Read on to see how Booz Allen developed I-TIPS and helps federal agencies use it for better informed IT investment decisions.

The Challenge: Federal agencies can spend as much as 10 percent of their budget on IT — often with little hard data or confidence in the return for these investments. At the same time, they have been under increasing pressure to justify, monitor, measure, and demonstrate in real terms the value of their IT investment decisions. They need a way to systematically plan and manage their investments and measure improvements in service delivery.

What Booz Allen Did: Booz Allen collaborated with agency clients and the Federal CIO Council to identify requirements for an IT decision-making and management support tool-and then went on to design and develop the Information Technology Investment Portfolio System (I-TIPS).

I-TIPS is a web-based tool that automates and streamlines the IT investment decision-making process by facilitating collection, storage, retrieval, and analysis of project data. It is both a database and a management process support tool — and specifically designed to meet the provisions of the Clinger-Cohen Act, OMB requirements, and GAO guidance related to IT capital planning and investment management.

Since developing I-TIPS, Booz Allen has worked with agencies to implement the technology — helping them use it to assess IT investments on the basis of what they will achieve, the cost involved, and their chances of success. With I-TIPS, managers can create profiles of proposed IT projects, including cost and schedule of milestones summaries. Then, agencies CIOs and senior decision-makers can assess their entire portfolio of IT proposals and determine which are the best investments for their limited IT dollars.

Once a project is under way, I-TIPS enables IT managers and oversight entities to track how the work is progressing; determine if it is on schedule, on budget, and accomplishing what was intended; and identify and monitor corrective actions. I-TIPS can notify stakeholders by e-mail when a project is over cost estimates or running late-and can trigger a review when changes are made from the technical baseline.

Results: Booz Allen has helped many federal organizations implement I-TIPS over the past several years — including the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, and Treasury, Veterans Affairs, and the General Services Administration. With I-TIPS, they have a tool to select and manage an investment mix that best fits their needs and to manage their IT investment in accord with best practices and federal direction.