Information Technology: Acquisitions, Operations, and Cybersecurity

The federal government spends more than $80 billion each year on information technology (IT) investments; in FY2017 that investment is expected to increase to more than $89 billion. Historically, the projects supported by these investments have often incurred “multi-million dollar cost overruns and years-long schedule delays.” In addition, they may contribute little to mission-related outcomes and, in some cases, may fail altogether. These undesirable results “can be traced to a lack of disciplined and effective management and inadequate executive-level oversight.” The Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) was enacted on December 19, 2014, to address these issues and codify existing initiatives managed by the Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO).