This month, our “Spotlight” series continues with a profile of the Office of the Chief Information Officer’s Portfolio Management directorate.
For as long as Congress has managed the acquisition and improvement of information management and information technology in the Military Health System, various offices have been responsible for selection and justification of IT portfolio investments and reporting on systems inventory.
In 2008, the Portfolio Management directorate was created to focus on that purpose for the Office of the Chief Information Officer.
“The primary mission within Portfolio Management is to make sure that we have processes in place to select what we’re going to invest our IM/IT dollars in, that we have processes in place to control the execution of those funds, and that we have processes in place to evaluate those investments,” said Sharon Larson, director of Portfolio Management.
The day-to-day business of the Portfolio Management directorate is divided into three phases: selection, execution and evaluation.
In the selection phase, PfM staffers work with the four management boards as necessary to develop the portfolio of investments. Those boards include OCIO’s internal CIO Management Board, chaired by Chief Technology Officer Mark Goodge, plus the Clinical Portfolio Management, Business Portfolio Management and the Force Health Protection Management boards.
“We in Portfolio Management work with those portfolio boards to assist them with identifying what IT projects are within their domain,” said Larson. “We help provide information to them in terms of what’s reported in the budget for each of their initiatives, and then work with them as they try and come up with a one to end prioritization within each of their functional domains.”
Portfolio Management also supports the Joint Portfolio Management Board, bringing the chairs of these four portfolio boards together to set priorities for all systems investments. Recommendations are then sent to the various integration councils for review and approval.
Once approved, the portfolio goes into the budget, and the execution phase begins. Portfolio Management supports this mission through submitting the budget, as required by Congress as part of the President’s budget submission. PfM is responsible for ensuring MHS IT gets into the appropriations bill and obtains appropriate funding.
Once the budget is approved, Portfolio Management works with the Office of the CFO to ensure the approved funds arrive. As the year of execution begins, PfM allocates the approved funds and participates in process reviews to ensure spending plans are followed.
By then, planning is underway for the next fiscal year. While the budget is being executed, Portfolio Management works with program offices to gather spending plans for the next year.
The final phase of the process, evaluation, occurs simultaneously. Portfolio Management works with each program office and directorate of MHS IT to determine plans for allocated funds. These goals inform the Annual Performance Plan, which Portfolio Management formulates into quarterly targets.
Since 2005, all investments in business system improvement have required Defense Business Information Technology Certification. This often lengthy process is also executed by PfM.
The Portfolio Management directorate is hoping to be able to soon report a major success in DBITC. PfM continues to work with program offices, the Superintegration Council and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Budgets and Financial Policy to re-baseline all of MHS IM/IT for fiscal year 2012. With the baseline re-established, MHS IM/IT can entertain new investments in the highest priority systems. Portfolio Management finished taking the baseline through the Superintegration Council, which has now made its recommendations to the Small Group: Adm. Christine Hunter of TRICARE, the Joint Task Force National Capital Region – Medical and the three Deputy Surgeons General.
PfM’s work touches every other program office and directorate on a daily basis to support one mission: to ensure the funding for military health IT is in the right place at the right time, and is being used effectively. Program offices can’t support the front lines without attention to the bottom line, and in OCIO, that attention comes from the Portfolio Management directorate.
By Kathryn Yuhas, OCIO Communications