a

GAO

United States General Accounting Office

Report to the Subcommittee on Interior 

and Related Agencies, Committee on 

Appropriations, House of 

Representatives

September 2003 BUREAU OF LAND 

MANAGEMENT

Plan Needed to 

Sustain Progress in 

Establishing IT 

Investment 

Management 

Capabilities

GAO-03-1025
BLM has made progress in establishing its ITIM capabilities. Specifically, 

• BLM has established most of the key practices associated with building an 

investment foundation (see table). For example, the bureau has 

established a board for managing IT investments, implemented processes 

to ensure that IT projects support business needs and meet users’ 

requirements, and established a process for selecting IT proposals. In 

addition, the bureau has efforts under way to address the key practices it 

has not yet established. 

• BLM has also initiated efforts to manage its investments as a portfolio. For 

example, it has established a council to support portfolio management 

activities and begun defining portfolio selection criteria. BLM has also 

begun performing postimplementation reviews to learn lessons that will 

help define and implement an IT investment evaluation process. However 

BLM’s progress to date in defining practices for managing its investments 

as a portfolio has been limited because, according to its officials, its 

investment board first focused its resources on establishing the processes 

associated with building the IT investment management foundation. 

Although BLM has made progress in developing its IT investment process, it 

has not yet developed a plan to guide its efforts in this area and, as a result, 

may not be able to successfully establish more mature ITIM processes. 

According to the chief information officer, this is because BLM wanted to 

develop an ITIM plan that is integrated with improvement plans for other IT 

management areas, and the results of the comprehensive assessment that 

were to be used as the basis for such a plan were obtained only in June 2003. 

BLM officials agree that this plan is necessary for guiding improvement 

efforts and stated their intention to develop one. Developing such a plan will 

help BLM sustain progress made to date. 

Summary of Results for Investment Foundation Critical Processes and Key Practices 

Critical process Purpose 

Percentage of 

key practices 

executed 

IT investment board 

operation 

To define and establish the governing board(s) responsible 

for selecting, controlling, and evaluating IT investments. 

100% 

IT project and 

system identification

To create and maintain an IT project inventory to assist in 

managerial decision making. 

42% 

IT project oversight To regularly determine each IT project's progress toward cost 

and schedule milestones using established criteria and take 

corrective actions when milestones are not achieved. 

91% 

Business needs 

identification 

To ensure that each IT project supports the organization's 

business needs and meets users' needs. 

100% 

Proposal selection To ensure that an established, structured process is used to 

select new IT proposals. 

83% 

Total 84% 

Source: GAO. 

The mission of the Department of 

the Interior’s Bureau of Land 

Management (BLM) is to maintain 

the health, diversity, and 

productivity of the public lands for 

the use and enjoyment of present 

and future generations. BLM 

employs about 11,000 people, with 

information technology (IT) 

playing a critical role in helping 

BLM perform its responsibilities. 

The bureau estimates that it will 

spend about $146 million on IT 

initiatives in fiscal year 2003. 

GAO was asked to evaluate BLM’s 

IT investment management (ITIM) 

capabilities and determine the 

bureau’s plans for improving these 

capabilities. GAO’s evaluation was 

based on applying its ITIM maturity 

framework, which identifies critical

processes for successful IT 

investment management. 

GAO recommends that the 

Secretary of the Interior direct 

BLM’s Director to develop and 

implement a plan for making ITIM 

improvements that is based on 

GAO’s ITIM stage 2 and 3 critical 

processes; specifies measurable 

goals, outcomes, and needed 

resources; and assigns clear 

responsibility for tasks. Progress 

should be measured and reported 

periodically to Interior. 

BLM agreed with our findings and 

recommendations and noted that it 

had begun developing a plan for 

making ITIM improvements in 

accordance with our 

recommendations. 

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-1025.

To view the full product, including the scope 

and methodology, click on the link above. 

For more information, contact Linda D. 

Koontz at (202) 512-6240 or 

koontzl@gao.gov. 

Highlights of GAO-03-1025, a report to the 

Subcommittee on Interior and Related 

Agencies, Committee on Appropriations, 

House of Representatives 

September 2003

BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT 

Plan Needed to Sustain Progress in 

Establishing IT Investment Management 

Capabilities 
Page i GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Contents

Letter 1

Results in Brief 2

Background 3

BLM Has Established Many of the Key Practices for Effective 

Investment Management 12

BLM Does Not Have a Plan to Guide IT Investment Management 

Improvement Efforts 27

Conclusions 28

Recommendations for Executive Action 28

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 29

Appendixes

Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology 31

Appendix II: Comments from the Bureau of Land Management 34

Tables Table 1: Stage 2 Critical Processes—Building the Investment 

Foundation 13

Table 2: Summary of Results for Stage 2 Critical Processes and Key 

Practices 14

Table 3: IT Investment Board Operation 16

Table 4: IT Project and System Identification 19

Table 5: IT Project Oversight 21

Table 6: Business Needs Identification 24

Table 7: Proposal Selection 26

Figures Figure 1: BLM’s IT Investment Management Process 9

Figure 2: The Five Stages of Maturity with Critical Processes 11
Contents

Page ii GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Abbreviations

BLM Bureau of Land Management

CIO chief information officer

IT information technology

ITIB Information Technology Investment Board

ITIM information technology investment management

This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright protection in the 

United States. It may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without further 

permission from GAO. However, because this work may contain copyrighted images or 

other material, permission from the copyright holder may be necessary if you wish to 

reproduce this material separately.
Page 1 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

United States General Accounting Office

Washington, D.C. 20548

A

September 12, 2003 Letr

The Honorable Charles H. Taylor

Chairman 

The Honorable Norman D. Dicks

Ranking Minority Member

Subcommittee on Interior 

and Related Agencies

Committee on Appropriations

House of Representatives

The mission of the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land 

Management (BLM) is to maintain the health, diversity, and productivity of 

public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. 

To carry out the functions involved in managing the public lands, BLM 

employs a workforce of about 11,000 employees located in headquarters in 

Washington, D.C., state offices, field offices, and national centers 

specializing in training, fire management support, science and technology, 

human resources management, information resources management, and 

business services. Information technology (IT) plays a critical role in 

helping BLM carry out its responsibilities. The bureau estimates that it will 

spend about $146 million on IT initiatives in fiscal year 2003.

This report is one of two in response to your request to evaluate the 

Department of the Interior’s IT investment management process.1

 As 

agreed, the objectives of our review were to (1) evaluate BLM’s IT 

investment management capabilities against the key practices defined in 

our IT investment management assessment framework2

 and (2) determine 

the agency’s plans for improving these capabilities. We performed our work 

in accordance with generally accepted government accounting standards. 

Details on our objectives, scope, and methodology are contained in 

appendix I.

1

The second report, U.S. General Accounting Office, Information Technology Departmental 

Leadership Crucial to Success of Investment Reforms at Interior, GAO-03-1028

(Washington, D.C.: Sept. 12, 2003) addresses (1) the Department of the Interior’s capabilities 

for managing the agency’s IT investments, including its ability to effectively overseee bureau 

processes, and (2) the department’s actions and plans to improve these capabilities.

2

U.S. General Accounting Office, Information Technology Investment Management: A 

Framework for Assessing and Improving Process Maturity (Exposure Draft), GAO/AIMD10.1.23 (Washington, D.C.: May 2000).
Page 2 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Results in Brief BLM has made progress in establishing key practices for effectively 

managing its IT investments, including the foundational practices for 

selecting and controlling IT investments, which provide assurance that 

projects selected meet organizational needs and will be completed on time 

and within budget, and the practices for managing investments as a 

portfolio. Specifically, 

• BLM has established most of the key practices (about 85 percent) 

associated with building the investment foundation. For example, BLM 

has defined and established an investment board for managing IT 

investments, implemented processes to ensure that projects support 

business needs and meet users’ requirements, and established a process 

for selecting proposals. Although the agency has not yet, for example, 

defined policies and procedures for collecting information into its 

project and system inventory to make informed investment 

management decisions or fully defined criteria for analyzing and 

prioritizing new proposals, it recognizes the importance of resolving 

these issues and has efforts under way to address them.

