The Overseas Presence Advisory Panel was formed to consider the future of our nation’s overseas representation, to appraise its condition, and to develop practical recommendations on how best to organize and manage our overseas posts. Last November, the Panel reported that the condition of U.S. posts and missions abroad is unacceptable. For example, the Panel found that facilities overseas are deteriorating; human resource management practices are outdated and inefficient; and there is no interagency mechanism to coordinate overseas activities or manage their size and shape. A key finding was that our embassies and missions are equipped with antiquated, grossly inefficient, and incompatible information technology systems. According to the Panel, inefficient information systems have left the department “out of the loop,” that is, other agencies, organizations, and even foreign governments are bypassing its cumbersome communications connections. The Panel recommended that all agencies with an overseas presence provide staff with a common network featuring Internet access, e-mail, a secure unclassified Internet website, and shared applications permitting unclassified communications among all agencies and around the globe. The Panel further recommended that agencies initiate planning for a similar common platform for classified information. In response, the President asked the Secretary of State to lead a cabinet- level committee to implement the Panel’s recommendations. This is now known as the Overseas Presence Committee and is chaired by State’s Undersecretary for Management. Three interagency subcommittees have been established to report to this committee, including the Rightsizing Subcommittee, the Overseas Facilities Subcommittee, and the Interagency Technology Subcommittee. The area that you asked us to focus on, Mr. Chairman, involves the Information Technology Subcommittee, chaired by State’s CIO and consisting of CIOs from the eight other major agencies with overseas presence, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Peace Corps, and the Departments of Defense, Justice, Transportation, Treasury, Agriculture, and Commerce.Two working groups report to this subcommittee: (1) the Interagency Technology Working Group, which is responsible for defining operational requirements, selecting specific enabling strategies, identifying required funding, and establishing standards for the common platform and (2) the Knowledge Management Working Group, which is charged with making the right information available to the right people. Knowledge management is a very important component of the Panel’s recommendations. The Panel’s intent is that our overseas agencies be able to not only communicate with each other and back to their respective headquarters, but also to obtain and share the information and knowledge that already exists among agencies and around the world, but is currently fragmented and not readily accessible. State is in the process of developing a structured project plan for the lifecycle of its common platform initiative. In doing so, State intends to define user and system requirements; identify risks and assess technical feasibility; identify the major work elements that will be accomplished over the life of the project; analyze costs and benefits; establish project goals, performance measures, and resources; assign responsibilities; and establish milestones. It expects to complete this plan by September 30, 2000. Given the risks, complexities, and potential costs involved in the common platform initiative, it is critical that State carefully scope the effort, anticipate and plan for risks, and establish realistic goals and milestones. Experience with similar undertakings has shown that poor project planning can cause agencies to pursue overly ambitious schedules, encounter cost overruns, and/or find themselves ill-prepared to manage risks. To date, State has developed high-level preliminary project milestones and decided to pilot a prototype common system, from April through September 2001, at two posts, Mexico City, Mexico and New Delhi, India. It has also decided to follow a methodology for managing the project called Managing State Projects, which provides a structured process for planning, applying, and controlling funds, personnel, and physical resources to yield maximum benefits during a project life cycle. The methodology focuses on a number of key factors critical to ensuring the success of any large, complex information technology effort, including (1) clearly defining what users need, (2) determining what the system will ultimately cost, and (3) defining how management will monitor and oversee progress, and ensure that the project stays on track. State is already in the process of taking the first step—defining requirements for the overseas common technology platform. System requirements include such things as system functions, communication protocols, interfaces, regulatory requirements, security requirements, and performance characteristics. State officials responsible for managing the development of the common platform effort told us that they have developed high-level preliminary requirements and are in the process of further defining user requirements. Given the range and number of agencies and employees involved in foreign affairs, this task will need to be carefully managed. Requirements will have to be agreed upon by, and have the same meaning for, each of the participating overseas agencies, and they will need to be fully documented and sufficiently detailed so they can be used to determine what systems will be acquired and what standards will be used. Cost estimates—the second step–cannot be finalized until user requirements are defined. As