IT Governance Arrangement

Federated/hybrid

Central IT Office

Virginia Information Technology Agency (VITA)
VITA is the Commonwealth's consolidated, centralized information technology organization. Its responsibilities fall into three primary categories:

• Operation of the IT infrastructure, including all related personnel, for the executive branch agencies declared by the legislature to be "in-scope" to VITA;
• Governance of IT investments, in support of the duties and responsibilities of the Information Technology Investment Board and the State CIO of the Commonwealth;
• Procurement of technology for VITA and on behalf of other state agencies, including institutions of higher education. It develops policies, standards, and guidelines for the procurement of IT and telecommunications goods and services

VITA oversees the pre-selection, selection, control, and evaluation of strategic and designated IT projects and procurements to support executive branch agency business objectives. All agency projects must be submitted to VITA for review and recommendation of its approval or rejection to the State CIO. VITA has the following sub-offices:

• Service Management
  The Agency Performance Managers (APMs) serve as advocates for agencies and provide a conduit into the VITA IT Infrastructure Partnership. Aligned by Secretariat(s), APMs handle tactical and operational issues for the agencies.
• Commonwealth Security and Risk Management
  Provides IT security support to the state via liaisons with all levels of government entities, as well as the private sector .
• Customer Account Management
  Responsible for understanding agencies’ business needs and helping to align technology with business strategies.
• IT Investment and Enterprise Solutions
  Provides services in three ways: supporting statewide IT governance and oversight activities; providing or assisting in developing enterprise technology solutions; and developing and supporting VITA's internal technology applications.
• Finance and Administration
  Handles all financial and procurement aspects of VITA.

State CIO

Secretary of Technology
The Secretary of Technology is appointed by the Governor and is a member of the Governor’s cabinet. He or she sits on the Information Technology Investment Board and oversee Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) and the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA). He or she functions as an adviser to the Governor and focuses on operational policy for government and promoting economic development relative to the technology industry.

State CIO
The State CIO is appointed by the Information Technology Investment Board (ITIB) and serves as chief administrative officer of VITA. He or she is responsible for developing a statewide four-year strategic plan for IT. The Council on Technology Services advises the State CIO on development of this plan, which is updated annually and submitted to ITIB for approval. The State CIO also reviews budget requests over $100,000 for IT from state agencies and recommends budget priorities to ITIB.

The State CIO directs the development of any statewide or multiagency enterprise project. He or she can disapprove projects between $100,000 and $1 million that do not conform to the statewide information plan or to the individual plans of state agencies. He or she also reviews and approves all procurement solicitations involving major IT projects. The State CIO has the authority to direct the modification or suspension of any major IT project that has not met the performance measures agreed to by the State CIO and the sponsoring agency, as well as to recommend that ITIB terminate any such project. The State CIO has the final authority to approve proposed contracts for the award of the project.

Chief Application Officer (CAO)
The CAO is a fairly new position established in January 2008 in response to a December 2007 audit, which showed that although progress has been made in establishing enterprise IT governance, the state lacked an enterprise governance and investment management program over total IT spend, with control being fragmented among VITA, individual agencies, and ITIB.

The CAO has the following responsibilities:

• develop an application governance model,
• improve standardization of data across our administrative systems by developing key data standards,
• extend the Commonwealth’s portfolio to include current applications used to conduct state business,
• provide funding recommendations, to include support for statewide initiatives,
• develop support strategies to assist agencies where beneficial to government and the citizen, and
• leverage the Virginia Enterprise Applications Program to continue identification and exploitation of enterprise solutions that span agency boundaries.

Roles of other agencies in state IT management

State Agencies
State agencies prepare annual IT project proposals and budgets that are reviewed by the State CIO and then forwarded to ITIB for approval. Agencies retain control over IT budgets for maintenance of existing systems and control the maintenance and operations of legacy systems.

Governor
The Governor controls the budget process, which is biennial, rather than long-term.

IT Infrastructure Partnership
Virginia has partnered with a private contractor to provide IT services to Virginia state government. Northrop Grumman is responsible for the service delivery of the Commonwealth's IT infrastructure needs, with oversight from VITA

Coordination Mechanisms

Information Technology Investment Board (ITIB)
ITIB provides oversight for state government IT reform and reviews and prioritizes enterprise-wide technology investments across state government. The ten member board is appointed by the Governor and the General Assembly. It consists of eight citizen members and two ex-officio members, the Secretary of Technology, and the Auditor of Public Accounts. The Board appoints the State CIO and provides strategic direction for the use of technology resources.

Council on Technology Services (COTS) COTS was established in 1998 to assist in the development of a blueprint for state government IT planning and decision-making. COTS is a stakeholder-driven body, representing the interests and needs of the enterprise as a whole, including the executive, legislative and judicial branches of state government. The Council includes technology and business leaders from state government, higher education and local government. The purpose of the Council is to advise the State CIO on the services provided by VITA and the development and use of applications in state agencies and public institutions of higher education.

Center for Innovative Technology (CIT)
CIT was established in 1985 as a non-profit organization whose intent was to create technology-based companies and strategies for innovation. From its original mission to enhance the research and technology transfer activities of Virginia universities, CIT has moved its focus toward new technologies, entrepreneurs, and technology companies that foster innovation. It currently has a sixteen member board of directors that is appointed by the Governor and overseen by the Secretary for Technology.

Internal review

“Everyone controls a small piece with no one determining direction or overseeing spending. IT operations are complex and management and oversight responsibilities for these operations are fragmented and diffused. The consolidation of IT involved consolidating infrastructure but not system applications and security. No one determines if agency spending on maintenance and operations of legacy systems constitutes efficient use of resources and minimizes the use of funds for duplicative systems. Individual agency needs and not the state priorities receive funding and there is no incentive to cooperate and share resources among state agencies.”

Information Technology Governance, December 2007, Auditor of Public Accounts, Commonwealth of Virginia

Going forward

The Operational Plan to Address IT Governance presentation posted by the State CIO and the State CAO in April 2008 laid out a two-phase implementation to change IT governance in the Commonwealth starting in April 2008 through July 2009 and beyond. The State CIO and the State CAO were asked to work together to create an IT governance model that would govern the investment and management of total IT spending. The Commonwealth used Gartner’s supply governance and demand governance models as a picture of where they wanted to go. Demand governance asks, “What should the IT organization work on? Supply governance asks, “How should the IT organization do what it does?” Demand governance will be the business or agencies primary responsibilities and the supply governance will be the primary responsibility of the State CIO. It is not clear if this is operational yet from a final review of their Web site prior to publication in May 2009.

Click for larger image

Click for larger image