• BLM has also initiated efforts to manage its investments as a portfolio—

that is, as a set of competing IT investments—and has begun to address 

the evaluation of projects and systems after development using 

postimplementation reviews,3

 a critical process associated with the 

most capable organizations. For example, BLM has established a 

council to support portfolio management activities and begun defining 

portfolio selection criteria. BLM has also performed 

postimplementation reviews on a limited basis to learn lessons that will 

help define and implement a robust IT investment evaluation process.

Although BLM is clearly committed to further developing its IT investment 

process, it has not developed a plan to guide its efforts to do so, and, as a 

result, may not be able to successfully establish mature IT investment 

management processes. According to the chief information officer (CIO), 

this is because BLM wanted to develop a plan that is integrated with 

improvement plans for other IT management areas, and the results of the 

comprehensive assessment that were to be used as the basis for such a plan 

were obtained only in June 2003. BLM officials stated their intention to 

3

BLM refers to postimplementation reviews as postdeployment reviews.
Page 3 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

develop a plan to guide improvement efforts. By developing such a plan, 

BLM would be able to sustain progress made to date.

To strengthen BLM’s investment management capability, we are 

recommending that BLM develop and implement a plan aimed at 

addressing the weaknesses identified in this report. In written comments 

on a draft of this report (reprinted in app. II), BLM’s Director agreed with 

our findings and recommendations and stated that they represented a fair 

and accurate evaluation of the bureau’s status and progress towards IT 

investment management maturity. BLM also provided additional technical 

comments, which we have incorporated into the report as appropriate. 

Background BLM, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, manages 261 million 

surface acres and an additional 700 million acres of subsurface mineral 

estate throughout the nation. The agency’s mission is to maintain the 

health, diversity, and productivity of public lands for the use and enjoyment 

of present and future generations. To carry out this mission, BLM employs 

a workforce of about 11,000 employees located in headquarters in 

Washington, D.C., 12 state offices, 130 field offices, and national centers 

specializing in training, fire management support, science and technology, 

human resources management, information resources management, and 

business services. 

BLM’s Use of IT BLM collects, analyzes, and records a tremendous amount of business 

information about the public lands and resources, ranging from land title to 

recreational usage to wildlife habitat. These data are mainly geographic in 

character and are best understood when displayed and analyzed in spatial 

form using automated geographic information systems. Numerous 

parties—including public land users; educational institutions; public 

interest groups; other federal, state, tribal, and local agencies; and the 

scientific community—use these data or information to make thousands of 

business decisions each year.

The central focus of BLM’s IT strategy is to develop integrated systems that 

help BLM meet national and local needs in managing the lands and natural 

resources, while supporting the mission and goals outlined in BLM’s 

Strategic Plan. For example, BLM uses its Automated Fluid Minerals 

Support System to support its Oil and Gas Program. The system helps 

match mineral estate information to information on existing wells, 
Page 4 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

facilities, permits, and inspections and provides an automated system for 

granting permits to BLM customers and creating reports. Currently, BLM 

issues approximately 41,000 permits and reports and conducts about 19,000 

inspections per year. BLM also uses its Management Information System, 

which provides a Web-enabled, business information, budgetary, financial, 

and program performance system so that simple data analysis can be 

performed benefiting the entire bureau. This system provides managers 

with up-to-date business data to make cost effective decisions concerning 

the management of BLM’s people, resources, and natural resources for 

several of Interior’s mission goals. BLM’s estimated IT expenditures are 

$146.45 million for fiscal year 2003. 

Prior Weaknesses in BLM’s 

IT Investment Management 

Process

Between 1995 and 2001, we conducted reviews and issued several reports 

on problems and risks that threatened the successful development and 

deployment of BLM’s modernization of its Automated Land and Mineral 

Record System. In a recent report addressing this issue, we noted, among 

other things, that after 15 years and about $411 million obligated, the 

project was terminated because the Initial Operating Capability module—a 

major component of the system—did not meet BLM’s business needs and 

therefore could not be deployed.4

 We also reported that the absence of 

adequate investment management processes and practices at BLM was a 

significant factor contributing to the failure of the system. Accordingly, we 

recommended that the Secretary of the Interior direct BLM to take certain 

actions to help it strengthen its investment management process. BLM has 

been working on improving its process since that time.

BLM’s Approach to 

Investment Management 

BLM has assigned several individuals and groups with responsibilities for 

managing national IT investments, that is investments which, among other 

things, are considered major applications or general support systems; have 

a life-cycle value of greater than $500,000; or will affect multiple states, 

centers, or business areas.5

 These individuals and groups and their roles 

are described below. 

4

U.S. General Accounting Office, Land Management Systems: Status of BLM’s Actions to 

Improve Information Technology Management, GAO/AIMD-00-67 (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 

27, 2000).

5

Other criteria for national investments include investments between $50,000 and $500,000 

for which a state or center does not have its own ITIB, and operations and maintenance 

investments that are not included in program base funding. 
Page 5 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

• National Information Technology Investment Board (ITIB)—Chaired 

by BLM’s Deputy Director of Operations, this board is responsible for 

selecting, controlling, and evaluating all national IT investments. 

Members include the CIO, Chief Financial Officer, Assistant Directors 

from the business units, two State Directors, an Associate State 

Director, the CIO Council Chair, the Bureau Architecture Chair, a Fire 

and Aviation Portfolio Representative, and several ex officio members 

including Interior’s CIO, the bureau Architect, and managers from the 

System Coordination Office and the Investment Management Group. 

• System Coordination Office—Created in June 2000 to support a 

number of IT management functions, the System Coordination Office, 

among other things, is responsible for coordinating the screening of all 

IT investments and projects to ensure that they are in line with the 

bureau’s selection, control, and evaluation criteria, and monitors project 

performance (scope, schedule, and budget). The office is also 

responsible for coordinating the development of a project management 

curriculum and mentoring and developing a cadre of trained and 

experienced project managers. 

• Investment Management Group—Responsibilities of this group include 

coordinating the development and maintenance of the bureau’s IT 

investment portfolio, ensuring that all investments fit within budget 

constraints, and providing investment updates and forecasting as 

needed.

• Information Technology Portfolio Management Council—Chartered in 

June 2003, but established about a year ago, this council serves as an 

advisory council to the ITIB and is responsible, among other things, for 

applying business-related rating and ranking criteria to BLM’s portfolio, 

performing trade-off analyses, and working with the Investment 

Management Group to develop funding strategies. The council is also 

responsible for ensuring that investments are clearly tied to the mission 

and strategic plans (both business and information resources 

management) of the bureau and selected by a consistent, repeatable, 
Page 6 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

objective process. Members include national IT portfolio managers6 for 

each of the directorates, representatives from the state portfolios and 

the Bureau Enterprise Architecture Team, and members from the 

System Coordination Office and the Investment Management Group.

• Bureau Enterprise Architecture Team—Responsible for ensuring that 

investment proposals and business cases are aligned with the bureau 

enterprise architecture’s business processes, data, applications, and 

technology components.7

• Project proponent—Responsible, among other things, for leading the 

development of the investment proposal, coordinating and championing 

the development of the business case, and working with the project 

manager throughout the life cycle of the project.

• Project sponsor—A field, center, or Washington office manager who 

authorizes the development of a business case. The project sponsor 

shifts roles to become the system owner when the project moves into 

operations and maintenance. The project sponsor is responsible for 

selecting a project manager, approving all project documentation, and 

participating in a management oversight role throughout the planning, 

design, development, testing, acceptance, and deployment of the 

project.

