Frequently Asked Questions

Background

The IT Dashboard was launched on June 1, 2009, which provided Federal agencies and the public with the ability to view details of Federal information technology (IT) investments online and to track their progress over time. The IT Dashboard displays data received from agency IT Portfolio and Business Case reports, including general information on over 7,000 Federal IT investments and detailed data for over 700 of those investments that agencies classify as "major." Agency Chief Information Officers (CIO) are responsible for evaluating and updating select data on a regular basis, which is accomplished through interfaces provided by the IT Dashboard.
The IT Dashboard shines light onto the performance and spending of IT investments across the Federal Government. If a project is over budget or behind schedule, you can see by how much money and time, and you can see the person responsible--not just contact information but also their picture. The IT Dashboard gives the public access to the same tools and analysis that the government uses to oversee the performance of the Federal IT investments. The transparency and analysis features of the IT Dashboard make it harder for underperforming projects to go unnoticed, and easier for the government to focus action on the projects where it's needed most.
The IT Dashboard is a website enabling Federal agencies, industry, the general public and other stakeholders to view details of Federal information technology investments.
The IT Dashboard displays a subset of data from agency IT Portfolio and Business Case reports, and agency updated activity information, agency CIO evaluations, and other investment information reported by agencies. For a list of data feeds available to the public on the IT Dashboard, see "Publicly Available Data Feeds".

The following 26 agencies have data available on the IT Dashboard:
- Department of Agriculture
- Department of Commerce
- Department of Defense
- Department of Education
- Department of Energy
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Department of Homeland Security
- Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Department of the Interior
- Department of Justice
- Department of Labor
- Department of State
- Department of Transportation
- Department of the Treasury
- Department of Veterans Affairs
- U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- Environmental Protection Agency
- General Services Administration
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- National Archives and Records Administration
- National Science Foundation
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission
- Office of Personnel Management
- Small Business Administration
- Social Security Administration
The IT Budget is composed of three parts:
- Agency IT Portfolio Summary (previously the Exhibit 53A), which includes IT investment budget and architecture information
- Agency Provisioned Spending Summary (previously the Exhibit 53C and Cloud Spending Summary), which includes IT investment budget information by cloud computing deployment model and service model
- IT Infrastructure Spending Summary, which details the spending of all IT infrastructure that the agency owns and operates or obtains via services
The Major Business Case is composed of two parts:
- Major IT Business Case: "IT Capital Asset Summary," which includes Investment Detail, Summary of Funding and Acquisition/Contract Strategy.
- Major IT Business Case Detail: "Performance Measurement Report," which includes Projects, Activities, Project Risk, Operational Performance and Operational Risks.

CIO Evaluations

The Agency Chief Information Officer (CIO) rates each investment based on his or her best judgment, using a set of pre-established criteria. As a rule, the Evaluation should reflect the CIO's assessment of the risk and the investment's ability to accomplish its goals. CIOs should consult with appropriate stakeholders in making their evaluation, such as Chief Acquisition Officers, program managers, etc.

The following factors and supporting examples should be used to inform the Evaluation:

Evaluation Factor	Supporting Examples
Risk Management	Risk Management Strategy Exists Risks are well understood by senior leadership Risk log is current and complete Risks are clearly prioritized Mitigation plans are in place to address risks
Requirements Management	Investment objectives are clear and scope is controlled Requirements are complete, clear and validated Appropriate stakeholders are involved in requirements definition
Contractor Oversight	Acquisition strategy is defined and managed via an Integrated Program Team Agency receives key reports, such as earned value reports, current status, and risk logs Agency is providing appropriate management of contractors such that the government is monitoring, controlling, and mitigating the impact of any adverse contract performance
Historical Performance	No significant deviations from planned cost and schedule Lessons learned and best practices are incorporated and adopted
Human Capital	Qualified management and execution team for the IT investments and/or contracts supporting the investment Low turnover rate
Other	Other factors that the CIO deems important to forecasting future success

Evaluation ratings are based on a five-point risk scale, as follows:

Evaluation (By Agency CIO)	Color
5-Low Risk	Green
4-Moderately Low Risk	Green
3-Medium Risk	Yellow
2-Moderately High Risk	Red
1-High Risk	Red

The agency CIO should update the rating as soon as new information becomes available, or at least once each calendar month.

