Summary

Making government more effective and efficient is a national issue. Today's information systems offer the government unprecedented opportunities to provide higher quality services tailored to the public's changing needs. Unfortunately, federal agencies have not kept pace with evolving management practices and skills necessary to (1) precisely define critical information needs and (2) select, apply, and control changing information technologies. The result, in many cases, has been wasted resources, a frustrated public unable to get quality service, and a government ill-prepared to measure and manage its affairs in an acceptable, businesslike manner. Despite spending more than $200 billion on information management and systems during the last 12 years, the government has too little evidence of meaningful returns. The consequences--poor service, high costs, low productivity, unnecessary risks, and unexploited opportunities for improvement--cannot continue. This report focuses on what agencies can do now to improve performance by using new approaches to managing information and their related technologies. It summarizes 11 fundamental practices that improved performance in leading private and public organizations. GAO's case studies of these organizations shows that these practices make it possible to do far more with less.