RD179 - Recommended Technology Investment Projects (RTIP) Report For the 2010-2012 Budget Biennium, September 1, 2010 Submission


Executive Summary:
Fiscal year 2010 signaled major changes in oversight and governance structures. The IT Investment Board (ITIB) was eliminated, and its roles and responsibilities were divided between the Commonwealth Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the Secretary of Technology. The CIO now is appointed by and reports to the Governor. As part of his new roles and responsibilities, the CIO is required to submit a prioritized list of recommended technology investment projects for funding to the Governor and General Assembly by September 1.

In developing the 2010 Recommended Technology Investment Projects (RTIP) Report, the CIO employed IT Investment Management (ITIM) best practices to select the right mix of technology investments (projects) from the Commonwealth Major IT Project Portfolio. Only projects supported by a strong business case, based on established selection and ranking criteria, were considered as priorities for funding.

This year marks the eighth annual submission of the RTIP Report. It is the CIO’s desire that the report add value to the Commonwealth’s technology investment decision-making process. To this end, the report reflects the CIO’s increased emphasis on strong investment alignment to the Commonwealth’s strategic goals and objectives as established by the Council on Virginia’s Future, the Governor and the 2007-2011 Commonwealth of Virginia Strategic Plan for Information Technology.

The Commonwealth’s strategic planning process continues to improve each year as collaboration among agency business leaders and their supporting IT staffs becomes more consistent. The end result of this collaboration is a more tightly integrated agency strategic plan and IT strategic plan. An agency strategic plan sets priorities for an organization’s technology investments and directs development efforts based on an organization’s mission, goals and objectives. Only one project, Department of Motor Vehicles Real ID, was not included in the 2009 RTIP Report that was subsequently granted both CIO planning and development approval.

FY2010 marked the first year that active Major IT Projects were defined in the Governor’s Budget and in the Appropriation Act. Supported by the Commonwealth Technology Portfolio (CTP), the CIO now is able to maintain better visibility into the Commonwealth IT investment portfolio, including regular quarterly portfolio reviews. Closer, regular scrutiny of the portfolio by the oversight and governance process has significantly reduced the number of last-minute agency projects being submitted for planning and development approval between RTIP Reports.

Capturing and retaining project information in the CTP over time has opened up opportunities for charting spending trends. Exhibit 1 shows IT project dollars spent on new investments for fiscal years 2007 through 2010. These cost figures were taken from the data reported by agencies on the Commonwealth Major IT Projects Dashboard each month. FY07 is much higher than the other years due to the Statewide Agencies Radio System (STARS) projects. The size of the STARS project is not typical of the average project, and 2007 was an unusual year even for STARS as the project had expenditures of approximately $74 million that year. Three projects, Virginia Department of Transportation’s Cardinal, Virginia State Police’s STARS and Department of Medical Assistance Services’ Fiscal Agency Competitive Re-bid, with combined expenditures of $54,157,695, account for the increase in project spending in FY10 over FY09.

Overall IT expenditures for Executive Branch agencies for FY2007 through FY2010 can be seen in Exhibit 2 which shows the breakout between infrastructure, project spending under oversight and governance, and ongoing operations and maintenance (O&M) over the four-year period. These expenditures do not include higher education, Judicial Branch or Legislative agencies. The data for each of these years is from year-end data from the state general ledger system called the Commonwealth Accounting and Reporting System (CARS) and is provided by the Auditor of Public Accounts (APA) in Excel workbooks. Because data is coming from CARS, all spend numbers are totally dependent upon accurate sub-object coding of expenditures by agencies. The decision was made to use this data as it is provided from a reliable, independent source and is consistent from year to year. Because agencies do not report against baselines on the Commonwealth Major IT Project Status Report Dashboard for non-major projects, VITA does not have a method for determining dollars spent in a given fiscal year. These dollars are embedded within the O&M category at this time. As of July 1, 37 non-major projects with a total value of $13,555,841 were active.

Agency IT project costs increased, and agency IT payrolls held steady in spite of declining revenues and reductions in infrastructure and non-payroll spending.