Contracts

Agencies provide contract information on "Awarded Contracts" and "Pre-awarded, Post-Solicitation" to the IT Dashboard. Any "Future Planned Contract" or "Sub-contract Award" is not required to be reported, however an agency may provide information on "Future Planned Contracts" or "Closed Contracts" if desired. Future Contracts will not be made public as this information is "Procurement Sensitive".
Contracts should be updated as they are awarded. Both, the FAR and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 require reporting of these contracts within thirty days of award. As soon as this information is available on USAspending.gov, agencies should update the IT Dashboard. The IT Dashboard links to www.USAspending.gov for contract information.
Each contract submitted to the IT Dashboard that is not matched by the agency with USAspending.gov is clearly indicated with a red "X" symbol () as an invalid Contract Number. The following fields are used to determine a match:
- Procurement Instrument Identifier (PIID)
- Contracting Agency ID (if different than the Funding Agency)
- Indefinite Delivery Vehicle Procurement Instrument Identifier (IDV PIID)
- Indefinite Delivery Vehicle Agency Identifier (IDV Agency ID)
- Submitting Agency ID (derived as the agency of the investment pertaining to the contract)
If a contract match with USASpending is not found based on the data provided by the agency, the IT Dashboard displays the red X symbol with the following note: Agency-provided contract information does not match with a www.USASpending.gov record.

To assist in the linkage of contract and task order numbers from the Business Case Contracts Table to USASpending, agencies should provide the following information to the IT Dashboard for "Contract/Task Order Numbers," based on the FPDS-NG data requirements (as specified in the FPDS-NG Data Element Dictionary).

Part of Indefinite Delivery Vehicle (IDV)?	Procurement Instrument Identifier (PIID)	Example
No	Data Element 1A (NTE 50 characters)	"00063200203DNBCHC020042"
Yes	Data Element 1A, and the Referenced PIID, Data Element 1C (NTE 100 characters)	"GS09Q08DN0165-IDV-GS10F0216N"

No, Agencies are not required to report interagency agreements to the IT Dashboard. However, OMB expects agencies to report all interagency agreements as contributions in the IT Portfolio.

Cost, Schedule, Performance

A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to accomplish a unique product or service with a defined start and end point and specific objectives that, when attained, signify completion. Projects are undertaken for development, modernization, enhancement, disposal, or maintenance of an IT asset. Projects are composed of activities. Agencies should provide an update to project activities and operational performance when the activities occur or when performance metrics are measured; atleast once per calendar month.
Operational performance identifies performance targets for major investments. Each metric indicates how often actual measurements will be reported (monthly, quarterly or semi-annually) and provides a unit of measure. There are two essential types of operations metrics:

Results Specific: A minimum of two metrics must be provided, which measure the effectiveness of the investment in delivering the desired service or support level; if applicable, at least one metric should reflect customer results (e.g.; "Service Quality").

Activities and Technology Specific: A minimum of three metrics must be provided, which measure the investment against its defined process standards or technical service level agreements (SLAs) (e.g.; "Reliability and Availability"). At least one of these metrics must have a monthly "Reporting Frequency."

Project Level Cost and Schedule Variance Rating	Evaluation (by agency CIO)	Color
>= 30%	1 or 2	Red
>= 10% and < 30%	3	Yellow
< 10%	4 or 5	Green

The IT Dashboard shows whether each project is over or under budget. Project cost variance is a roll-up of the variance of the activities within the project and is calculated as follows:
- Cost Variance: Planned Total Costs - Projected or Actual Total Cost
- Cost Variance (Percentage): (Cost Variance / Planned Total Cost) x 100
Additionally, projected values are used only when actual values are not provided.

