Section 1: Introduction
This section introduces key factors that played a major role in the
formation of the Department's IT strategy. As best practices dictate, the IT
Strategic Plan makes use of missions, visions, goals and desired outcomes
defined at the Department and Agency level. The key elements of mission,
vision, organization, and the drivers of change are presented prior to the
Department's IT strategy and goals.
1.1 Department of Labor and This IT Strategic Plan
"As I start my second term, we must take action to keep our
economy growing. I will not be satisfied until every American who wants to work
can find a job. I have laid out a comprehensive strategy to sustain growth,
create jobs, and confront the challenges of a changing America."
President George W. Bush, February 2005
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For almost a century, the U.S. Department of Labor has been helping
Americans find employment, feel more secure in the workplace, and benefit
fairly from their hard work. The role of IT in helping to deliver those
services has grown ever more important over the past several decades, and today
IT is an indispensable contributor to the success of
the Department. With a robust information technology infrastructure
that is properly managed and implemented, the Department will be optimally
positioned to achieve its mission.
This IT Strategic Plan presents the Department's IT Program priorities
for the next several years. It also communicates DOL's commitment to a process
of inclusion, strategic planning and continuous improvement. Given the breadth
of the Department's mission, it is not easy to communicate IT Program
priorities thoroughly. However, doing so demonstrates the Department's
commitment to achieving results and becoming more accountable for those results
to Americans.
The Department of Labor's policies, programs
and initiatives are a cornerstone of the President's commitment to increased
employment. DOL and its IT Program must periodically consider market
circumstances, re-order priorities, and re-allocate resources to provide the
greatest returns-on-investment. This IT Strategic Plan is a working, living
plan and will be updated during its five-year term to maximize the IT Program's
positive impact on the Department and the American worker.
1.2 Scope
This IT Strategic Plan provides a specific course of action for the IT
Program at the Department of Labor over the next five years. The plan's
primary purpose is to establish a strategic framework
for guiding the course of the IT Program and to orient DOL's IT
Strategic Planning and strategic decision making processes. Focusing
internally, this plan also succeeds in defining the strategy that will ensure
that the IT resources deployed across DOL will optimally align with the
business goals of the Department. Looking externally, this plan integrates the
management reform goals embodied in the President's Management Agenda and the
strategic planning processes prescribed by the Office of Management and
Budget.
1.3 Working Group Processes
Early in this plan's development, it was recognized that one measure of
this plan's quality would be the process employed to produce it. Implementing a
structured process and establishing a Working Group composed of business and IT
planners from DOL's twenty-five Agencies, Bureaus and Offices were the first
two milestones achieved in the strategic decision making process. The
Department's Chief Information Officer accepted the recommendations of the CIO
Council, the Office of Management and Budget and the President's Management
Agenda and expanded this plan to reflect external stakeholder needs as well as
the IT Program's internal stakeholders.
"When preparing this strategic plan, the IT Program Managers should
consult, solicit, and consider the views of ALL of the Department's Agencies,
Bureaus and Offices," said DOL's Chief Information Officer, Patrick Pizzella.
He also provided guidance on the process, saying, "those who ultimately engage
themselves in this process should consider how this particular IT Strategic
Plan integrates and more importantly, operates within the Department's
Strategic Plan, the annual performance planning, and the annual performance
budgeting processes. Even though such a process may result in contrary views
being expressed, our strategic decision making process must strive for
inclusion."
Building on this mandate, this IT Strategic Plan represents a
synergistic inter-Agency collaboration on IT at the Department. The process
that DOL used to produce its IT strategy included a Department-level
integration of business and IT program planning, while its business and IT
leadership collaborated on defining the Department's IT strategic goals and IT
strategy. The Department sought opportunities for collaboration on IT strategy
and IT initiatives across the U.S. Government. Since the process of creating
this IT Strategic Plan was inclusive and iterative, each stakeholder had a
voice in the creation of measures for effectiveness and efficiency. (See
Appendix A: Operational Diagram of the Strategic Decision Making Process
Employed for This IT Strategy Development.)
1.4 Mission, Vision and Organization
The critical examination and evaluation of the Department's current
mission and vision, along with the alignment of the IT Program's mission and
vision is critical to crafting the IT Strategic Plan.
"The purpose of the Department of
Labor shall be to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners
of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their
opportunities for profitable employment."
Public Law 426-62, the Organic Act of the Department
of Labor March 1913 |
Some aspects of the American labor situation and the Department of
Labor's mandate have changed dramatically in recent years - the need for
greater security after 9/11 being just one aspect of these changes. All
Americans acknowledge our lives are different now. This plan recognizes these
new aspects and is based on the understanding that these factors are likely to
continue changing in the years ahead. Since 1913, the Department's mission has
evolved and expanded. In 2005 the mission is broader and requires the efforts
of over 17,000 employees and 25 different internal organizations.
