Feedback from those who know the intended audience but are not directly involved with the project is useful to assure the results tell a story. For its customers, Oregon's CIO office tracked completed IT projects. In their annual budget submissions to OMB and Congress, agencies have to report progress toward agency or project goals. Results, particularly outcomes and impacts, may take years to be realized. Because outcomes do not occur until the end of the project, many agencies work with OMB and Congress to plan and identify intermediate outcomes to demonstrate progress.
Agencies explain how project outputs and intermediate outcomes lead to project outcomes.
The explanations include a summary of the resources employed, the project goals and the results obtained. The explanations include the reasons why there are, if any, significant variances between the goals and the results. The impact must be relevant. The explanation includes the actions that were taken or will be taken to improve performance or to put the project back on track. The main focus on IT projects is whether they created efficiencies and effectiveness for the organization.