The Hill.com recently reported on the Government Accountability Office‘s federal IT acquisition report. Some of the findings include adequate funding, staff expertise and engagement from all stakeholders being among the critical factors common to most successful federal technology projects.
The Hill says the traditional federal technology acquisition process has been known to be very complex and has seen a shortage of contracting officers and technical staff. The report came as a response to a request from the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
Ranking member of the committee Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, had very little confidence in the report’s findings and said in a statement, “The federal government plans to spend more than $80 billion next year on information technology. History has shown that government IT projects frequently face challenges of meeting cost, schedule or performance goals.”
The GAO report released said that “implementation of these factors will not necessarily ensure that federal agencies will successfully acquire IT systems, because many different factors contribute to successful acquisitions.”
The GAO report includes examples of successful IT projects for agencies such as the Departments of Commerce, Energy and Transportation, the Census Bureau and Veterans Affairs.