• Project manager—Responsible for developing the project plan and 

leading and managing the project. The project manager reports directly 

to the project sponsor. Ultimately, it is the project managers who 

6

Portfolio managers are responsible for ensuring that all IT investment proposals, national 

systems, and externally directed systems are planned, developed, maintained, and 

distributed according to the bureau’s ITIM process and configuration management, and are 

in conformance with established bureau hardware and software standards, as well as the 

bureau’s architecture and technical reference model; summarizing all operations and 

maintenance costs associated with existing and proposed systems; ensuring that all new 

project proposals address the discontinuance of existing systems as a cost saving measure; 

and working directly with each state or center that proposes moving a state, center, or local 

application to a national system.

7

An enterprise architecture is an investment blueprint that defines, both in logical terms 

(including business functions and applications) and in technical terms (including hardware, 

software, data communications, and security), how an organization operates today (current 

architecture), how it intends to operate tomorrow (target architecture), and a road map for 

making the transition from today to tomorrow.
Page 7 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

are responsible for successfully managing and completing one or more 

projects approved by the ITIB.

The bureau has also defined a three-phase IT investment management 

process which involves selecting proposed IT projects (select phase), 

controlling ongoing projects through development (control phase), and 

evaluating projects that have been deployed (evaluate phase). Each phase 

comprises multiple stages that have entrance and exit criteria defined in 

the IT Investment Management Process guide that must be satisfied before 

a project can move from one stage to the next stage or phase in the 

process. The System Coordination Office tracks projects’ progress through 

the various stages, ensuring that they comply with the processes defined in 

the guide. The national ITIB stays abreast of projects’ performance through 

quarterly report reviews. The board is also directly involved in key 

milestone (i.e., stage) reviews.

Select Phase The purpose of the phase is to ensure that BLM chooses the IT projects that 

best support its mission and align with the bureau’s architecture. During 

this phase, the project proponent and portfolio manager are expected to 

collaborate to develop an investment proposal. 

The System Coordination Office is responsible for reviewing the proposal 

and ensuring that issues are identified and resolved. Finally, the ITIB is to 

review the proposal and either approve it, approve it with stipulations, 

return it for further analysis, or reject it. If the ITIB approves the proposal, 

the project manager and project proponent are to work to develop a more 

elaborate business case. The System Coordination Office reviews the 

business case and coordinates the reviews performed by other groups (e.g., 

the Bureau Enterprise Architecture Team). The Office then makes 

recommendations for approval to the ITIB on the basis of these reviews. 

At the end of the select phase, a project plan is to be developed that defines 

the strategies for managing the project. According to BLM officials, to date 

the ITIB has placed more emphasis on this phase than on the other two.

Control Phase Once selected for inclusion in the bureau’s IT portfolio, each project is to 

be managed by a trained or experienced IT project manager and monitored 

by the System Coordination Office and ITIB on a quarterly basis throughout 

its life cycle. 

Included within the project’s plan, which is developed at the end of the 

select phase, are milestones for architecture, technical, and project 
Page 8 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

management reviews. Factors such as project risk, complexity, and cost 

determine the scope and frequency of each of these milestone reviews. 

Projects that fall short of meeting their predetermined budget, schedule, or 

scope requirements are to be reviewed by the ITIB, who works with the 

project managers to develop an appropriate course of action. If this issue 

arises, the ITIB must decide whether to continue the project; rebaseline the 

scope, schedule, or budget; or to terminate the project. Ultimately, all 

decisions that are carried out are a result of the ITIB voting process. 

Evaluate Phase Once a project has been fully implemented and accepted by the users and 

system owner, the System Coordination Office and ITIB are responsible for 

monitoring its schedule and budget quarterly. BLM has also, on a limited 

basis, begun performing postimplementation reviews—BLM refers to these 

as postdeployment reviews— in which a project’s actual results are to be 

evaluated against expected results to compare realized to estimated 

benefits and assess the project’s impact on mission performance. 

Necessary changes or modifications to the project are to be identified, and 

technical compliance with the bureau enterprise architecture is also to be 

assessed. The main objective of the postimplementation review is to derive 

lessons learned, which may lead to investment management process 

improvements and opportunities for improving business processes (which 

in turn provide input into the select phase). To date, BLM has performed 

postimplementation reviews for two systems.

Figure 1 illustrates BLM’s IT investment management process phases and 

stages. The highlighted stages represent those for which the ITIB must 

make an approval decision before a project can move forward.
Page 9 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Figure 1: BLM’s IT Investment Management Process
Page 10 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

ITIM Maturity Framework On the basis of research into the IT investment management practices of 

leading private- and public-sector organizations, we have developed an 

information technology investment management (ITIM) maturity 

framework.8 This framework identifies critical processes for successful IT 

investments organized into a framework of five increasingly mature stages. 

The ITIM is intended to be used as both a management tool for 

implementing these processes incrementally and an evaluation tool for 

determining an organization’s current level of maturity. The overriding 

purpose of the framework is to encourage investment processes that 

increase business value and mission performance, reduce risk, and 

increase accountability and transparency in the decision process. This 

framework has been used in several GAO evaluations9

 and adopted by a 

number of agencies. These agencies have used ITIM for purposes ranging 

from self-assessment to redesign of their IT investment management 

processes.

ITIM is a hierarchical model comprising five “maturity stages.” These 

maturity stages represent steps toward achieving stable and mature 

processes for managing IT investments. Each stage builds upon the lower 

stages; the successful achievement of each stage leads to improvement in 

the organization’s ability to manage its investments. With the exception of 

the first stage, each maturity stage is composed of “critical processes” that 

must be implemented and institutionalized for the organization to achieve 

that stage. These critical processes are further broken down into key 

practices that describe the types of activities that an organization should be 

performing to successfully implement each critical process. An 

organization may be performing key practices from more than one maturity 

stage at one time. This is not unusual, but efforts to improve investment 

management capabilities should focus on becoming compliant with lower 

stage practices before addressing higher stage practices. 

8

GAO/AIMD-10.1.23.

9

U.S. General Accounting Office, Information Technology: INS Needs to Strengthen Its 

Investment Management Capability, GAO-01-146 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 29, 2000); 

Information Technology Management: Social Security Administration Practices Can Be 

Improved, GAO-01-961 (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 21, 2001); Information Technology: DLA 

Needs to Strengthen Its Investment Management Capability, GAO-02-314 (Washington, 

D.C.: Mar. 15, 2002); United States Postal Service: Opportunities to Strengthen IT 

Investment Management Capabilities, GAO-03-3 (Washington D.C.: Oct. 15, 2002); 

Information Technology: Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys Needs to Institutionalize Key 

IT Management Disciplines, GAO-03-751 (Washington, D.C.: July 25, 2003).
Page 11 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Stage 2 in the ITIM framework encompasses building a sound investment 

management process—by developing the capability to control projects so 

that they finish predictably within established cost and schedule 

expectations—and establishing basic capabilities for selecting new IT 

projects. Stage 3 requires that an organization continually assess proposed 

and ongoing projects as parts of a complete investment portfolio: an 

integrated and competing set of investment options. This approach enables 

the organization to consider the relative costs, benefits, and risks of newly 

proposed investments along with those previously funded and to identify 

the optimal mix of IT investments to meet its mission, strategies, and goals. 

Stages 4 and 5 require the use of evaluation techniques to continuously 

improve both the investment portfolio and investment processes to better 

achieve strategic outcomes. Figure 2 shows the five maturity stages and the 

associated critical processes.

Figure 2: The Five Stages of Maturity with Critical Processes 

As defined by the model, each critical process consists of “key practices” 

that must be executed to implement the critical process.
Page 12 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

BLM Has Established 

Many of the Key 

Practices for Effective 

Investment 

Management 

In order to have the capabilities to effectively manage IT investments, an 

agency should (1) have basic, project-level control and selection practices 

in place (stage 2 capabilities) and (2) manage its projects as a portfolio of 

investments, treating them as an integrated package of competing 

investment options and pursuing those that best meet the strategic goals, 

objectives, and mission of the agency (stage 3 capabilities). In addition, an 

agency would be well served by implementing capabilities for improving its 

investment management process (stage 4 capabilities). 

