Information Technology: Agencies Need to Establish and Implement Incremental Development Policies

Citation
Government Accountability Office, Information Technology: Agencies Need to Establish and Implement Incremental Development Policies (GAO-14-361) (May 1, 2014) (full-text).

Overview
Federal agencies plan to spend at least $82 billion on IT in fiscal year 2014. However, prior IT expenditures have often produced disappointing results. Thus, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has called for agencies to deliver investments in smaller parts or increments. In 2010, it called for IT investments to deliver capabilities every 12 months and now requires investments to deliver capabilities every 6 months. The GAO was asked to review agencies' incremental development approaches. Among other things, this report (1) assesses whether selected agencies have established policies for incremental IT development; and (2) determines whether selected agencies are using incremental development approaches to manage their IT investments.

The GAO recommends that the OMB develop and issue realistic and clear guidance on incremental development and that the selected agencies update and implement their incremental development policies to reflect OMB's guidance.