Roll-ups are obtained by summing the costs of all the included lowest level child activities.
The IT Dashboard shows whether each project is ahead of or behind schedule. Project schedule variance is calculated as follows:
- Schedule Variance in days for an Activity: Planned Completion Date - Actual or Projected Completion Date
- End Point Schedule Variance in days for a Project: Latest Planned Completion Date of all activities - Latest Actual OR Projected Completion Date of all activities
- Schedule Duration in days for an Activity: Planned Completion Date* - Planned Start Date
- End Point Schedule Duration in days for a Project: Latest Planned Completion Date* of all activities - Earliest Planned Start Date of all activities
- Project Schedule Variance (Percentage): (Variance in Days / Duration) x 100
*Additionally, projected values are used only when actual values are not provided. If Planned Completion Date has passed, then today's date is used instead.
The investment status will show that the investment is "Current" IF:
1. The investment has only Projects/Activities and there has been an update to activities since the beginning of the last month
2. The investment has only Performance Metrics and there has been an update to performance metrics actuals since the beginning of the last month
3. The investment has both Projects/Activities and Performance Metrics and BOTH activities and performance metrics actuals have been updated since the beginning of last month
4. The investment has neither Projects/Activities nor Performance Metrics.
If these conditions are not met, the investment status will display as "Update Required".

Agencies report spending on investments using two fields: agency funding and agency contributions. These fields describe contributions between agencies. When displaying "spending," the IT Dashboard uses two approaches depending on what is being reported.

Definition	Agency Funding	Agency Contributions
When describing a single investment, "spending" refers to the total budgetary resources, including agency funding and agency contributions. This applies on pages such as the Investment Dashboard, Search Results, and others.	X	X
When referring to aggregate spending figures across multiple investments, "spending" only includes budgetary resources based on agency funding amounts for the given fiscal year to avoid double-counting agency contributions. This applies on pages such as the Agency and Business tabs of the Portfolio page, the Treemap, and others.	X

Submitting Data to the IT Dashboard

Only agency-authorized users have access to submit updates to the IT Dashboard.

To receive access to IT Dashboard, agency users should log into the main MAX Portal and request access to the "ITDashboard" application. Once access is requested, the agency user should coordinate with their agency administrator to approve access. Agency users are assigned the appropriate role in order to view or submit data to the IT Dashboard.
The IT Dashboard reports the results of multiple types of agency "operations" to their data. Some changes to agency data are only possible under certain types of "operations." For instance, agencies cannot change the "planned end date" of a project's activity through regular updates - they can only do this through a "rebaseline, replan, or correction" operation.

Agencies are expected to use the appropriate operations based on their agency rebaseline policy consistent with OMB Memo M-10-27

Data Feeds

The majority of the IT Portfolio data elements are populated by agencies during the yearly IT Portfolio submissions. The majority of the Business Case data elements are populated by agencies during the full Business Case submissions and regular investment updates. However, there are some exceptions where fields are calculated, system-derived, system-generated or originate from the IT Portfolio submission.

The following feeds are available in the public view:

IT Portfolio	An overview of each Agency IT Portfolio Summary submission
Cloud Spending Summary	An overview of each agencies' Cloud Computing Portfolio.
IT Portfolio Funding Sources	Funding source information includes Total IT Spending for the FY2015, FY2016 and FY2017, and a breakdown of DME and O&M; costs.
Activities	Activity data includes cost, schedule and variance information
Investment Baseline History	Provides a history of investment rebaselines, replans and corrections.
CIO Evaluation History	Provides a history of the evaluation by CIO ratings and comments.
Contracts	Overview of contract information including information matched with USAspending.gov
Business Case	Business Case submission information, as well as Evaluation (by Agency CIO) information, and dates of last change to activities, contracts, and performance metrics.
Investment Trends	Provides a history of investment CIO Evaluations over time, as well as legacy investment ratings and variances
Performance Metrics	Overview of an investment's operational performance in regards to "Results-Specific" and "Activities or Technology-Specific" metrics
Performance Metric Actuals	Overview of the actual results of an investment's performance metrics in comparison to their targets
Projects	Project data includes cost, schedule and variance information
Life Cycle Costs	Life Cycle Cost information broken down into planning costs, DME, OandM, and Government FTE costs.
Techincal Solutions Requirements	Indicates whether an investment in whole or in part specifically addresses various technical solution requirements
Techincal Solutions Requirements URLs	Provides a list of URLs which correspond to the technical solution requirements
Investments Eliminated or Reduced	An agency-provided list of investments that will result in the elimination or reduction of other investments.
Investment Related URLs	Provides URLs related to the investment and indicates how they are related
Bureau	Provides a list of Bureaus based on the OMB Circular A-11 Appendix C
Agency	Provides a list of Agencies based on the OMB Circular A-11 Appendix C

