The Health and Human Services Department has created a growing repository of data it can, at the push of a button, use and reuse for a variety of reports. HHS adapted software it uses to collect and organize information for its business cases and put it to other uses. “It formulizes and standardizes the way we do data collection,” said John Teeter, HHS chief enterprise architect.
Portfolio management software from ProSight Inc. of Portland, Ore., creates a template whose data can be transferred to a variety of data collections.
For example, if the Office of Management and Budget asks for data on how department programs align to e-government initiatives, HHS can generate the requested report from its data collections.
The software gives managers a consistent collection point and perspective on how the collection is done. Data resides in an Oracle database from which the CIO team can extract information and produce reports in whatever format is required. “We collect the information once and use it multiple times for whatever purpose we’re required to report on,” Teeter said.
Use, reformat, reuse
Last year, HHS began using ProSight’s portfolio management module, or what they call an OMB 300 playbook, to improve capital planning capabilities for its Exhibit 300 business case submissions to OMB. The software collects data in a manner that associates it with IT investments and projects. The CIO team quickly learned it could use the software for a variety of data collection purposes, such as agency performance management, to meet OMB guidelines.
“We started experimenting with this for ad hoc data collections, with the ultimate vision in the background ... of creating a composite perspective across the enterprise,” Teeter said. The growing shared repository provides visibility into the performance of agency activities and lets agency executives determine if adjustments are needed.
When HHS gets a request for information from OMB, the CIO team produces a report with data extracted from the repository and any updates from the affected agencies. “Over time, we’ll be able to answer more and more of these requests for information without involving the operating divisions,” Teeter said.
For example, OMB recently re- quested information on the alignment of HHS projects and investments with e-gov, lines of business and SmartBuy initiatives. Each category required unique data.
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