Information technology program management: is there a difference?

Abstract

The federal government spends billions of dollars on information technology (IT) projects each year. Despite spending billions on IT, the government has achieved little of the productivity improvements that private industry has realized from IT. Too often, federal IT projects run over budget, behind schedule, or fail to deliver promised functionality. The March 2009 Defense Science Board concluded that three root causes emerged from a review of major IT acquisition programs where cost, schedule, and performance were issues. First, senior leaders lacked experience and understanding. Second, the program executive officers and program managers had inadequate experience. Third, the acquisition process was bureaucratic and cumbersome, where many who were not accountable had to say yes before authority to proceed. To address these concerns, the U.S. Chief Information Officer, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Office of Management and Budget launched an initiative to strengthen program management by designing a formal IT Program Management career path. This research analyzes the need for IT Program Managers (PM) within the federal government by comparing the differences between IT PMs and non-IT PMs.