such, there is not yet firm, supported cost data on how much the new system will cost. The Panel estimated that the ultimate cost of a common solution for both classified and unclassified information will be over $300 million. The President’s FY2001 budget includes $17 million in support of the recommendation for a common information technology platform for overseas offices. State officials characterized the $17 million as a “down payment” on the total anticipated investment. If these funds are appropriated, the department intends to use them on its pilot project. State is now developing preliminary cost estimates for the pilot; however, State officials told us that these estimates will be rough given that detailed user requirements have not yet been fully defined and target systems, hardware, and networks have not yet been identified. State officials also plan to address the third step–instilling the management oversight and accountability needed to properly guide the common platform initiative. The methodology provides a formal approval process with “control gates” to ensure that user needs are satisfied by the proposed project, timetables are met, the risks are acceptable, and costs are controlled. If effectively implemented and adhered to, these control gates can provide management with the opportunity to review and formally approve progress at key decision points. State expects to define the approval process in its overall project plan. As State is in the early stages of project planning, it faces considerable challenges in modernizing overseas information technology systems. First, State will need to obtain agreement among its various bureaus and the agencies in the foreign affairs community on such issues as requirements, resources, responsibilities, policies, and acquisition decisions. This will be a delicate task as these agencies have different needs, levels of funding, and ongoing agency-unique systems development. Second, State needs to complete its detailed information technology architecture–or blueprint–to guide and effectively control its own information technology acquisitions. It currently has a high-level architecture and anticipates completing the detailed layers of the architecture by next year. Third, the security of the common system must be fully addressed before its deployment to ensure that sensitive data is not stolen, modified, or lost. Obtaining the interagency cooperation and funding necessary to achieve the Panel’s recommendations will be a major challenge. Each of the more than 40 agencies involved in foreign affairs has its own unique requirements, priorities, and resource constraints and many are accustomed to developing, acquiring, and maintaining their own systems. Yet State will need to overcome these cultural barriers and secure agreement on a range of issues such as which systems, hardware, and networks to acquire, how much can be spent on these assets, and who should be responsible for managing and maintaining them. In recognizing this dilemma, the Panel highlighted the need for Presidential initiative and support, the Secretary of State’s leadership, and ongoing congressional oversight and support. Addressing cultural and organizational barriers to standardization and cooperation will not be easy. First, it is likely that many agencies may want to continue operating their own technology, especially if these systems were recently acquired or upgraded. Second, no one agency by itself has the authority or ability to dictate a solution or to ensure the implementation of a mutually developed solution. Third, although negotiations are ongoing, details are still being worked out as to who will manage and administer the new collaborative network. The department will also need to obtain cooperation among its various bureaus. Information management activities at State have historically been carried out on a decentralized basis and without the benefit of continuing centralized management attention. Consequently, systems development efforts have not always been synchronized and the systems themselves not interoperable. State acknowledges that many of its systems can be described as “stovepiped” and “islands of automation,” terms which describe their fragmentation and independence. In recognition of this problem, the department is working to establish a shared computing environment but progress has been slow. State officials recognize that they will need to reach out to bureaus and to other agencies with overseas presence to achieve consensus on specific, detailed user requirements, acquisition decisions, standards, policies, and responsibilities and that this will be a difficult endeavor. They have told us that they have begun to explore ongoing common platform initiatives with other agencies and that they will address this challenge as they develop their overall project plan. Even though State is leading the common platform initiative which involves more than 40 other agencies, it does not have a detailed information technology architecture. However, State does have a high- level architecture issued last year in place and is now working to complete supporting architectural layers. An architecture is essential to guiding and constraining information technology acquisition and development efforts. In doing so, an effective architecture will limit redundancy and incompatibility among information technology systems, enable agencies to protect sensitive data and systems, and help ensure that new information technology optimally supports mission needs. System architectures are essentially “construction plans” or blueprints that systematically detail the full breadth and depth of an organization’s mission-based mode of operations in logical and technical terms.