The federal government is projected to invest more than $89 billion on IT in fiscal year 2017. However, as we have previously reported, investments in federal IT too often result in failed projects that incur cost overruns and schedule slippages, while contributing little to the desired mission-related outcomes. For example: The Department of Veterans Affairs’ Scheduling Replacement Project was terminated in September 2009 after investing an estimated $127 million over 9 years. The tri-agency National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System was disbanded in February 2010 at the direction of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy after the program invested 16 years and almost $5 billion. The Department of Homeland Security’s Secure Border Initiative Network program was ended in January 2011, after the department invested more than $1 billion to the program. The Office of Personnel Management’s Retirement Systems Modernization program was canceled in February 2011, after investing approximately $231 million on the agency’s third attempt to automate the processing of federal employee retirement claims. The Department of Veterans Affairs’ Financial and Logistics Integrated Technology Enterprise program was intended to be delivered by 2014 at a total estimated cost of $609 million, but was terminated in October 2011 due to challenges in managing the program. The Department of Defense’s Expeditionary Combat Support System was canceled in December 2012 after investing more than a billion dollars and failing to deploy within 5 years of initially obligating funds. The Farm Service Agency’s Modernize and Innovate the Delivery of Agricultural Systems program, which was to replace aging hardware and software applications that process benefits to farmers, was halted in July 2014 after investing about 10 years and at least $423 million, while only delivering about 20 percent of the functionality that was originally planned. Our past work found that these and other failed IT projects often suffered from a lack of disciplined and effective management, such as project planning, requirements definition, and program oversight and governance. In many instances, agencies had not consistently applied best practices that are critical to successfully acquiring IT. Federal IT projects have also failed due to a lack of oversight and governance. Executive-level governance and oversight across the government has often been ineffective, specifically from chief information officers (CIO). For example, we reported that some CIOs’ authority was limited in that not all CIOs had the authority to review and approve the entire agency IT portfolio. Our past work has also identified nine critical factors underlying successful major acquisitions that support the objective of improving the management of large-scale IT acquisitions across the federal government: (1) program officials actively engaging with stakeholders; (2) program staff having the necessary knowledge and skills; (3) senior department and agency executives supporting the programs; (4) end users and stakeholders being involved in the development of requirements; (5) end users participating in the testing of system functionality prior to end user acceptance testing; (6) government and contractor staff being stable and consistent; (7) program staff prioritizing requirements; (8) program officials maintaining regular communication with the prime contractor; and (9) programs receiving sufficient funding. Recognizing the importance of issues related to government-wide management of IT, FITARA was enacted in December 2014. The law was aimed at improving agencies’ acquisitions of IT and could help enable Congress to monitor agencies’ progress and hold them accountable for reducing duplication and achieving cost savings. FITARA includes specific requirements related to the acquisition of IT, such as Agency CIO authority enhancements. CIOs at covered agencies are required to (1) approve the IT budget requests of their respective agencies, (2) certify that OMB’s incremental development guidance is being adequately implemented for IT investments, (3) review and approve contracts for IT, and (4) approve the appointment of other agency employees with the title of CIO. Enhanced transparency and improved risk management. OMB and covered agencies are to make detailed information on federal IT investments publicly available and agency CIOs are to categorize their IT investments by level of risk. Additionally, in the case of major IT investments rated as high risk for 4 consecutive quarters, the law requires that the agency CIO and the investment’s program manager conduct a review aimed at identifying and addressing the causes of the risk. Expansion of training and use of IT acquisition cadres. Agencies are to update their acquisition human capital plans to address supporting the timely and effective acquisition of IT. In doing so, the law calls for agencies to consider, among other things, establishing IT acquisition cadres or developing agreements with other agencies that have such cadres. Government-wide software purchasing program. The General Services Administration is to develop a strategic sourcing initiative to enhance government-wide acquisition and management of software. In doing so, the law requires that, to the maximum extent practicable, the General Services Administration should allow for the purchase of a software license agreement that is available for use by all executive branch agencies as a single user. Maximizing the benefit of the federal strategic sourcing