A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

IT Investment Management

Investment Review Board Charter

To ensure that all major information systems investments at the U.S. Department of Education are mission-justified and approved for funding only after careful and systematic review, there is created an Investment Review Board (IRB) to recommend to the Secretary of Education the Information Resources (IR) investments to be funded. The IRB is chartered to be the executive decision making body in the Department's capital planning and investment control process for information resources. The IRB is also charged with the responsibility to review progress of ongoing IR initiatives and to evaluate performance and outcomes.

A "major information system" is a system that requires special management attention because of its importance to the Department's mission; its high development, operating, or maintenance costs; or its significant role in the administration of Department programs, finances, property or other resources. Large infrastructure investments (e.g. major purchases of personal computers or local area network improvements) are also considered "major."

The Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary serve as the Co-Chairpersons of the IRB. The IRB shall meet monthly or as needed.

The Office of the Chief Information Officer will gather information and review proposed IR projects, perform risk and return analyses, determine cost-effectiveness, and evaluate the ability of the projects to meet the Department's mission and business needs. The OCIO staff will make funding and other management recommendations to the IRB.

The Investment Review Board shall follow the guidelines set forth by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The OMB Information Technology Investment Guidelines stipulate that investments in major information systems should:

• Support the core/priority missions functions of the Department;

• Assure that no alternative source in the private sector or the government can efficiently support the function;

• Support work processes that have been simplified or otherwise redesigned to reduce costs, improve effectiveness, and make maximum use of commercial, off-the-shelf technology;

• Demonstrate a projected return on the investment that is clearly equal to or better than alternative uses of available public resources;

• Be consistent with Federal and departmental information architectures which: integrate work processes and information flows with technology to achieve strategic goals, are consistent with the departmental Year 2000 Compliance Plan, and specify standards that enable information exchange and resource sharing while retaining flexibility in choice of suppliers and design of local work processes;

• Reduce risk by: avoiding or isolating custom designed components, using fully tested pilots, simulations, or prototype implementations, establishing clear measures and accountability for progress, and securing substantial buy-in throughout the project's life cycle from program officials who will use the project;

• Employ modular contracting, resulting in implementation in phased successive chunks as narrow in scope and brief in duration as possible, each of which solves a specific mission critical problem and delivers a net measurable benefit;

• Employ an acquisition strategy that appropriately allocates risk between the government and the contractor, effectively uses competition, ties contract payments to accomplishments, and takes maximum advantage of commercial technology.

July 10, 2000

(The original Information Technology Review Board Charter was created August 20, 1997.)