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The IT budget process translates strategy into actionable plans by making funding choices for investments and operational programs. For IT, the budget process begins with formulation processes that result in budget justifications that demonstrate the role of IT in fulfilling agency mission, business, and program goals. Budget justification documents at the program, bureau/component and agency eventually find their way to Congress through either the President’s budget or in supporting documentation like Congressional justifications for the Appropriations committees. This process and the resulting artifacts become the primary mechanism for demonstrating the value proposition and mission criticality of IT spending. The IT budget process continues with budget execution, which ensures a linkage of agency strategic direction to tactical commitment of resources. In particular, budget execution is one of the most reliable mechanisms to ensure that IT spending across the organization is economical and effective supporting agency missions. Budget execution supports FITARA through CIO approval of decisions to obligate funds by approving IT acquisitions, reprogramming requests for IT, and even stopping payments for poor contractor performance.
Key themes for Budget are:
- Involvement from all appropriate stakeholders, including CIO, CAO, CFO, CHCO (the CXOs) and the mission and business leadership
- Clearly stated and quantified relationship between agency mission and business outcomes and IT investment scope and timelines
- Enables many of the objectives for incremental and modular development
- There is clear CIO review and approval authority
- Allocated sufficient resources and time to make sound portfolio decisions and meet budgetary timelines
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