The results of the pilot indicate that continued investment in the RDV will result 

in a significant drop in incompleteness of retirement cases or inaccurate dates within case files from 

these agencies. These results will translate to better service for retirees and more efficient use of staff 

time at OPM and participating agencies. We plan to add more agencies and enhance the RDV’s 

functionality.

During FY 2014, we will determine the support and functional requirements for a broader deployment 

of the RDV to agencies. Development of the RDV is dependent on funding as it is funded through an 

appropriation that supports development work for all stakeholders in the EHRI Data Warehouse. 

Funding for the support of a government-wide deployment of the RDV has not been identified.

Online Retirement Application

We are developing requirements for an Electronic Retirement Application. With this application, 

employees who are planning to retire will have access to more accurate counseling and a more refined 

annuity estimate based on more and better data. Employees will also be able to complete, 

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electronically sign, and submit their retirement applications using this web-based tool. This will make 

the application process easier for employees to complete.

During FY 2014, we will develop technical and functional requirements to ensure that data collected 

through an online application is accurately interfaced with other retirement data in the RDR. In FY 2015, 

we will develop an interface and validations to receive and store data collected through an online 

retirement application. This work is dependent on additional funding. 

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Chapter 4: OPM Enterprise-Wide Shared 

Platform

We manage and operate a large portfolio of IT systems constructed on different platforms with a diverse 

mix of technologies, standards, and protocols that have been developed over decades. Some systems 

have point-to-point integrations; that is, some of them share data, but these connections are not 

managed holistically. While these systems serve a valuable purpose and contribute significantly to the 

mission, the point-to-point integration approach is costly to maintain, is difficult to modify, and does not 

meet our needs in the future.

OPM will invest in infrastructure that promotes an enterprise, rational, secure, scalable and cost 

effective way to manage information flows among systems. We will plan and design an enterprise-wide 

shared platform that will constitute the first steps in operationalizing the HR lifecycle IT framework 

approach. Deploying a capability-based shared platform is an industry proven approach to address the 

data management, integration, and analytics challenges we face today.

What is an enterprise-wide shared platform? Think of the information we exchange electronically every 

day as cargo that is shipped across the Earth’s oceans. Now think of the systems or services sending and 

receiving that information as the business units engaged in sending and receiving the cargo packages. 

The shared platform would simply be the port facility. A shipping port facility is a critical transportation 

hub designed to facilitate the sorting, inspection, routing, and delivery of massive amounts of cargo. An 

effective port allows organizations to streamline shipping by using a dedicated, optimized facility to take 

care of logistical details and for transferring cargo between transports (e.g., moving shipping containers 

from ships to trucks). A shared platform provides a common hub for passing information. Just as ports 

enable a nation to effectively manage its commerce at a massive scale, an enterprise-wide shared 

platform enables organizations to effectively manage their information flows across the enterprise and 

beyond.

Imagine OPM has a new agency-wide IT initiative involving multiple business units that must exchange 

data with each other. Each of the business units could start its own integration project with every other 

business unit, which would quickly result in a web of point-to-point connections. Instead, they will use 

an enterprise-wide shared platform and each program will integrate with that same platform – once and 

only once. All data routing and notification will be performed on the platform, and business units will be 

free to decide on the type of data and message formats they use to deliver information or receive 

information, so they will maintain flexibility while reducing costs and complexity.

Our platform will adhere to eight simple, common architecture principles:

1. Think of security first and always; 

2. Provide a shared integration platform; 

41
U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

3. Promote operational efficiency;

4. Promote service agility;

5. Promote service resilience;

6. Promote data transparency;

7. Promote innovation; and

8. Promote simplification.

The platform will help meet many of the needs associated with our vision for an HR lifecycle IT 

framework, including enhancing our retirement application processing; finding a technical solution for 

breaking down silos and allowing data integration; identifying and providing for data sharing 

opportunities amongst business applications; ensuring that OPM’s leaders feel they have ownership of 

and a stake in the HR lifecycle IT framework from the beginning; operationalizing the lifecycle concept 

and the enabling initiatives; driving an overall timeline for implementing this plan; and promoting data 

standards and exchange.