BLM has executed the majority of the project-level control and selection 

practices. The bureau has also initiated efforts to manage its projects as a 

portfolio and performed two postimplementation reviews to learn lessons 

to improve its investment management process. When BLM implements all 

critical processes associated with building an investment foundation and 

managing its projects as a portfolio, the bureau will have greater 

confidence that it has selected the mix of projects that best supports its 

strategic goals and that the projects will be managed to successful 

completion.

BLM Has Implemented Most 

of the Key Practices 

Required to Establish 

an IT Investment 

Foundation 

At ITIM stage 2 maturity, an organization has attained repeatable, 

successful IT project-level investment control processes and basic 

selection processes. Through these processes, the organization can identify 

expectation gaps early and take appropriate steps to address them. 

According to ITIM, critical processes at stage 2 include (1) defining 

investment review board10 operations, (2) collecting information about 

existing investments, (3) developing project-level investment control 

processes, (4) identifying the business needs for each IT project, and 

(5) developing a basic process for selecting new IT proposals. Table 1 

discusses the purpose for each of the stage 2 critical processes.

10An investment review board is a decision-making body made up of senior program, 

financial, and information managers that is responsible for making decisions about 

investments or projects.
Page 13 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Table 1: Stage 2 Critical Processes—Building the Investment Foundation

Source: GAO.

To its credit, BLM has put in place about 85 percent of the key practices 

associated with stage 2 critical processes.11 The bureau has satisfied all the 

key practices associated with establishing the governing boards 

responsible for managing IT investments and ensuring that IT projects 

support organizational needs and meet users’ needs. It has satisfied a 

majority of the key practices associated with proposal selection and IT 

project oversight and is working on incorporating the use of an IT project 

and system inventory into its IT investment management process. Table 2 

summarizes the status of BLM’s critical processes for stage 2, showing how 

many associated key practices it has executed. 

Critical process Purpose

IT investment board operation To define and establish the governing board(s) 

responsible for selecting, controlling, and evaluating IT 

investments. 

IT project and system 

identification

To create and maintain an IT project inventory to assist in 

managerial decision making.

IT project oversight To regularly determine each IT project's progress toward 

cost and schedule milestones using established criteria 

and take corrective actions when milestones are not 

achieved.

Business needs identification 

for IT projects

To ensure that each IT project supports the 

organization's business needs and meets users' needs.

Proposal selection To ensure that an established, structured process is 

used to select new IT proposals.

11BLM hired a contractor to perform an independent assessment of its ITIM stage 2 

capabilities, which was completed in January 2003. The assessment, which indicated that 

BLM had established the majority of key practices for four out of five critical processes, 

provided an important source of data for our evaluation. 
Page 14 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Table 2: Summary of Results for Stage 2 Critical Processes and Key Practices

Source: GAO.

BLM Has Established an 

Investment Board for Managing 

IT Investments

The creation of decision-making bodies or boards is central to the IT 

investment management process. At the stage 2 level of maturity, 

organizations define one or more boards, provide resources to support 

their operations, and appoint members who have expertise in both 

operational and technical aspects of proposed investments. Resources 

provided to support the operations of IT investment boards typically 

include top management’s participation in creating the board(s) and 

defining their scope and formal evidence acknowledging management’s 

support for board decisions. The boards operate according to a written IT 

investment process guide tailored to the organization’s unique 

characteristics, thus ensuring that consistent and effective management 

practices are implemented across the organization. Once board members 

are selected, the organization ensures that they are knowledgeable about 

policies and procedures for managing investments. Organizations at the 

stage 2 level of maturity also take steps to ensure that executives and line 

managers support and carry out the decisions of the IT investment board. 

According to ITIM, an IT investment management process guide should be 

a key authoritative document that the organization uses to initiate and 

manage IT investment processes and should provide a comprehensive 

foundation for policies and procedures developed for all other related 

processes. (The complete list of key practices is provided in table 3.)

BLM has executed all the key practices for this critical process. For 

example, in 1998, the bureau established an IT Investment Board (the ITIB) 

to manage national investments. With the development of the IT 

Investment Management Process guide in 2001, BLM provided the board 

and all involved parties (i.e., project managers and sponsors, portfolio 

Critical process

Key practices 

executed

Total required

by critical 

process

Percentage of key 

practices executed

IT investment board operation 6 6 100%

IT project and system 

identification

3 7 42%

IT project oversight 10 11 91%

Business needs identification 8 8 100%

Proposal selection 5 6 83%

Total 32 38 84%
Page 15 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

managers, investment management group) with specifics concerning 

responsibilities and procedures.12 This guide is centered on a project’s life 

cycle and requisite decision points (phases and stages) in the investment 

process from the submission of a proposal to a postimplementation review.

The board is also adequately resourced, with the main support being 

provided by the System Coordination Office, whose responsibilities include 

developing and modifying the bureau’s criteria for selecting, controlling, 

and evaluating potential and existing IT investments and documenting, 

recording, and transmitting decisions made by the board. Experienced 

senior-level officials from both business and IT areas are members of the 

board and exhibit the core competencies required by the investment 

management process. Finally, all actions by the board are well documented 

using meeting minutes and records of decision. In June 2003, an action-item 

tracking matrix was introduced. This matrix is used to identify and track 

ITIB-approved decisions and assigned responsibilities to ensure that the 

board’s decisions are carried out. By executing all key practices associated 

with creating and defining investment board operations, BLM has greater 

assurance that the ITIB will effectively carry out its responsibilities.

Table 3 shows the rating for each key practice required to implement the 

critical process for establishing IT investment board operation at the stage 

2 level of maturity. Each of the “Executed” ratings shown below represents 

instances where, based on the evidence provided by BLM officials, we 

concluded that the specific key practices were executed by the 

organization.

12According to BLM “Instruction Memorandum 2001-222,” this policy expired on September 

30, 2002. BLM still continues to use this version to guide IT investment management efforts. 

A newer version is currently in draft, but no expected release date was identified. 
Page 16 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Table 3: IT Investment Board Operation

Source: GAO.

Type of practice Key practice Rating Summary of evidence

Organizational 

commitments

1. An organization-specific 

IT investment process guide 

is created to direct each 

board's operations. 

Executed BLM’s IT Investment Management Process guide and associated memo 

issued in September of 2001 direct the national ITIB’s operations. The IT 

investment board’s charter updated in April 2003 also defines operating 

procedures for the board. 

2. Organization executives 

and line managers support 

and carry out IT investment 

board decisions. 

Executed BLM established the System Coordination Office to, among other things, 

support the investment management process. The office’s 

responsibilities include ensuring that the ITIB’s decisions are carried out 

by documenting and communicating these decisions and tracking 

actions to support them. The ITIB recently adopted an action-item 

tracking matrix to better track decisions made, assigned responsibilities, 

and established time frames related to board decisions. 

Prerequisites 1. Adequate resources are 

provided for operating each 

IT investment board.

Executed A number of resources support the ITIB’s operations. They include the 

System Coordination Office which, among other things, screens IT 

investment proposals and monitors project performance; the Investment 

Management Group, which helps ensure that IT investments fit within 

BLM’s budget plan; and an IT Portfolio Management Council that is 

responsible for providing the board with an enterprise view of the 

bureau’s various portfolios. The BLM intranet also features an “ITIB 

Membership Guide Book” site that contains links to information on the 

ITIM process and related resources. 

2. Board members 

understand the investment 

board's policies and 

procedures and exhibit core 

competencies in using the 

IT investment approach via 

training, education, or 

experience. 

Executed Board members understand the investment board’s policies and 

procedures and have experience in making investment management 

decisions. High-level training has been provided to members during past 

board meetings on an informal basis. In addition, BLM plans to provide 

more formal training that addresses the core competencies that 

members should have in order to more effectively contribute to the ITIM 

process. This first formal training session is expected to be conducted in 

November 2003.

Activities 1. Each IT investment board 

is created and defined with 

board membership 

integrating both IT and 

business knowledge.

Executed The ITIB membership includes both IT and business knowledge. It 

includes the CIO (also the Vice Chair); and representatives from the 

System Coordination Office; state, center, and field offices; Bureau 

Enterprise Architecture Team; and budget areas. 

