One of the hardest things to do as a CIO is to make sure that all of your projects and programs perform at a consistently high standard. Part of the challenge is that it’s difficult to even identify a benchmark standard! It is not acceptable to judge your initiatives’ quality “by instinct” at a glance—you need metrics to back up your instincts. To provide these metrics and move towards more transparency and oversight at DOT, we are implementing a program called IT Vital Signs. The goal of this program is to identify a set of performance indicators that can be measured using existing data resources, and to enhance our ability to monitor and participate more effectively in IT performance improvement.
At a high level the IT Vital Signs program provides:
- Transparency and accountability required by the Office of Management and Budget
- A first step in making progress towards IT reform at DOT
- The health of IT at the Department and within the Operating Areas
- A monthly “check-up” showing trends for each metric
IT Vital Signs works by focusing on three primary areas:
Cyber Security and Information Assurance: These metrics assess compliance with all Federal and Departmental cybersecurity, information assurance and privacy policy and requirements. Metric areas such as system certification & accreditation, security training, incident resolution speed, and cyber security infrastructure development all fall under this category.
IT Investment Management: This category is primarily concerned with accomplishing IT investment program goals. These metrics measure variances in costs and schedules in project implementation, project manager certification, and funds authorization, among other issues.
Support Major Enterprise IT Initiatives: This area measures compliance and execution of enterprise-level plans and programs implemented by the OCIO. These projects include federal requirements like the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI) and department priorities like upgrading our common operating environment.
The individual metrics allow us to create an aggregated measurement for each category, which we can then present both visually and numerically. Collecting and analyzing this data will allow us to stay agile, and identify areas within DOT’s IT infrastructure and processes that need attention. The DOT leadership has access to IT Vitals metrics, and use them regularly to review and compare performance.
The IT Vital Signs program is just another way that we’re staying ahead of the curve and setting new standards of excellence here at DOT. If you have any other ideas or suggestions on ways we can improve our operating standards, please share them at Ideascale.
