It’s a commonly-used process, and yet so few manage to execute it effectively on a consistent basis. Capital Planning Investment Control (CPIC), if performed as intended, provides a strategy for capital planning that enables organizations to demonstrate and maximize value from scarce public resources. With the current funding environment, CPIC is ever-more important as a …
Category Archives: IT
Applying Agile Methodologies to Acquisition Support – The Benefits (Part II)
A new trend in acquisition – applying the modular method of “Agile” software development using daily meetings and lessons learned – is more productive than acquisition support done the “old way” because it utilizes necessary resources when and where they are required. Agile methodology applied to acquisition support is an increasingly preferred technique among Government …
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Applying Agile Methodologies to Acquisition Support – The Basics
Increasingly in today’s economic climate, Agile methodologies are the answer to the Government’s constant search for ways to do more with less. In its July 2012 report, “Effective Practices and Federal Challenges in Applying Agile Methods,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recognized that a growing number of federal agencies are using Agile techniques to develop …
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Why Key Word Searches May Not Identify the Best Job Candidate
As project leads and managers, we have all experienced a staffing vacancy on a project due to staff changes or project expansion. To fill our void, we post job descriptions on career pages and numerous “Job Boards” in an effort to reach a wide swath of people and generate a large pool of resumes to …
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Cloud or Cloudy? Government’s Transition to Cloud Offerings
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has required Federal agencies to adopt a “Cloud First” approach to evaluating options for new IT deployments. This was born out of the 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management by Vivek Kundra, who was the US Chief Information Officer at the time this report …
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What Elements of BBP 2.0 are Important to IT Programs and Why?
As we move further into an unprecedented era of tighter budgets and post war downsizing, it makes sense to implement Better Buying Power 2.0, the directive published by Frank Kendall, Undersecretary for Acquisition at the Department of Defense (DoD), in April 2013. Bottom line – if you are a program under Acquisition Technology &Logistics (AT&L), …
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How to Get Buy-In on the Value of the Business Case
You don’t have work in the federal budget field to know that agencies are closely reviewing every budget line item to see where they can streamline to reduce costs. It is vital that government Program Managers (PMs) understand the importance of building and reporting on sound business cases for their investments – the OMB300 process. …
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The Three C’s Of CPIC Success at TSA
With budgets and resources stretched more than ever, portfolios are under fire to demonstrate the value of their investments through sound business cases. One way to show soundness is to demonstrate the business cases are compliant and coherent. But how is this accomplished? Based on my experience supporting teams through many Capital Planning and Investment …
The Importance of CPIC in the Age of Sequestration
The age of sequestration has started; several departments across the federal government have seen significant budget cuts. As departments scramble to find funding and make the appropriate adjustments to their budgets for Fiscal Year (FY) 14 and beyond, it can be tempting to cut support for the Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC) process. The …
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How to Make Agile Work for You in IT Acquisition
In an environment of uncertain budgets and evolving technology, a modular or Agile approach to acquiring new systems can provide greater cost control and flexibility. In Part I of my primer on Agile, I wrote about the What and Why of the modular approach to buying information technology (IT). Now in Part II, I’ll look …
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