2. Each IT investment board 

operates according to 

written policies and 

procedures in the 

organization-specific IT 

investment process guide.

Executed ITIB operations are guided by BLM’s IT Investment Management 

Process guide, its associated instruction memo, and the ITIB charter. 

The guide specifies procedures for selecting, controlling, and evaluating 

investments, while the ITIB charter contains specific operating 

procedures. 
Page 17 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

BLM Has Not Defined Policies 

and Procedures for Collecting 

Information into the Budget 

Planning System to Make 

Informed Investment 

Management Decisions 

An IT project and system inventory provides information to investment 

decision makers to help evaluate the impacts and opportunities created by 

proposed or continuing investments. This inventory (which can take many 

forms) should, at a minimum, identify the organization’s IT projects 

(including new and existing systems) and a defined set of relevant 

investment management information about them (e.g., purpose, owner, lifecycle stage, budget cost, physical location, and interfaces with other 

systems). Information from the IT project and system inventory can, for 

example, help identify systems across the organization that provide similar 

functions and help avoid the commitment of additional funds for redundant 

systems and processes. It can also help determine more precise 

development and enhancement costs by informing decision makers and 

other managers of interdependencies among systems and how potential 

changes in one system can affect the performance of other systems. 

According to ITIM, effectively managing an IT project and system inventory 

requires, among other things, (1) identifying projects and systems, 

collecting relevant information about them, and capturing this information 

in a repository; (2) assigning responsibility for managing the inventory 

process and ensuring that the inventory meets the needs of the investment 

management process; (3) developing written policies and procedures for 

maintaining the project and system inventory; (4) making information from 

the inventory available to staff and managers throughout the organization 

so they can use it, for example, to build business cases and support 

activities to select and control projects; and (5) maintaining the inventory 

and its information records to contribute to future investment selections 

and assessments. (The full list of key practices is provided in table 4.)

BLM has executed three out of seven of the key practices for IT project and 

system identification. For example, the bureau is using its target 

application architecture and Budget Planning System13 to collect 

information on its IT projects and systems to make informed IT investment 

management decisions; according to CIO officials, the architecture is used 

for the information it contains on BLM’s business processes and supporting 

data, applications, and technology, while the Budget Planning System is 

used for the financial information on the investments. Resources have been 

assigned to support activities related to identifying IT projects and systems, 

including the Bureau Enterprise Architecture Team and the Budget 

13The Budget Planning System is part of BLM's larger Financial Management System. It 

contains financial data on individual investments. These data can be directly tied to annual 

budget submissions. 
Page 18 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Planning System system owners. According to BLM, all national projects 

and systems are in both the target application architecture and Budget 

Planning System (although BLM officials told us that they have planned a 

meeting to determine whether additional requirements are needed for the 

Budget Planning System to effectively serve as an inventory for investment 

management purposes). 

Despite these strengths, policies and procedures for collecting project and 

system information in the Budget Planning System for investment 

management purposes have not yet been defined. However, the CIO has 

directed teams composed of the System Coordination Office, portfolio 

managers, the Investment Management Group, and system owners of the 

Budget Planning System to “identify the ownership of each process 

associated with the IT project and system inventory.” This step would form 

the basis for policies and procedures relating to the collection (and use) of 

information in the inventory. Until BLM defines these policies and 

procedures, it cannot adequately ensure that its inventory can be relied 

upon as an effective tool to assist in investment decision making. Table 4 

shows the rating for each key practice required to implement the critical 

process for IT project and system identification at the stage 2 level of 

maturity and summarizes the evidence that supports these ratings.
Page 19 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Table 4: IT Project and System Identification

Source: GAO.

Projects’ Progress Toward Cost 

and Schedule Milestones Is 

Regularly Determined

Investment boards should effectively oversee IT projects throughout all 

life-cycle phases (concept, design, testing, implementation, and 

operations/maintenance). At the stage 2 level of maturity, investment 

boards should review each project’s progress toward predefined cost and 

Type of practice Key practice Rating Summary of evidence

Organizational 

commitments

1. The organization has written policies 

and procedures for identifying its IT 

projects and systems and collecting, in 

an inventory, information about the IT 

projects and systems that is relevant to 

the investment management process.

Not executed BLM is using its enterprise architecture and Budget 

Planning System to collect information about its IT 

projects and systems. However, the bureau has not yet 

defined the policies and procedures associated with 

collecting information in the Budget Planning System for 

investment management purposes.

2. An official is assigned responsibility 

for managing the IT project and system 

identification process and ensuring that 

the inventory meets the needs of the 

investment management process.

Executed According to the ITIB charter, it is the ITIB’s responsibility 

to manage the IT project and system identification process 

and ensure that the inventory meets the needs of the 

investment management process. According to BLM’s 

self-assessment, in practice, this responsibility has been 

delegated to the Bureau Enterprise Architecture Team for 

the architecture and to the System Coordination Office for 

the Budget Planning System. 

Prerequisite 1. Adequate resources are provided for 

identifying IT projects and systems and 

collecting relevant information into an 

inventory.

Executed Resources for IT project and system identification 

activities include contractor support for the enterprise 

architecture and the Budget Planning System system 

owners. 

Activities 1. The organization's IT projects and 

systems are identified, and specific 

information about them is collected in 

an inventory. 

Executed According to BLM officials, all national projects and 

systems are in the enterprise architecture’s target 

application component and in the Budget Planning 

System. 

2. Changes to IT projects and systems 

are identified, and change information 

is maintained in the inventory.

Not executed According to BLM, changes to projects and systems are 

not reliably being maintained in the inventory.

3. Information from the inventory is 

available on demand to decision 

makers and other affected parties.

Not executed Information from the enterprise architecture and the 

Budget Planning System is available to decision makers 

and other affected parties through BLM’s intranet site. 

However, this information is not reliable because, 

according to BLM, it is not being maintained in a 

consistent manner (see activity 2). 

4. The IT project and system inventory 

and its information records are 

maintained to contribute to future 

investment selections and 

assessments.

Not executed According to BLM, changes to projects and systems are 

not reliably being maintained in the inventory.
Page 20 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

schedule expectations, using established criteria and performance 

measures, and take corrective actions to address cost and milestone 

variances. According to ITIM, effective project oversight requires, among 

other things, (1) having written policies and procedures for project 

management; (2) developing and maintaining an approved management 

plan for each IT project; (3) making up-to-date cost and schedule data for 

each project available to the oversight boards; (4) reviewing each project’s 

performance by regularly comparing actual cost and schedule data with 

expectations; (5) ensuring that corrective actions for each underperforming project are documented, agreed to, implemented, and tracked 

until the desired outcome is achieved; and (6) having written policies and 

procedures for oversight of IT projects. (The complete list of key practices 

is provided in table 5.)

BLM has in place all but one of the key practices associated with effective 

project oversight. Project management policies and high-level procedures 

are defined in the IT Investment Management Process guide, associated 

memoranda, and in best practices guidance. In addition, project oversight 

policies and procedures are defined in the guide and associated 

memoranda, which, among other things, require the involvement and 

approval of the board at key stages in a project’s life cycle. For example, 

according to the guide, the ITIB must review and approve investment 

proposals before they can be developed into business cases. Further, once 

a project has been approved, the ITIB reviews up-to-date cost, schedule, 

and scope information quarterly and analyzes this information against 

predetermined performance expectations. The board also determines 

corrective actions for projects that have not met performance 

expectations.

We verified that cost, schedule, and scope information was submitted to 

the ITIB quarterly and analyzed against expectations and, when significant 

variances occurred, corrective actions were determined for the three 

projects we reviewed.14 This involved rebaselining the project plan based 

on schedule slippages or increased costs. In all cases, the ITIB was 

responsible for this decision. 

Notwithstanding these strengths, as discussed in the previous section, 

BLM’s IT project and systems inventory has not yet been developed to the 

14The three projects we reviewed—PayCheck, National Integrated Land System, and 

Antivirus—are described in appendix I.
Page 21 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

point where information is consistently collected and maintained to make 

informed investment management decisions. This increases the risk that 

the ITIB will not have at its disposal reliable information for supporting 

project and portfolio investment decisions and oversight. 

