2020 Action Plan Progress

The Federal Data Strategy provides a common set of data principles and best practices. The 2020 Action Plan identifies milestones that are essential for establishing processes, building capacity, and aligning existing efforts. This initial plan builds a solid foundation that will support implementation of the strategy over the next decade. This page will showcase progress, measurements, and metrics collected and reported on 65 milestones from 20 actions. We will track progress on the 2020 Action Plan milestones continuously throughout the year. As milestones are completed, information will be uploaded to this page. Once this page is fully operational, you will be able to check agency activity on every milestone.

This page was last updated on October 26, 2020. If your agency's progress since that day is not reflected in the information below, please send an email to the Federal Data Strategy team at datastrategy@omb.eop.gov.

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Jump to Quarter 1, 2020 (January – March) Milestones
Jump to Quarter 2, 2020 (April – June) Milestones
Jump to Quarter 3, 2020 (July – September) Milestones
Jump to Recurring Milestones

Quarter 1, 2020 (January – March)

Milestone 2.1. By January 31, 2020, publish agency data governance materials (membership, charter, meeting cadence) on [agency].gov/data web page.

This milestone has been partially COMPLETED. The number of agencies¹ that published is:

33 ➧

(Click here to learn more about these 33 agencies including use cases and to download data (csv). This number will be updated regularly.)

Next step: Based on capacity assessments, agencies will dedicate staff to support data governance bodies by September 30, 2020.²

Milestone 7.1. By January 31, 2020, launch the Federal CDO Council.

This milestone has been COMPLETED. OMB launched the Federal CDO Council on January 31, 2020. The number of Chief Data Officers and their representatives gathered was:³

65 ➧

(Click here to learn more about the CDO Council meeting.)

Next step: The CDO Council will continue to meet to develop a governance framework, define priorities, and create subcommittees to work on specific areas of interest.

Milestone 12.1. By January 31, 2020, launch the OMB Federal Data Policy Committee.

This milestone has been COMPLETED. OMB has launched the Federal Data Policy Committee (FDPC). It has met monthly since November 2019.

Next step: The FDPC will use briefings to assist in setting priorities for this year.

Milestone 8.1. By February 29, 2020, identify barriers to access and quality limitations.

This milestone has been COMPLETED. OMB published a Request for Information: Identifying Priority Access or Quality Improvements for Federal Data and Models for Artificial Intelligence Research and Development, and Testing on August 22, 2019. The RFI received 28 comments. The ability to preserve a respondent’s privacy was the largest barrier identified and there were also many comments requesting more high quality and curated open data, including requests for data cleaning, normalized fields, and metadata improvements that would facilitate fitness for use and provenance tracking.

Next Step: For additional information on the American AI Initiative, see AI.gov and the American Artificial Intelligence Initiative: Year One Annual Report.

Milestone 13.1. By February 29, 2020, share draft catalog contents with CDOs and other stakeholders.

This milestone has been COMPLETED. OMB distributed the goals for the framework to several representatives of the Chief Data Officer (CDO) Council, the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy (ICSP), and the Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) Council for initial review. The framework will provide structure for the living content of the data skills catalog.

Next step: The CDOs, ICSP, CHCOs, and GSA along with OMB will review and discuss the framework goals over the next few weeks and make updates.

Milestone 12.2. By March 31, 2020, set priorities for 2020 (FDPC).

This milestone has been COMPLETED. The OMB Federal Data Policy Committee has set priorities by membership endorsement.

Next step: Update, streamline, or rescind a data policy-related memorandum or circular.

Milestone 16.1. By March 31, 2020, create pilot portal for a one-stop standard research application.

This milestone has been COMPLETED. The Census Bureau, with the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy, piloted the ‘ResearchDataGov’ portal, acquiring it as a service provided by the University of Michigan. Federal Statistical Research Data Centers, in conjunction with the Census Bureau, are directing researchers to the site for requesting access to restricted data from participating agencies⁵.