By implementing an enterprise-wide shared platform, we will meet a number of more technical needs, 

such as:

• Streamlining data exchange between applications, both within and outside OPM, thus avoiding 

multiple point-to-point connections;

• Enabling data providers and consumers to choose a native format that works best for them 

while still allowing their systems to exchange data;

• Enabling incremental adoption of an architecture with minimal disruption to existing business 

operations;

• Enabling reliable, asynchronous messaging to build highly available and fault tolerant 

applications – that is, applications that are almost always available for use, even when 

something goes wrong;

• Providing non-functional (logistical and “housekeeping”) capabilities such as security, error 

handling, and auditing tools, as well as a management dashboard in a manner that alleviates this 

burden from individual applications;

• Applying standard and consistent authentication, security, and monitoring policies across 

applications; and

• Improving auditing of data movement and tracking of financial agreements between services.

Benefits will accrue at an enterprise level. The platform will rely on standardized technology and 

provide shared infrastructure to all business units. This will support IT governance, data governance, 

and a strong information security framework that will enable us to improve our IT-related business 

42
U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

processes and systems, such as retirement processing and USAJOBS®. The platform will allow 

efficiencies by avoiding duplicative architectures

Phase 1 – Plan: We will build a foundation. The development team will largely consist of the CIO 

technical team. Others will consult on the installation, configuration, and deployment of the platform 

infrastructure. We will assemble a fully functional shared platform team to perform program 

management, development, quality assurance (QA) testing, integration consulting, and support. We will 

document the platform architecture, prepare a plan and budget, and prototype and conduct 

acquisitions.

Phase 2 – Implement: We will conduct prototyping, application integration, and deployment of 

middleware services for several major initiatives, starting with retirement systems and including EHRI, 

SSCs, and all appropriate business systems. We will also scale the service and potentially integrate 

additional applications.

Phase 3 – Assess: We will better understand and assess the potential for additional opportunities 

throughout the OPM enterprise and with the SSCs. We will plan and implement in an iterative fashion. 

This approach allows us to continue to meet the mission needs of the organization while implementing a 

flexible, modern approach to data sharing that will serve OPM and the Federal agencies for many years 

to come.

43
U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Chapter 5: Preparing the Workforce

As we work to implement this plan, we know there will be necessary changes, including structural ones 

that will impact the workforce across our agency, and especially those in the CIO. We must engage our 

people in open dialogue throughout this process to help them see the new vision, appreciate that they 

play a very important role in its success, understand the new ways they will need to do things, and 

perhaps learn new skills. This plan truly presents an opportunity for our employees to grow 

professionally in ways they may not have thought possible to fulfill new roles and take on new 

responsibilities so we can meet the IT demands of the 21st Century.

Organizational change, workforce development activities, and strategic hiring for a workforce that is 

diverse in background, skills, and thought will help OPM address talent management needs and also 

provide employees with opportunities for development. This approach to workforce development 

includes career paths, succession plans, proactive competency management, and performance 

management. Implementing this type of approach results in OPM’s being better able to hire, develop, 

and retain employees with critical competencies needed for organizational success.25

Professional development, conducted in collaboration with the OPM Center for Innovative Learning and 

Professional Growth and Communities of Practice, enables the following outputs and outcomes:

• Transparent and clearly defined IT career paths with criteria for progression to the next level in 

both technical and leadership positions;

• Employees’ ability to plan their professional development within clearly defined career paths;

• A comprehensive view of critical IT positions and positions that may become vacant in the next 

3-5 years;

• Specific, actionable steps to fill each critical IT position;

• Strategies to prepare for loss of critical talent;

• A process to track progress and update succession plans on a regular basis;

• A consistent approach to meeting career development, training, and certification needs across 

the CIO for (1) Project Management Professionals (partnered with Project Management 

Institute, PMI) and (2) Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI) Program Managers. OPM’s Project 

Management Community of Practice and related courses in our LMS are accredited by PMI for 

certification and continuing education units; 

25 U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Retirement Systems Modernization. (April 15, 2008). Change 

Plan Analysis. Draft.

44
U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

• The opportunity to document transition strategies and processes for those employees who are 

planning to retire;

• Employees empowered to proactively manage their own careers by working with the Innovative 

Learning and Professional Development Center; and

• Opportunities for employees to develop leadership skills.

Talent management results in:

• The ability to identify and redeploy staff with the requisite skills to appropriate positions;

• Documented processes that will enable OPM to identify and respond to potential knowledge 

loss with staff nearing retirement or leaving the agency;

• New career development opportunities for staff, which will be effective in recruiting and 

retaining employees;

• Greater visibility of employees’ strengths and developmental needs, which enables managers to 

provide more targeted and timely coaching and training;

• More effective alignment of skill sets with job requirements; and

• A catalog of IT, and specifically project management, skill gaps that can be used to develop 

existing employees and also inform recruitment efforts.

Performance Management leads to:

• Stronger links between individual and organizational performance goals specifically related to 

this plan;

• Clearer understandings of critical performance behaviors;

• More frequent, timely, and relevant performance feedback;

• A common language for performance and skill assessment that is explicitly connected to 

strategic goals and career plans;

• An environment that promotes teamwork and continuous improvement;

• Incentives tied to IT strategic goals; and

• An incentive program aligned with new business processes and desired outcomes of this plan.

Above all else, for employees to know and understand the vision, the value they bring to the 

organization, what new skills are needed, and how their many talents can be used to ensure successful 

implementation of this plan, communication and open dialog will be essential. To this end, we will work 

closely with our union partners, as well as OPM’s Labor-Management Transformation Forum and the 

National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations.

45
U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Appendix A: Enterprise Initiatives: Summary of Benefits

Table 1: Benefits of the Enterprise Initiatives

Platform

Consolidation Collaboration Tools Business Process and Case Management

Data Management 

and Warehousing Electronic Recordkeeping Financial Management

- Take a “shared first” 

approach to our systems

- Enhance interoperability, 

increasing data sharing

- Reduce duplication, saving 

on licensing fees

- Support agile IT and 

modular design

- Comply with the Digital 

Government Strategy 

(separating the 

information, platform, and 

presentation layers)

- Creation of new business 

value from existing 

applications, incrementally 

transforming legacy 

systems into new reusable 

business components, or 

leveraging existing 

enterprise skills and 

improving productivity

- Retirement solution will 

be optimized for maximum 

resource sharing across the 

Federal space to manage 

costs, all of which will 

enable the HR lifecycle 

framework to thrive

- Support efforts to strengthen 

collaboration between program 

offices, making data 

management, and therefore data 

analytics, easier to achieve

- Enable two initiatives under 

consideration that would provide 

career maps, training curricula,

courses, and other 

developmental resources to 

employees throughout the 

Federal Government and would 

provide a government-wide 

space for talent matching, 

project-based collaboration, and 

resource sharing

- Make work processes seamless 

for employees, reducing barriers 

to collaboration and increasing 

productivity

- Track and report on cases, such 

as applications for retirement, at 

a more granular level than we are 

currently capable of doing

- Enable offices to collaborate on 

workflows. For example, we will 

better manage our 

correspondence and review 

process, thereby improving our 

responsiveness

- Save on licensing costs

- Improve standardization which 

reduces training costs

- Flatten the learning curves for 

new employees and existing 

employees who move into new 

positions

- Support shorter and more agile 

implementation of rule changes

- Surface excellent processes for 

reuse or emulation throughout 

the agency. For example, many 

offices have Resource 

Management Officers (RMOs) 

with different collaboration tools

and business process 

management tools. With 

standard tools, they will be better 

able to learn from each other’s 

processes

- Our architecture will 

include robust security 

controls to enable strict 

information security 

access and protections

- A robust data 

management and 

warehousing 

architecture will allow 

us to eliminate 

redundant data and 

better associate data to 

meet business 

information needs

- Leverage economies of 

scale by coordinating 

our work on each of 

these data warehouses 

and reusing 

technologies and 

controls where possible

- Integrate electronic 

recordkeeping into 

employees’ everyday 

workflows

- Ensure electronic records, 

especially email, are captured 

and maintained effectively so 

they are usable and 

retrievable

- Ensure compliance with the 

Managing Government 

Records Directive

- Facilitate openness by 

making it easier to respond to 

Freedom of Information Act 

(FOIA) requests and easing 

the burden of the discovery 

phase in litigation

- Implement records 

migration to new storage 

media to avoid data loss due 

to media decay or 

technological obsolescence

- Seamless electronic 

recordkeeping, much of our 

work to manage our records 

will happen without 

employees’ intervention and, 

where employees must take 

action, recordkeeping will 

occur within the flow of 

employees’ work

- Provide a comprehensive 

source of financial, budget, and 

performance information

- Improve cost control for the 

benefit of other agencies that 

use our services

- Manage our resources more 

effectively, which will help us 

make informed decisions about 

realigning resources to fund 

high-priority initiatives

- Improve support for key trust 

fund-related business processes, 

such as communicating with 

benefit carriers via a web portal, 

efficiently managing cash 

balances and investments to 

achieve the best possible 

returns, automating and 

streamlining processes, and 

increasing transparency in 

reporting

- Improve collection of 

retirement, health benefits, and 

life insurance withholdings and 

contributions information from 

Federal payroll providers

- Enhance management of 

improper payments

- Improve financial oversight of 

Experience Rated Carriers (ERCs) 

and life insurance carriers

46
U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Appendix B: Business Initiatives: 

Summary of Benefits

Table 2: Benefits of the Business Initiatives

Stakeholders Benefits

Federal Job Seekers Enhancements to USAJOBS®'s universal trailer hitch increase the 

information available from the Talent Acquisition and Assessment 

Systems, giving Job Seekers more visibility into information 

throughout the process. OPM's partnering with other Agencies to 

drive adoption of the integration standard will provide a consistent 

applicant experience across the Federal Government.

Federal HR Professionals The enhancements to USA Staffing® and USA Hire improve 

assessment capabilities and overall usability. These will provide the 

HR Professional more flexibility with assessments. Expanded metrics 

and updating the connection to USAJOBS® through the standard 

integration, will allow full integration with TASs that agencies use and 

more efficient access to data needed by reducing the need to log into 

multiple systems.

Federal Employees Updated content combined with enhancements to USALearning®, 

provide the Federal workforce access to up to date curriculums which 

assist with career development. USA PerformanceSM will allow 

federal employees better visibility into their performance throughout 

the appraisal period. Note: access to USALearning® and USA

PerformanceSM is based on Agencies agreements with OPM.

CHCOs Enhancements to systems supporting the HR lifecycle and increased 

integration between the systems, will allow for the capture of 

valuable data. The CHCOs can use this data to determine trends to 

assist in strategic planning.

OPM Investigators Enhancements to the EPIC suite will increase the timely availability of 

relevant data throughout the investigation process. For instance, 

updates to data exchanges with external sources will increase the 

data available and frequency of exchanges providing investigators 

more timely access to valuable information, increasing the efficiency 

and thoroughness of the investigation.

Federal Retirees, Families, 

and Survivors

The availability of an On-line Application to complete the data stored

in the Retirement Data Repository will automate the transition from 

employment to retirement, and most importantly, increase the 

accuracy and timeliness of benefits by relying on electronic data as 

we move from a paper-dependent system. Enhancements to Services 

Online to include a status viewer based on a modern case 

management system will provide transparency of the claims process 

for the Federal retiree and promote self-service account maintenance 

beyond retirement.

47 
U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Stakeholders Benefits

OPM Retirement Specialists Enhancements to the Retirement Data Viewer will help adjudicators 

enhance productivity and reduce efforts by aggregating information 

from multiple systems, increasing the accuracy and completeness of 

the case files. The Data Bridge from the ERR to the Retirement 

Calculator, will reduce data entry by the Retirement Specialist and 

increase accuracy of the data. The Case Management System will 

result efficiencies in processing claims by streamlining, standardizing 

and automating work processes.

OPM Retirement Leadership The enhancements to the various systems supporting the Retirement 

Process will increase the data captured throughout. This provides 

Retirement Leadership, a greater wealth of information that will be 

used to help manage day to day operations, strategic planning, and 

backlog reduction. 

