On Dec 9, 2011, the Chief Information Officer of the US released a 25 point plan to reform Government IT:

http://www.cio.gov/documents/25-point-implementation-plan-to-reform-federal%20it.pdf

Here are some highlights of the document:

• Turnaround or terminate at least one-third of underperforming projects in IT portfolio within the next 18 months
• Shift to “Cloud First” policy . Each agency will identify three “must move” services within three months, and move one of those services to the cloud within 12 month and the remaining two within 18 months .
• Reduce number of Federal data centers by at least 800 by 2015
• Only approve funding of major IT programs that:
  • Have a dedicated program manager and a fully staffed integrated program team − Use a modular approach with usable functionality delivered every six months − Use specialized IT acquisition professionals

My Opinion

After briefly reviewing the document, I read modular development as Agile Development Practices. If this is the case I applaud the CIO of the US in acknowledging that Waterfall does not work!

Information technology should enable government to better serve the American people . But despite spending more than $600 billion on information technology over the past decade, the Federal Government has achieved little of the productivity improvements that private industry has realized from IT . Too often, Federal IT projects run over budget, behind schedule, or fail to deliver promised functionality . Many projects use “grand design” approaches that aim to deliver functionality every few years, rather than breaking projects into more manageable chunks and demanding new functionality every few quarters . In addition, the Federal Government too often relies on large, custom, proprietary systems when “light technologies” or shared services exist .

— 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal IT - Vivek Kundra - CIO USA