Table 5 shows the rating for each key practice required to implement the 

critical process for project oversight at the stage 2 level of maturity and 

summarizes the evidence that supports these ratings.

Table 5: IT Project Oversight

Type of 

practice Key practice Rating Summary of evidence

Organizational 

commitments

1. The organization has written 

policies and procedures for 

project management.

Executed BLM’s policy and procedures for managing IT investments are defined 

in the IT Investment Management Process guide and its associated 

instruction memo.

2. The organization has written 

policies and procedures for 

management oversight of IT 

projects.

Executed The ITIB charter and IT Investment Management Process guide 

specify that the board shall perform IT project oversight by regularly 

analyzing each IT investment’s planned progress toward cost and 

schedule milestones against actual progress/performance. Instruction 

memos define procedures for submitting up-to-date project 

information to the ITIB quarterly. In addition, specific procedures for 

determining corrective actions for projects that have not met 

predetermined performance standards were approved and adopted 

by the ITIB in June 2003. 

Prerequisites 1. Adequate resources are 

provided to assist the board(s) in 

overseeing IT projects.

Executed Adequate resources are provided to assist the board in overseeing IT 

projects. Specifically, the System Coordination Office has the primary 

responsibility of maintaining an integrated project schedule and 

conducting IT project oversight on all investments as they move 

through the ITIB decision process.

2. Each IT project has and 

maintains an approved project 

management plan that includes 

cost and schedule controls.

Executed The IT Investment Management Process guide requires that the 

project management plan be developed so that investments can be 

managed to achieve technical cost, schedule, performance, and risk 

management objectives. The three projects we reviewed have project 

management plans. In addition, we verified that the ITIB and System 

Coordination Office applied cost and schedule controls in their 

quarterly reviews of these projects.

3. An IT investment board is 

operating.

Executed BLM’s board has been in operation since 1998. It is responsible for 

selecting, controlling, and evaluating all national IT investments. 

4. Information from the IT project 

and system inventory is used by 

the IT investment board as 

applicable. 

Not 

executed

Information from the IT project and system inventory is available to 

the ITIB. However, according to BLM, this information is not being 

maintained reliably.
Page 22 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Source: GAO.

Processes Ensure That IT 

Projects Support Business Needs 

and Meet Users’ Needs 

Defining business needs for each IT project helps ensure that projects 

support the organization’s mission goals and meet users’ needs. This 

critical process creates the link between the organization’s business 

objectives and its IT management strategy. According to ITIM, effectively 

identifying business needs requires, among other things, (1) defining the 

organization’s business needs or stated mission goals, (2) identifying users 

for each project who will participate in the project’s development and 

implementation, (3) training IT staff adequately in identifying business 

needs, and (4) defining business needs for each project. (The complete list 

of key practices is provided in table 6.)

BLM has executed all the key practices for this critical process. The 

bureau’s IT Investment Management Process guide requires that business 

needs and associated users of each IT project be identified in the 

investment proposal and business case stages of the select phase. BLM also 

has detailed procedures for developing these two documents that call for 

Activities 1. Each project’s up-to-date cost 

and schedule data are provided 

to the appropriate IT investment 

board.

Executed BLM has a policy memo requiring project managers to submit up-todate cost, schedule, and scope information to the System 

Coordination Office quarterly, and this information is provided to the 

ITIB. We verified that this was the case for the three projects that we 

reviewed.

2. Using established criteria, the 

IT investment board regularly 

oversees each IT project’s 

performance by comparing 

actual cost and schedule data to 

expectations.

Executed The ITIB oversees each IT project’s performance by comparing actual 

cost, schedule, and scope data to expectations quarterly. Quarterly 

project status reports indicate whether reported data fall within an 

acceptable range when compared to expected cost and schedule 

(red/yellow/green). We verified that this was the case for the three 

projects that we reviewed.

3. The IT investment board 

performs special reviews of 

projects that have not met 

predetermined performance 

standards.

Executed Special reviews were conducted for the three projects we reviewed 

when they did not meet predetermined performance standards. 

4. Appropriate corrective actions 

for each under-performing 

project are defined, documented, 

and agreed to by the IT 

investment board and the project 

manager. 

Executed For each of the projects we reviewed, there are ITIB decision papers 

documenting the corrective actions that have been agreed upon by 

the ITIB and project manager. These actions include rebaselining the 

project plan to account for schedule slippage or increased costs. 

5. Corrective actions are 

implemented and tracked until 

the desired outcome is achieved.

Executed The board recently approved an action-item tracking matrix that tracks 

board decisions, parties responsible, and associated time frames. 

According to project documentation, corrective actions were tracked 

until implemented for the three projects we reviewed.

(Continued From Previous Page)

Type of 

practice Key practice Rating Summary of evidence
Page 23 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

identifying business needs and associated users. Resources for identifying 

business needs and associated users include the project sponsor, project 

proponent, and the System Coordination Office and detailed procedures 

and associated templates for developing investment proposals and 

business cases. Bureau specific business needs are defined in the Bureau 

of Land Management’s Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2000–2005, and 

projects are also often linked to the Department of the Interior’s strategic 

goals and goals of the President’s Management Agenda.

15 In addition, 

individuals responsible for managing projects at BLM can adequately 

identify business needs; according to BLM, the bureau’s practice is to select 

staff from business units as project managers (instead of staff from the IT 

unit). Finally, according to BLM officials, all national applications are in the 

Budget Planning System and target enterprise architecture, which are 

repositories of investment information that BLM is planning on using to 

make informed investment management decisions. For the three projects 

we reviewed, business needs and associated users were identified in 

business case or project planning documents, and users were involved in 

project management throughout the life cycle of the project through, for 

example, chartered user-group meetings, structured walk-throughs, 

prerelease workshops, and conference calls. Because it is executing all key 

practices associated with business needs identification, BLM can have 

greater assurance that its projects will support business needs and meet 

users’ needs. 

Table 6 shows the rating for each key practice required to implement the 

critical process for business needs identification at the stage 2 level of 

maturity and summarizes the evidence that supports these ratings.

15The President's Management Agenda is a strategy for improving the management and 

performance of the federal government. The Agenda contains five governmentwide and nine 

agency-specific goals to improve federal management and deliver results that matter to the 

American people.
Page 24 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Table 6: Business Needs Identification

Source: GAO.

Proposal Selection Process Is 

Established, but Criteria for 

Analyzing and Prioritizing 

Investments Have Not Been 

Fully Defined

Selecting new IT proposals requires an established and structured process 

to ensure informed decision making and infuse management 

accountability. According to ITIM, this critical process requires, among 

other things, (1) making funding decisions for new IT proposals according 

to an established process; (2) providing adequate resources to proposal 

selection activities; (3) using an established proposal selection process; 

(4) analyzing and ranking new IT proposals according to established 

selection criteria, including cost and schedule criteria; and (5) designating 

an official to manage the proposal selection process. (The complete list of 

key practices is provided in table 7.)

Type of practice Key practice Rating Summary of evidence

Organizational 

commitment

1. The organization has written 

policies and procedures for 

identifying the business needs (and 

the associated users) of each IT 

project.

Executed BLM has guidance for developing investment proposals and 

business cases that calls for identifying the business needs (and 

the associated users) of each IT project.

Prerequisites 1. Adequate resources are provided 

for identifying business needs and 

associated users.

Executed BLM has adequate resources for identifying business needs 

and associated users. They include the project managers, 

portfolio managers, and the System Coordination Office.

2. The organization has defined 

business needs or stated mission 

goals.

Executed The Bureau of Land Management’s Strategic Plan for fiscal 

years 2000–2005 defines the agency’s mission goals. 

3. IT staff are trained in business 

needs identification.

Executed According to BLM officials, individuals responsible for managing 

projects at BLM generally come from the business/program 

areas. Therefore, they can adequately identify business needs.