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Appendix C: Timelines

Table 3: Enabling Initiatives Timeline

INITIATIVE RESOURCE 

STATUS

2014 2015

FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

ENABLING INITIATIVES

IT 

Leadership

Fully 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT

ASSESS

IT 

Governance

Fully 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT

ASSESS

Enterprise 

Architecture

Partially 

Resourced

PLAN IMPLEMENT - Phase 1

PLAN IMPLEMENT - Phase 2

PLAN IMPLEMENT - Phase 3

PLAN IMPLEMENT - Phase 4

ASSESS

Agile IT Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT - Phase 1

PLAN IMPLEMENT - Phase 2

PLAN IMPLEMENT - Phase 3

ASSESS

Data 

Analytics

Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT - Phase 1

ASSESS

Information 

Security

Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT

ASSESS

49
U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Table 4: Enterprise Initiatives Timeline

INITIATIVE RESOURCED

2014 2015

FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

ENTERPRISE INITIATIVES

Platform 

Consolidation

Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT

ASSESS

Collaboration 

Tools

Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT

ASSESS

Case 

Management 

Tools

Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT - Phase 1

IMPLEMENT - Phase 2

IMPLEMENT - Phase 3

IMPLEMENT - Phase 4

ASSESS

Data 

Management

Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

Implement - Phase 1

IMPLEMENT - Phase 2

ASSESS

Electronic 

Recordkeeping

Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT

ASSESS

Financial 

Management

Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT

ASSESS

50
U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Table 5: Business Initiatives Timeline

INITIATIVE RESOURCED

2014 2015

FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

BUSINESS INITIATIVES

USAJOBS Fully 

Resourced

PLAN

Release 4.2

Release 4.3

Release 4.4

Release 4.5

Sprint 1

Sprint 2

Sprint 3

Sprint 4

Sprint 5

ASSESS

USA Staffing Fully 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT - Phase 1

IMPLEMENT - Phase 2

IMPLEMENT - Phase 3

IMPLEMENT - Phase 4

ASSESS

USA Hire Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT

ASSESS

Background 

Investigation 

Systems

Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT - Phase 1

IMPLEMENT - Phase 2

IMPLEMENT - Phase 3

IMPLEMENT - Phase 4

ASSESS

USA 

Performance

Fully 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT

ASSESS

USALearning Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT - Unknown

ASSESS

Federal Employee 

Insurance 

Operations

Fully 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT

ASSESS

National 

Healthcare 

Operations

Fully 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT

ASSESS

51
U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

INITIATIVE RESOURCED

2014 2015

FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

Electronic Individual 

Retirement Record 

Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT

ASSESS

Re-Hosting of Legacy 

Mainframe-Based 

Systems

Not 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT - Unknown

ASSESS

Retirement Data 

Repository

Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT - Phase 1

IMPLEMENT - Phase 2

IMPLEMENT - Phase 3

IMPLEMENT - Phase 4

IMPLEMENT - Phase 5

ASSESS

Data Bridge from 

ERR to Retirement 

Calculator

Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT

ASSESS

Case 

Management

Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT - Phase 1

IMPLEMENT - Phase 2

IMPLEMENT - Phase 3

IMPLEMENT - Phase 4

ASSESS

Retirement Data 

Viewer

Fully 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT - Unknown

ASSESS

Online 

Retirement 

Application

Partially 

Resourced

PLAN

IMPLEMENT - Phase 1

IMPLEMENT - Phase 2

ASSESS

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Appendix D: Developing This Plan

Our CIO and CTO led the effort to develop this plan with the substantive help and input of a group of 

employees with expertise in both IT and strategic planning who represent all of OPM’s associate 

directors (ADs) and office heads (OHs). The team sought to understand OPM’s biggest IT challenges, as 

well as business unit plans, aspirations, and challenges. The CIO and CTO shared numerous drafts of this 

plan with OPM’s Director, ADs, and OHs, and worked closely with OPM’s Chief of Staff (CoS) and Chief 

Operating Officer (COO) to ensure all perspectives were reflected. A briefing was also provided at an 

OPM Director’s Priorities Meetings to promote discussion, enable clarification, and garner support. We 

would like to thank the following individuals for making this plan possible:

• Christian Armeanu (Office of the Chief Information Officer)

• Angela Bailey (Chief Operating Officer)

• Janet Barnes (Director, Internal Oversight and Compliance)

• John Barone (Congressional, Legislative & Intergovernmental Affairs)

• Edmund Byrnes (Communications & Public Liaison)

• Chris Canning (Director’s Office)

• Brent Cohen (White House Fellow)

• Dennis Coleman (Chief Financial Officer)

• Charles Conyers (Office of the Chief Information Officer)

• Paul Craven (Office of the Chief Information Officer)

• Jill Crissman (Congressional, Legislative & Intergovernmental Affairs)

• Bradley Eggers (Office of the Chief Information Officer)

• Nina Ferraro (Senior Procedure Executive)

• Jonathan Foley (Director, Planning & Policy Analysis)

• Andrew Grebe (Employee Services)

• Ann Marie Habershaw (Chief of Staff) 

• Dean Hunter (Director, Facilities, Security & Contracting)

• Pam Israel (Retirement Services)

• Joseph Kennedy (Associate Director, Human Resources Solutions)

• Bernhard Kluger (Planning & Policy Analysis) 

• Mark Lambert (Associate Director, Merit System Accountability and Compliance)

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

• Bethany Letalien (Office of the Chief Information Officer)

• Adrian Linz (Office of the Chief Information Officer)

