CITRB Charter

April 29, 2003

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY REVIEW BOARD CHARTER

A. Purpose

This charter establishes the Department of Commerce Information Technology Review Board (CITRB) and prescribes policy and responsibilities for Departmental risk management of the information technology (IT) capital planning and investment process. The CITRB acts as a board of directors that advises the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on critical IT matters. The CITRB ensures that proposed investments contribute to the Secretary's strategic vision and mission requirements, employ sound IT investment methodologies, comply with Departmental systems architectures, employ sound security measures, and provide the highest return on the investment or acceptable project risk. Establishment of the CITRB supports IT management improvement goals of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 (CCA) and the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) as well as related implementing regulations and guidance, including the President's Management Agenda.

B. Background and Authority

The CCA requires agencies to establish an effective and efficient capital planning and investment process for selecting, controlling, and evaluating the results of all major investments in information technology. The process is to be integrated with the processes for making budget, financial, acquisition, and program management decisions within agencies. The process also supports requirements for the Chief Information Officer (CIO) to provide advice regarding information technology and information resources management to the agency head as required by the CCA and the PRA.

C. Scope

This charter applies to the evaluation of new and base IT system investments designated by the Department's CIO. Systems selected will meet one or more of the following criteria: systems meriting special attention due to their sensitivity, mission criticality, or risk potential; Department-wide systems; systems where resources are shared between bureaus and/or the Department; and systems with life cycle costs over $25 million.

D. Policy

The CITRB provides for coordinated risk management, review, and advice to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary regarding IT investments meeting the criteria identified in section C above. In practice, the recommendations are often transmitted to the Secretary and Deputy Security through the Office of Budget. This advice includes recommendations for approval or disapproval of funding for new or base investments as well as recommendations for continuation or termination of projects under development at key milestones or when they fail to meet performance, cost, or schedule criteria. The Board also recommends to the CIO approval or disapproval of requests for delegation of procurement authority (DPA), after an operating unit has budget approval but before an operating unit may enter into a contract. The CIO establishes dollar thresholds for DPAs independent of the Board.

The CITRB will ensure that IT investments are aligned with strategic plans, support mission requirements, comply with architecture goals, minimize project risk including security risk, and demonstrate a positive return on the investment. Activities of the CITRB will satisfy risk management requirements of the Clinger-Cohen Act and consider guidance from the CIO Council, Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Council, General Accounting Office, Office of Management and Budget, or other government-wide advisory bodies that address capital planning and IT investment management.

E. Processes

The CITRB is chaired by the CIO and co-chaired by the Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Administration. Board members include the following:

Deputy CIO.

CIOs from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Bureau of the Census, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and International Trade Administration, and, on a rotating term basis not to exceed two years, two other operating unit CIO's .

1. Selected operating unit executives as designated by the CIO.

• Director for Budget.
• Director for Acquisition Management.
• Director for Human Resources Management.
• Deputy Chief Financial Officer
• Senior level executives (e.g., CIOs, CFOs, subject matter experts) from the private sector or academia who may serve in an advisory capacity.

2. In the event that a CITRB member is unable to attend a board meeting, an alternate may be designated by the principal only with the approval of the chair. As determined by the chair, additional participants, such as operating unit project managers, may be invited to attend and advise the CITRB.

3. Recommendations of the CITRB will be based on majority rule voting. The CITRB chair will break a tie. Only CITRB members or designated alternates approved by the chair may vote. CITRB members are exempt from voting on projects sponsored by their operating unit.

4. The CITRB will use uniform decision-making criteria for comparing and ranking projects.

5. It is expected that operating unit processes for the selection, control, and evaluation of major information technology investments will generate the principal documentation for CITRB consideration. Operating units will forward only their most promising initiatives to the Board for review. Office of Management and Budget Circular A-11, Exhibit 300, Capital Asset Plan and Business Case will provide baseline information. Operating unit staff may be called upon as necessary to provide additional support.

6. The CITRB will meet regularly on a schedule that complements the planning and budget formulation processes or that aligns with specific project time lines.

7. The evaluation process in Board meetings will follow the outline below. The process may be altered to adjust to the needs of a particular project or during the annual budget review when many investments will be reviewed in a short time frame.

• Presentation by the project sponsors, followed immediately by a discussion among Board members.
• Independent evaluation and scoring by Board members.
• Compilation of comments and scores.
• Request for additional information from project sponsors, if needed.
• Independent re-evaluation by Board members, if needed.
• Preparation and submission of the summary assessment (green-yellow-red ranking) and any specific recommendations to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary. Other interested parties, including the project sponsors and the CIO, will receive copies.

8. All pre-decisional materials, including background information, notes, rating and ranking sheets, compiled scores, and draft documents, will be the property of the Board and will not be released to non-Board members except at the discretion of the chair.

F. Responsibilities

1. The CIO serves as chair of the CITRB.

2. The Deputy CIO serves as Executive Secretary for the CITRB. The Executive Secretary ensures that Office of the CIO staff are assigned to:

• Circulate background materials to facilitate decision-making by Board members.
• Organize meetings.
• Prepare decision memoranda.