Next step: Recruit users to try the portal and give feedback.

Milestone 18.1. By March 31, 2020, demonstrate pilot and initial feature set with a pilot agency.

This milestone has been COMPLETED. GSA demonstrated a pilot and initial feature set to interested agencies. Data.gov currently facilitates a metadata management tool at inventory.data.gov, which 18 agencies use. After initial feature presentation, user interviews, and a survey, 25 agency data practitioners expressed interest in an advanced tool expanding upon inventory.data.gov. Follow-up user testing will be conducted in April 2020 to define specific capabilities of metadata management tool for agency use.

Next step: Complete user testing.

Milestone 18.2. By March 31, 2020, Infrastructure/security roadmap for production platform.

This milestone has been partially COMPLETED. GSA has an ongoing infrastructure/security roadmap for a new Authority to Operate for data.gov in preparation for the current ATO’s expiration in 2021. Work has begun on the new System Security Plan. The metadata management tool being developed will leverage data.gov’s ATO.

Next step: Continue developing the metadata management tool and incorporate security accreditation plans that leverage data.gov's ongoing ATO work.

Quarter 2, 2020 (April – June)

Milestone 16.2. By April 30, 2020, recruit users to try the portal and give feedback.

This milestone has been COMPLETED. The Federal Statistical Research Data Center program, under the direction of the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy, piloted the One-stop Standard Research Application portal. Since its inception, well over 1,000 users have engaged. User feedback is ongoing as planning shifts to the next phase of implementation.

Next step: Publish a report describing project success and feedback that will inform future improvements.

Milestone 13.2. By June 30, 2020, collect input and make revisions (data skills catalog).

This milestone has been COMPLETED. The Federal Data Strategy team developing the data skills catalogue has collected input from five stakeholder engagement activities with these stakeholder groups: Chief Data Officer Council, Interagency Council on Statistical Policy, Chief Learning Officer Council, and Chief Human Capital Officer Council. The team made approximately 30 improvements/changes based on comments received from 12 federal agencies.

Next step: Publish the catalogue on resources.data.gov.

Milestone 14.1. By June 30, 2020, initial examination of ethical issues encountered across data life cycle.

This milestone has been COMPLETED. GSA, working with the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy and Chief Data Officer Council, has successfully completed initial examination of ethical issues likely to be encountered across the data lifecycle.

Next step: GSA will circulate the federal data ethics framework initial draft for expert and stakeholder feedback.

Milestone 18.3. By June 30, 2020, achieve interoperability with continually updated Federal open data metadata schema.

This milestone has been COMPLETED. GSA ensured that all necessary interoperability has been completed, consistent with the current Federal Open Data schema.

Milestone 18.4. By June 30, 2020, develop business plan and cost model.

This milestone has been COMPLETED. GSA developed a business plan and cost model, and uploaded them to resources.data.gov.

Next step: Onboard agency customers.

Quarter 3, 2020 (July – September)

Milestone 3.1. By July 31, 2020, select an operational maturity assessment model for data and data infrastructure.

This milestone has been partially COMPLETED. As of July 31, 2020:

24 ➧

agencies have selected an operational maturity assessment model for data and data infrastructure.

Milestone 4.1. By July 31, 2020, perform an assessment of current staff data literacy and data skills.

This milestone has been partially COMPLETED. As of July 31, 2020:

9 ➧

agencies have performed an assessment of current staff data literacy data skills.

Milestone 17.1. By July 31, 2020, develop pilot tool (automated tool for information collection reviews that support data inventory creation and updates).

This milestone has been COMPLETED. NCES has completed the development of a pilot tool that supports automated Information Collection Reviews as well as the identification and export of data elements required for a data inventory. The team will be testing the tool with at least two agencies to meet their next milestone by the end of the calendar year.

Milestone 1.1. By September 30, 2020, consult with key agency leaders, such as Chief Data Officers, Evaluation Officers and Statistical Officials to identify data needed to answer priority agency questions.