• Amen Ra Mashariki (Chief Technology Officer) 

• Jen Mason (Director, Office of Public Engagement)

• Merton Miller (Associate Director, Federal Investigative Services)

• R. Allen Miller (Office of the General Counsel)

• John O’Brien (Director, Healthcare and Insurance)

• Deborah Poff (Office of the Chief Information Officer)

• MC Price (Office of the Chief Information Officer)

• Mark Reinhold (Acting Associate Director, Employee Services)

• Thomas Richards (Director, Communication and Public Liaison)

• Dianna Saxman (Human Resources Solutions)

• Donna Seymour (Chief Information Officer) 

• Charles Simpson (former Acting Chief Information Officer) 

• James Shope (Federal Investigative Services)

• Neil Singh (Employee Services)

• Sydney Smith-Heimbrock (Employee Services)

• Angela Stansbury (Congressional, Legislative & Intergovernmental Affairs)

• Jennifer Tyree (Acting Director, Congressional, Legislative & Intergovernmental Affairs)

• David Vargas (Planning & Policy Analysis) 

• Kamala Vasagam (General Counsel)

• Veronica Villalobos (Director, Office of Diversity and Inclusion)

• Mary Volz-Peacock (Office of the Chief Information Officer)

• Christopher Wallace (Congressional, Legislative & Intergovernmental Affairs)

• Kenneth Zawodny, Jr. (Associate Director, Retirement Services)

54
U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

Appendix E: Acronyms and Initialisms

ACA: Affordable Care Act

BRM: Business Reference Model

CAO: Chief Acquisitions Officer

CBIS: Consolidated Business Information System

CDM: Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation

CFO: Chief Financial Officer

CHCO: Chief Human Capital Officer

CIO: Chief Information Officer

CTO: Chief Technology Officer

DHS: Department of Homeland Security

DRM: Data reference Model

EA: Enterprise Architecture

EHRI: Enterprise Human Resources Integration

EIO: Enterprise Infrastructure Operations

eIRR: electronic Individual Retirement Record

eOPF: electronic Official Personnel Folder

EPIC: Group of background investigation systems; term now stands on its own

e-QIP: Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing

ERC: Experience Rated Carrier

ERMA: Electronic Records Management Application

ERR: Electronic Retirement Record

EVM: Earned Value Management

EVMS: Earned Value Management System

FAI: Federal Acquisition Institute

FEA: Federal Enterprise Architecture

FEHBP: Federal Employees Health Benefits Program

FEIO: Federal Employee Insurance Operations

FERS: Federal Employees Retirement System

FERS-RAE: Federal Employees Retirement System-Revised Annuity Employees

FISMA: Federal Information Security Management Act

FOIA: Freedom of Information Act

GAO: Government Accountability Office

GHRR: Guide to Human Resources Reporting

GRDR: Guide to Retirement Data Reporting

55
U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

HCDW: Health Claims Data Warehouse

HHS: Department of Health and Human Services

HR LOB: Human Resources Line of Business

HR XML: Human Resources eXtensible Markup Language

HR: Human Resources

IBC: interior Business Center

ISCM: Information Security Continuous Monitoring

IT: Information Technology

ITSP: Information Technology Security and Privacy

IV&V: Independent Verification and Validation

LMS: Learning Management System

MSPP: Multi-State Plan Program or Multi-State Plan Portal

NHO: National Healthcare Operations

NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology

O&M: Operations and Maintenance

OMB: Office of Management and Budget

OPM: U.S. Office of Personnel Management

PCIP: Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plans

PHI: Protected Health Information

PII: Personally Identifiable Information

PMCoP: Project Management Community of Practice

PMI: Project Management Institute

PMO: Project Management officer

PRM: Performance Reference Model

QA: Quality Assurance

RDR: Retirement Data Repository

RDV: Retirement Data Viewer

RMO: Resource Management Officer

SA&A: Security Assessment and Authorization

SDLC: System Development Life Cycle

SES: Senior Executive Service

SLI: State Level Issuer (regarding insurance)

SRM: Service Component Reference Model

SSC: Shared Service(s) Center (used in both the singular and plural)

TAS: Talent Acquisition System

TKP: the Knowledge Portal

TRM: Technical Reference Model

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U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Information Technology Plan

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CIO-03-14

United State

Office f Per nnel Manage ent

Chief Information Officer

1900 E Street, NW 

Washington, DC 20415