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 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, 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. 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. 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 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. These individuals and groups and their roles are described below. 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, objective process. Members include national IT portfolio managers 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. 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 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. 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. 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 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. 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.