4. IT projects and systems are 

identified in the IT project and 

system inventory.

Executed According to BLM officials, all national IT investments and most 

state and center IT investments are in the enterprise 

architecture and Budget Planning System, which together 

represent the IT project and system inventory.

Activities 1. The business needs for each IT 

project are clearly identified and 

defined.

Executed BLM requires that business needs for each IT project be 

identified in investment proposals and business cases. We 

verified that the business needs for the three projects we 

reviewed were clearly identified and defined.

2. Specific users are identified for 

each IT project.

Executed BLM requires that specific users be identified for each IT project 

in investment proposals and business cases. We verified that 

specific users were identified for the three projects we reviewed.

3. Identified users participate in 

project management throughout a 

project’s life cycle.

Executed According to BLM officials, users are involved in project 

management throughout a project’s life cycle. For the three 

projects were reviewed, users were involved in project 

management through various types of meetings.
Page 25 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

BLM has executed five of the six key practices associated with proposal 

selection. For example, the IT Investment Management Process guide 

defines a multistage selection process (the select phase), including 

developing a business case and project plan that executives and project 

proponents follow. Resources for proposal selection activities include 

project proponents and the System Coordination Office. As previously 

noted, detailed procedures and a template have been defined for 

developing new IT proposals. In addition, according to BLM officials, 

funding decisions are made through the budget process, which BLM is 

working on to better integrate with the investment management process.

Despite these strengths, the key practice associated with analyzing and 

prioritizing new proposals according to established criteria has not yet 

been executed because the various criteria for doing so have not yet been 

fully defined. The Bureau Enterprise Architecture Team has defined criteria 

it uses to determine projects’ compliance with the bureau enterprise 

architecture’s business processes, data, applications, and technology 

components. Another set of criteria is being developed to assess proposals 

for their business value. These criteria are intended to be used by the IT 

Portfolio Management Council to screen proposals before they are 

reviewed by the ITIB. The ITIB members believe that these criteria are key 

to analyzing new proposals and have charged the IT Portfolio Management 

Council with developing draft criteria. The council intends to finalize the 

criteria in time for their use in the spring of 2004 to evaluate proposals for 

the fiscal year 2006 budget. Until BLM finalizes its proposal selection 

criteria and uses them to analyze and prioritize proposals, the bureau will 

not be adequately assured that it is consistently and objectively selecting 

proposals that best meet the needs and priorities of the agency.

Table 7 shows the rating for each key practice required to implement the 

critical process for proposal selection at the stage 2 level of maturity and 

summarizes the evidence that supports these ratings.
Page 26 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Table 7: Proposal Selection

Source: GAO.

BLM Has Initiated Efforts to 

Manage Its Investments as a 

Portfolio and Improve Its 

Investment Management 

Process

Once an agency has attained stage 2 maturity, it needs to establish 

capabilities for managing its investments as a portfolio (stage 3). Such 

capabilities enable the agency to consider its investments comprehensively 

so that the collective investments optimally address its mission, strategic 

goals, and objectives. Stage 3 capabilities include (1) defining portfolio 

selection criteria, (2) engaging in project-level investment analysis, and (3) 

aligning the authority of IT investment boards. In addition, establishing 

higher level stage capabilities—for example performing 

postimplementation reviews—can help an agency improve its investment 

management process. 

BLM has initiated efforts to manage its investments as a portfolio. BLM has 

defined procedures for aligning the national ITIB with subordinate 

boards.16 Portfolio categories have been defined that correspond to BLM’s 

organizational units (e.g., Minerals, Realty, and Resource Protection; 

Information Resource Management). Moreover, the board revised its 

charter in April 2003 to include portfolio management responsibilities (i.e., 

Type of practice Key practice Rating Summary of evidence

Organizational 

commitments

1. Executives and managers follow an 

established selection process.

Executed BLM’s IT Investment Management Process guide 

defines a selection process that executives and 

project proponents follow. 

2. An official is designated to manage the 

proposal selection process.

 Executed The IT Investment Management Process guide and 

the ITIB charter assign this responsibility to the 

ITIB.

Prerequisite 1. Adequate resources are provided for 

proposal selection activities.

Executed Adequate resources are provided for proposal 

selection activities. They include the project 

proponents and portfolio managers who develop 

investment proposals and business cases and the 

System Coordination Office who supports them in 

these activities.

Activities 1. The organization uses a structured 

process to develop new IT proposals.

Executed BLM has defined procedures for developing new IT 

proposals. 

2. Executives analyze and prioritize new IT 

proposals according to established selection 

criteria.

Not executed Executives analyze and prioritize new IT proposals; 

however, according to BLM officials, prioritization is 

not based on established criteria.

3. Executives make funding decisions for 

new IT proposals according to an 

established process.

Executed According to BLM officials, executives make 

funding decisions for new IT proposals through 

BLM’s budget process. 
Page 27 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

stage 3) and established an IT Portfolio Management Council to support it 

in carrying out these responsibilities.17 At a higher level stage, BLM has 

begun to address postimplementation reviews, a critical process associated 

with the most capable organizations. BLM has begun performing 

postimplementation reviews on a limited basis to learn lessons for 

improving both project management and investment management 

processes. To date, the bureau has conducted two such reviews.

Compared with the progress at stage 2, BLM’s progress to date in defining 

practices for higher level maturity stages has been limited because, 

according to its officials, the ITIB first focused its resources on establishing 

the processes associated with building the IT investment management 

foundation. Full implementation of the critical processes associated with 

portfolio management will provide BLM with the capability to determine 

whether it is selecting the mix of products that best meet the bureau’s 

mission needs. Implementing critical processes at higher level stages will 

equip BLM with the capabilities it needs to improve its investment 

management processes.

BLM Does Not Have a 

Plan to Guide IT 

Investment 

Management 

Improvement Efforts 

We have previously reported that to effectively implement ITIM processes, 

agencies need to be guided by a plan that (1) is based on an assessment of 

strengths and weaknesses; (2) specifies measurable goals, objectives, and 

milestones; (3) specifies needed resources; and (4) assigns clear 

responsibility and accountability for accomplishing well-defined tasks. In 

addition, these plans should be approved by senior management.18

Although a plan was developed a few years ago to establish the practices 

currently in place, BLM does not have a plan to guide further improvement 

of its investment management process. An independent assessment of 

BLM's ITIM process relative to stage 2 of our IT investment management 

framework was completed in January 2003, but BLM has not yet used the 

results of this assessment to develop an improvement plan. According to 

the CIO, this is because BLM intends to develop a plan integrating 

16Most state and center offices have their own boards for managing IT investments that fall 

below the thresholds of the national IT investments’ criteria.

17The Portfolio Management Council was formed in July 2002 and has met several times 

since. The council’s charter was approved in June 2003. 

18GAO-02-314, GAO-03-3, GAO-03-751.
Page 28 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

improvements for IT investment management and other IT management 

areas, and the results of the comprehensive assessment to be used as a 

basis for this integrated plan were not received until June 2003. BLM 

officials recognize the importance of having a plan to guide their 

improvement efforts, however, and stated their commitment to developing 

one, although they do not have a specific time frame for doing so. Until 

BLM develops this plan, the bureau risks losing the momentum it has 

gained in implementing its ITIM process. 

Conclusions BLM has made good progress in defining and establishing its investment 

management process in the 2 years since we reported that the lack of such 

a process had largely contributed to the failure of a key program. By 

establishing most of the key practices associated with building the 

investment foundation, the bureau has strengthened its basic capabilities 

for selecting and controlling projects and positioned itself to develop the 

processes for managing its investments as a portfolio. Critical to BLM’s 

success going forward will be the development of an implementation 

plan—preferably integrated with implementation plans for improving other 

IT management areas—to (1) guide and establish accountability for 

executing the stage 2 key practices that we noted needed to be addressed 

and (2) proceeding with efforts to define and implement stage 3 key 

practices. Without this plan, BLM risks not being able to sustain the 

progress made to date in establishing its investment management process. 

