OMB Targets High-Risk IT Projects: Improve or Die High-risk IT projects may be canceled unless agencies present an acceptable improvement plan, according to a memo from federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra. Kundra told agency CIOs to identify projects that are over budget, behind schedule, or not meeting mission objectives. “In order to justify future funding for these projects, agencies will need to demonstrate that project risks can be reduced to acceptable levels through actions such as setting proper project scope, defining clear deliverables and mission-oriented outcomes, and putting in place a strong governance structure with explicit executive sponsorship,” he wrote in the July 28 memo. “Projects which do not meet these criteria will not be continued.” The memo is the latest move in the Office of Management and Budget’s drive to overhaul IT acquisition and management. In June OMB halted work on 30 financial systems modernization projects, and ordered agencies to rework them. (SAA, 7/9) OMB officials say major IT projects have suffered from inflated costs and a high failure rate. As examples, they cited the Veterans Affairs Department’s $400 million modernization program, which has been halted for the second time since 1998; the Defense Department’s billion-dollar human resources project, which was canceled this year; and the FBI’s Virtual Case File, which doesn’t work. The largest IT industry association, TechAmerica, has appointed a commission to provide recommendations on ways to change the acquisition and management of IT projects. TechAmerica Foundation chairman Phil Bond said the OMB review “should serve as a wakeup call that acquisition reform is overdue.”