initiative. Federal agencies are required to compare their purchases of services and supplies to what is offered under the federal strategic sourcing initiative. OMB is also required to issue related regulations. In February 2015, we introduced a new government-wide high-risk area, Improving the Management of IT Acquisitions and Operations. This area highlights several critical IT initiatives in need of additional congressional oversight, including (1) reviews of troubled projects; (2) efforts to increase the use of incremental development; (3) efforts to provide transparency relative to the cost, schedule, and risk levels for major IT investments; (4) reviews of agencies’ operational investments; (5) data center consolidation; and (6) efforts to streamline agencies’ portfolios of IT investments. We noted that implementation of these initiatives has been inconsistent and more work remains to demonstrate progress in achieving successful IT acquisitions and operations outcomes. Further, our February 2015 high-risk report also stated that, beyond implementing FITARA, OMB and agencies needed to continue to implement our prior recommendations in order to improve their ability to effectively and efficiently invest in IT. Specifically, between fiscal years 2010 and 2015, we made 803 recommendations to OMB and federal agencies to address shortcomings in IT acquisitions and operations, including many to improve the implementation of the recent initiatives and other government-wide, cross-cutting efforts. We noted that OMB and agencies should demonstrate government-wide progress in the management of IT investments by, among other things, implementing at least 80 percent of our recommendations related to managing IT acquisitions and operations within 4 years. In February 2017, we issued an update to our high-risk series and reported that, while progress had been made in improving the management of IT acquisitions and operations, significant work still remained to be completed. For example, as of December 2016, OMB and the agencies had fully implemented 366 (or about 46 percent) of the 803 recommendations. This was a 23 percent increase compared to the percentage we reported as being fully implemented in 2015. Figure 1 summarizes the progress that OMB and the agencies have made in addressing our recommendations, as compared to the 80 percent target. In addition, in fiscal year 2016, we made 202 new recommendations, thus further reinforcing the need for OMB and agencies to address the shortcomings in IT acquisitions and operations. In addition to addressing our prior recommendations, our 2017 high-risk update also notes the importance of OMB and federal agencies continuing to expeditiously implement the requirements of FITARA. Given the magnitude of the federal government’s annual IT budget, which is projected to be more than $89 billion in fiscal year 2017, it is important that agencies leverage all available opportunities to ensure that IT investments are made in the most effective manner possible. To do so, agencies can rely on key IT workforce planning activities to facilitate the success of major acquisitions. OMB has also established several initiatives to improve the acquisition of IT, including reviews of troubled IT projects, a key transparency website, and an emphasis on incremental development. However, the implementation of these efforts has been inconsistent and more work remains to demonstrate progress in achieving successful IT acquisition outcomes. An area where agencies can improve their ability to acquire IT is workforce planning. In November 2016, we reported that IT workforce planning activities, when effectively implemented, can facilitate the success of major acquisitions. As stated earlier, ensuring program staff have the necessary knowledge and skills is a factor commonly identified as critical to the success of major investments. If agencies are to ensure that this critical success factor has been met, then IT skill gaps need to be adequately assessed and addressed through a workforce planning process. In this regard, we reported that four workforce planning steps and eight key activities can assist agencies in assessing and addressing IT knowledge and skill gaps. Specifically, these four steps are: (1) setting the strategic direction for IT workforce planning, (2) analyzing the workforce to identify skill gaps, (3) developing and implementing strategies to address IT skill gaps, and (4) monitoring and reporting progress in addressing skill gaps. Each of the four steps is supported by key activities (as summarized in table 1). However, in our November 2016 report, we determined that five agencies that we selected for in-depth analysis had not fully implemented key workforce planning steps and activities. For example, four of these agencies had not demonstrated an established IT workforce planning process. In addition, none of these agencies had fully assessed their workforce competencies and staffing needs regularly or established strategies and plans to address gaps in these areas. Figure 2 illustrates the extent to which the five selected agencies had fully, partially, or not implemented key IT workforce planning activities. The weaknesses identified were due, in part, to these agencies lacking comprehensive policies that required such activities, or failing to apply the policies to IT workforce planning. We concluded that, until these weaknesses are addressed, the five agencies risk not adequately assessing and addressing gaps in knowledge and skills that are critical to the success of major acquisitions.