Recommendations for 

Executive Action

To strengthen BLM’s IT investment management capability and address the 

weaknesses discussed in this report, we recommend that the Secretary of 

the Department of the Interior direct the BLM Director to develop and 

implement a plan for improving its IT investment management process that 

is based on GAO’s ITIM stage 2 and 3 critical processes. The plan should, at 

a minimum, provide for accomplishing the following:

• implementing the recently approved procedures for determining 

corrective actions for projects that have not met performance 

expectations; 

• defining and implementing policies and procedures for collecting 

project and system information in the Budget Planning System for 

investment management purposes; 
Page 29 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

• fully defining criteria for analyzing and prioritizing new IT proposals; 

and

• proceeding with plans to define and implement all stage 3 critical 

processes, which are necessary for portfolio management. 

In developing the plan, the BLM Director should ensure that it (1) is based 

on the results of the bureau’s recent assessment of ITIM stage 2 

capabilities; (2) specifies measurable goals, objectives, milestones, and 

outcomes; (3) specifies needed resources; and (4) assigns clear 

responsibility and accountability for accomplishing well-defined tasks. In 

implementing the plan, the Director should ensure that the needed 

resources are provided and that progress is measured and reported 

periodically to the Secretary of the Interior. 

Agency Comments and 

Our Evaluation

In written comments on a draft of this report (reprinted in app. II), BLM’s 

Director agreed with our findings and recommendations and stated that 

they represented a fair and accurate evaluation of the bureau’s status and 

progress towards IT investment management maturity. The Director also 

noted that BLM has begun developing a plan, in accordance with our 

recommendations, to (1) complete the key practices for reaching GAO’s 

ITIM stage 2 maturity and (2) identify the goals, time frames, outcomes, 

and resources needed to reach stage 3 maturity. BLM provided additional 

technical comments, which we have incorporated into the report as 

appropriate.

We are sending copies of this report to interested congressional 

committees. We are also sending copies to the Director of the Office of 

Management and Budget, the Secretary of the Interior, and BLM’s Director 

and CIO. We also will make copies available to others upon request. In 

addition, the report will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site at

www.gao.gov. 

Should you or your offices have questions on matters discussed in this 

report, please contact me at (202) 512-6240, or Lester P. Diamond, Assistant
Page 30 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Director, at (202) 512-7957. We can also be reached by E-mail at at 

koontzl@gao.gov, or diamondl@gao.gov, respectively. Key contributors to 

this assignment were Jamey A. Collins, Sabine R. Paul, and Sophia 

Harrison.

Linda D. Koontz

Director, Information Management Issues
Page 31 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Appendix I

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology AAppenednxidexiIs

The objectives of our review were to (1) evaluate the Bureau of Land 

Management’s (BLM) IT investment management capabilities against the 

key practices defined in GAO’s IT investment management assessment 

framework and (2) determine the agency’s plans for improving these 

capabilities. 

To address our first objective, we assessed the extent to which BLM 

satisfied the five critical processes identified in stage 2 of GAO’s 

Information Technology Investment Management (ITIM) framework.1

 We 

applied the framework as it is described in the exposure draft, except that 

we used a revised version of the IT Asset Inventory critical process, called 

IT Project and System Identification, after discussions with departmental 

officials at the beginning of this engagement. This revised critical process 

has been used in our evaluations since June 2001. We did not formally 

assess BLM’s progress in establishing capabilities found in stages 3, 4, and 5 

because BLM acknowledged that it had so far primarily focused on stage 2 

and had not executed many key practices in higher maturity stages. In 

addition, we limited our review to BLM’s management of its national 

investments because they represent the investments of greater cost and 

impact to the organization. 

To determine whether BLM had implemented the critical processes 

associated with stage 2, we reviewed the results of a self-assessment of 

stage 2 practices using GAO’s ITIM framework and validated and updated 

the results of the self-assessment through document reviews and 

interviews with officials. We reviewed written policies, procedures, and 

guidance and other documentation providing evidence of executed 

practices, including BLM’s IT Investment Management Process guide, 

various board/council charters, and instruction memorandums. We also 

reviewed national Information Technology Investment Board (ITIB) 

meeting materials, including quarterly status reports, meeting minutes, 

records of decision, and matrices tracking action items through 

completion. We interviewed several BLM officials, including system 

coordination office officials, portfolio managers, and ITIB members. We 

also attended a 2-day national ITIB meeting in March 2003. 

As part of our analysis, we selected three IT projects as case studies to 

verify application of the critical processes and practices. We selected 

projects that (1) supported different BLM functional areas (directorates), 

1

GAO/AIMD-10.1.23.
Appendix I

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Page 32 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

(2) were in different life-cycle phases, and (3) required various levels of 

funding. The three projects are the following:

• PayCheck—The objective of PayCheck, currently in the evaluate phase, 

is to allow employees to input their time and attendance data using an 

automated system. Previously, the employee developed a hard-copy 

time sheet, and then a timekeeper keyed the same information into the 

payroll system. By allowing the employees to enter their own data, 

PayCheck changed the business process and eliminated the duplication 

of manual effort. This project, with an estimated life-cycle cost of 

$1,681,000, is the responsibility of the National Human Resources 

Management Center, which supports BLM’s human resources function. 

• National Integrated Land System—The objective of this system, which is 

currently in a mixed life cycle,2

 is to provide a process to collect, 

maintain, and store survey- and parcel-based land information that 

meets the common, shared business needs of land title and land 

resource management. This system will provide agencies, BLM’s 

partners, and the public with business solutions for the management of 

cadastral records and land parcel information in a Geographic 

Information System environment, accessible via the Internet. This 

project, which has an estimated life-cycle cost of $31.3 million, is under 

the Minerals, Realty, and Resource Protection directorate. This 

directorate is responsible for managing commercial energy and mineral 

production from the public lands. 

• Antivirus—The objective of Antivirus, currently in the control phase, is 

to renew or replace BLM’s existing antivirus contract that is expiring to 

provide antivirus coverage to all simple mail transfer protocol gateways, 

mail servers, other servers, desktops, and laptops. In addition, BLM is 

seeking to provide improved enterprise management and reporting 

capabilities, as well as a more automated methodology for deploying 

virus update files across the bureau. This project is being carried out by 

the Information Resources Management directorate, which provides IT 

services to BLM states, centers, and partners in support of the bureau’s 

mission. The estimated life cycle cost for Antivirus is $800,600.

2

The National Integrated Land System has four different modules. Three of these modules 

are in the “control” phase and the fourth is in the “evaluate” phase. 
Appendix I

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Page 33 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

For these projects, we reviewed project management documentation, such 

as business cases, project plans, and quarterly reports. We also reviewed 

user-group meeting minutes and analyzed national ITIB decision 

documents related to each of the projects. We also interviewed the project 

managers for these projects. 

We compared the evidence collected from our document reviews and 

interviews to the key practices in ITIM. We rated the key practices as 

“executed” on the basis of whether the agency demonstrated (by providing 

evidence of performance) that it had met the criteria of the key practice. A 

key practice was rated as ”not executed” when we found insufficient 

evidence of a practice during the review, or when we determined that there 

were significant weaknesses in BLM’s execution of the key practice.

To address our second objective, we interviewed officials from the System 

Coordination Office, whose main responsibility it is to oversee and ensure 

that BLM’s IT investment management process is implemented and 

followed; the chief information officer; and other national ITIB members to 

determine efforts undertaken to improve IT investment management 

processes. We also reviewed an improvement plan developed about 3 years 

ago based on strengths and weaknesses of BLM’s IT investment 

management process at that time, and the results of the comprehensive IT 

management assessment BLM officials stated they plan to use as a basis for 

an integrated plan for improving IT investment management and other IT 

management areas. 

We conducted our work at BLM Headquarters in Washington, D.C., from 

March through July 2003, in accordance with generally accepted 

government auditing standards.
Page 34 GAO-03-1025 BLM’s IT Investment Management Process

Appendix II

Comments from the Bureau of Land 

Management ApendxiI

(310363)
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