Aligning IT Acquisitions With Mission Goals

Through the Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC) process, CIOs are responsible for reviewing the acquisition submissions to ensure they are aligned with their mission and target architecture and their specific domain [e.g., Enterprise Architecture, Security, Section 508, Investment Review, Portfolio Management and Infrastructure Transformation Program (ITP)] standards and requirements.

Daston assists in the reviews of submissions from Portfolio Managers with cost analysis support and/or CPIC SME support. The CPIC process integrates strategic planning, enterprise architecture, privacy, security, budgeting, portfolio management, procurement, and the management of IT assets. It is especially important to the CIO that investment reviews and business case cost analysis line up with the Enterprise Architecture and the organization's CPIC process. This analytical support is critical to good decision making across the acquisition life cycle which includes the activities of planning, acquisition, and sustainment.

The Daston team has proven expertise in all phases of the CPIC, enabling organizations to achieve ITIM assessment level 4. We are experienced in all areas of Capital Planning including:

• Business Cases (Exhibit 300s) and IT Portfolio (Exhibit 53) which are produced and submitted to OMB


• Periodic Reporting is the primary vehicle for collecting cost, schedule and performance data from Component programs on a quarterly basis.


• IT Budget Process: CIO reviews IT budgets of Components and sends its recommendations to the CFO organization for consideration.


• Earned Value Management (EVM) is the OMB-mandated approach for evaluating program cost, schedule and performance.


• Operational Analysis (OA) is the method traditionally used to capture cost and performance data for investments in the O&M phase.


• High Risk List/Management Watch List - OMB monitors the performance of organizations' investments and places under-performing ones on one of these lists.

Daston's Approach

Daston uses an integrated approach where Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC) supports and is supported by the functional areas of enterprise architecture, project management, business analysis, and quality management. We use the CPIC process to work with the business owners of investments, portfolio managers, program managers that oversee all investments for an organization, the budget and acquisition customers within a department.

Daston also interfaces with many other government entities as needed. These include constantly checking the regulations and guidance provided by OMB in the form of Circular A-11 (Part 7), the Government Accounting Office (GAO) that publishes the Information Technology Investment Maturity (ITIM) model, and the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), that publishes different guidance documents on topics such as Earned Value Management (EVM). In implementing processes, our team will work with such organizations as the department-level Investment Review Board (IRB), and the Portfolio Managers, and component CIOs.

We also provide status reports, progress measurement, and forecasting to CIO organizations that includes risk tracking and analysis of how effectively the risks are being managed.