The Manager's Edge Companion Guide

Cracking the whip on government's overgrown tangle of technology.

Professional Resources

Here are a number of handbooks, guides and professional organizations' Web sites to help you out.

• Meet the CIOs in Government Executive's special guide, introducing the top IT officials in 23 departments and agencies.
• The Chief Information Officers Council has its own Web site, providing guidance to federal agencies on the policies they should abide by when approaching IT issues. The CIO Council's "Best IT Practices in Government" guide is an important reference to keep handy.
• The Information Technology Resources Board helps agencies work out IT project problems, and has issued a guide for federal managers on successful project management. The board's "Lessons Learned" report can help you avoid the mistakes other agencies have made.
• The Government Information Technology Services Board has taken the lead in implementing the IT reforms laid out in the Vice President's Access America report. They oversee major innovations in federal IT management.
• Technology conferences, seminars and workshops are held year-round for federal professionals. Hundreds are listed on GovExec.com's Federal Technology Calendar.

To understand how Congress and the Clinton Administration expect you to proceed, you'll need at least a passing acquaintance with the following laws and regulations:

• 1990 Chief Financial Officers Act requires the financial management practices and systems necessary for tracking IT costs and spending.
  See Born Again Financial Management (May 1996)
• 1994 Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA) and 1996 Federal Acquisition Reform Act (FARA) remove bureaucratic barriers to timely and efficient technology purchases.
  See our acquisition guides in the Procurement section of the Web site.
• 1995 Paperwork Reduction Act lays out the need for strategic planning for information resources management and for linking IT decisions with mission needs. It also compels agencies to reduce information requirements on citizens and, in concert with the Information Technology Management Reform Act, should help agencies make sure the information they collect is used by other agencies.
• 1996 Information Technology Management Reform Act (ITMRA), also known as the Clinger-Cohen Act, makes agency heads and program managers, with the help of chief information officers, responsible for making performance-based IT investments that support reengineered work processes. Clinger-Cohen applies GPRA's performance requirements to information technology investments.
• OMB Circular A-11 governs how agencies make their annual budget estimates and is being revised to include guidance on capital planning for IT investments. A new supplemental section, Part 3, "Planning, Budgeting and Acquisition of Fixed Assets (including IT) was issued July 16.
• OMB Circular A-130 governs the use and collection of federal information resources and is being revised to reflect changes caused by ITMRA.
• OMB Director's April 4, 1996, Memorandum on ITMRA (96-20) gives agencies preliminary guidance primarily about the CIO provisions of the law.
• Executive Order 13011, July 16, 1996, "Federal Information Technology," spells out agency heads' responsibilities under ITMRA and explains the duties of the CIO Council, Government Information Technology Services Board and Information Technology Resources Board created under the law. Federal Register Vol. 61, No. 140, July 19,1996.