1.4.1 Mission of the Department
Mission of the Department
The Department of Labor promotes
the welfare of job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United States by
improving working conditions, expanding opportunities for training and
profitable employment, protecting retirement and health care benefits, helping
employers find workers, strengthening free collective bargaining, and tracking
changes in employment, prices, and other national economic
measurements. |
Vision of the Department
The Department of Labor will help
workers and their families share in the American Dream through better wages,
more secure pensions and health benefits, and expanded economic opportunities
while fostering safe and healthful workplaces that are free from
discrimination. |
Organization of the Department
The Department of Labor is organized into major Agencies, each headed by
an Assistant Secretary or Commissioner who administers the various statutes and
programs for which the Department is responsible. These programs are carried
out through a network of regional offices and smaller field, district, and area
offices, as well as through grantees and contractors. The largest program
Agencies are the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Employee Benefits Security
Administration (EBSA), Employment Standards Administration (ESA), Employment
and Training Administration (ETA), Mine Safety and Health Administration
(MSHA), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management
(OASAM), and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Figure 1
below depicts the organizational structure of the Department.
Figure 1: DOL Organizational Chart
1.4.2 IT Program: Mission and Vision
The mission and vision of the IT Program have always been closely
aligned with the Department's mission, vision, and organization. Much of the
day-to-day work of the Department could not be accomplished without the
significant information technology investments in people, processes, and
infrastructure.
Mission of the IT Program
The Department of Labor's IT
Program mission is to contribute to the success of the Department's mission
through the management and delivery of reliable, high quality information that
can be readily shared in a secure, cost-effective manner to our
customers. |
Vision of the IT Program
The Department of Labor's IT
Program vision integrates a strong IT governance framework and innovative
technological processes to ensure access to modern, reliable, and secure IT
infrastructures and systems to support and enhance DOL's vision and mission in
the 21st Century. |
As simple as these IT Program statements of vision and mission might
appear, the reality of managing and sharing reliable information on this scale
(both internally and with the public) is a far more complex and issue-rich
task. A strong IT governance/management framework is a
core component of the Department's IT strategy and will be discussed
in Section 4.0 (IT Management).
The IT Program's mission and vision recognize the evolution of IT best
practices and aim to deliver what is best - from the U.S. Government and U.S.
industry - into the Department. The process of continually checking the
alignment of the IT Program's mission and vision with the Department's mission
and vision is lengthy. However, since IT Program mission and vision alignment
is critical to producing a viable IT strategy, the Department's alignment
efforts are noted in our operational process and weigh heavily in the IT
strategy formation.
1.5 Drivers of Change
Internal Drivers
Internal drivers of change are those factors that affect the
Department's operating environment from within the organization. These drivers
are often the result of synergistic discussion and collaboration among the
Department's operating units working towards a common goal. The internal
drivers of change most relevant to the IT Strategic Plan are:
- DOL's IT Program exists within a heterogeneous environment where
important differences in business goals must be supported. The Department of
Labor was an early adopter of Information Technology - the first major computer
systems being implemented in the 1950's. Highly customized, non-integrated
systems developed over a period of many decades as was the norm across the U.S.
Government. Now the Department and the IT Program managers operate within a
complex internal IT environment even though in 2005, efficiency and
productivity are best achieved through homogeneity (unified architectures,
shared platforms, and truly cross-cutting system approaches).
- The DOL IT Program operates within a complex mission and business
environment. Even though DOL is one department, each of the 25 different
entities operates under varying agency-level program and mission goals. The IT
Program must support each of these different business areas. This diversity
aids in the generation of ideas allowing many different solutions to be
considered.
- DOL is challenged to continue to achieve results-driven performance
by balancing appropriate IT resources
External Drivers
The Department recognizes the need to adapt to changes in government,
business, and the economy. DOL must also adapt to changes mandated by the
Administration and Congress. An effective IT strategy and appropriate IT
initiatives must be based upon a thorough understanding of the legislative,
inter-departmental, and public interest factors within the external
environment. These external drivers of change include prominently:
- Presidential, legislative, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and
other key stakeholder directives continually require modifications to any IT
strategy. These modifications of strategy can create the conditions for
positive unexpected developments in new areas of IT.
- The Office of Management and Budget's emphasis on achieving universal
standards for the preparation of Federal Strategic Plans, Annual Performance
Plans, and Annual Performance Reports.
- The President's Management Agenda and the emphasis it places on
bringing commercial best practices and accountabilities to U.S. Government
Departments to enhance their performance for the benefit of the American
public.
- The CIO Council's analysis and recommendations that present a Federal
perspective on information technology which benefits all Federal Agencies.
Substantial legislation and Presidential Directives play a key role and
include the 16 governmental drivers noted in Table 1 below.
External Drivers of Change (Legislation and Presidential Directives)
that Impact IT Planning and Management in the U.S. Federal Government
- IT Management Reform Act of 1996 (ITMRA or Clinger-Cohen
Act)
- Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 (CFO Act)
- Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA)
- Government Management Reform Act of 1994 (GMRA)
- Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (FASA)
- Federal Acquisition Reform Act of 1996 (FARA)
- Government Paperwork Elimination Act 1998 (GPEA)
- Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA)
- Presidential Decision Directive 63 (PDD-63)
- Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)
- Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMFIA)
- Section 508, Rehabilitation Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. '794d)
- FY 2002 President's Management Agenda\
- E-Government Act of 2002
- CIO Council
- OMB A-11, A-130, A-94
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Table 1: External Drivers of Change that Impact IT
Planning and Management in the U.S. Federal
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