Most data fields for logged-in users are updated in real-time when downloading the data from a particular data feed. However, certain fields are calculated on a nightly basis and may not reflect the latest values if the data has changed during the day. The below table lists the data feeds and fields which are only updated on a nightly basis.

Data Feed	Feed Names
CIO Evaluation History	CIO Name
Performance Metrics	Latest Actual Result Met/Not Met (derived)
Performance Metric Actuals	Actual Result Met/Not Met (derived)
Investment Trends	*Entire data feed
Data Quality Report	*Entire data feed
Data Quality Report (machine-readable)	*Entire data feed

Handling Sensitive Information

Although a key goal of the IT Dashboard is improving accountability and performance through transparency, not all data agencies compile about the Federal IT portfolio is suitable for public release. There are four categories of data which the IT Dashboard does not share with the public:
- Pre-decisional Budget Data: During the budget formulation season from September to the release of the President's Budget, portions of agency submissions used by the IT Dashboard may contain pre-decisional information. "Pre-decisional" describes information which is not finalized until the release of the President's Budget. The following portions of agency submissions are not available to the public during this period:
  - "New" investments: including investments that only have spending in the budget year (the fiscal year for which the budget is being considered). This also includes investments which agencies propose to "split," "consolidate," or "reorganize" as these decisions may not yet be final.
  - Planned IT spending levels in the budget year.
  - Costs of projects and activities that complete during or after the budget year.
  - Eliminated/downgraded investments page.
- National Security or Classified Data: The IT Dashboard does not collect or display any classified or national security-sensitive information.
- Procurement-Sensitive Data: The IT Dashboard does not share procurement-sensitive information with the public. Any data related to Federal procurements that if released to the public would adversely impact the Government's negotiating position is considered "procurement-sensitive." This includes, for example, planned spending estimates in years beyond the budget year.
- Other Data, including personally identifiable information related to IT investments.
Agencies should not redact information sent to the IT Dashboard. Processes have been put into place to ensure sensitive information will not be publicly displayed. To prevent the exposure of potentially sensitive data, agencies should ensure submissions are consistent with requested data (e.g., avoid identifying contracts not yet awarded as "awarded").

Current and Upcoming Features

The portfolio page provides an aggregate view of IT investments reported to the IT Dashboard. The Evaluation (by agency CIO) pie chart shows the current distribution of Red/Yellow/Green investments according to the Evaluation rating (see the CIO Evaluations section for additional information on the evaluation colors). Similarly, the Project Cost and Schedule pie charts show a distribution of Red/Yellow/Green projects according to their Cost/Schedule variance.

Evaluation trends are shown starting from October 2009 as these ratings have been recorded since the initial launch of the IT Dashboard. Projects were introduced as a concept in the FY2013 reporting schema, so project trends are only available from September 2011 onward.

By default, the portfolio charts show the distribution based on the count of investments/projects. This view can be adjusted via the radio button below the charts to see a cost based view of investment/projects.
The investment dashboard displays detailed information on a single IT investment. The investment's Evaluation (by agency CIO) is graphed alongside the Agency and Government-wide evaluation averages for comparison purposes. Baseline Change Occurrences are plotted on the same chart. The timeframe can also be changed by the user. Additional features on the investment dashboard include: Investment title and description, Project information, Operational Performance, Contracts, the Business Case archive, the Current Business Case PDF, Investment Change History, Related URLs, and other investment metrics.
The Trends chart under the "Visualization" navigation dropdown is a multi-dimensional chart which allows users to explore several indicators over time. Users can select the desired indicators and view their values for each agency based on the X-axis, Y-axis, Color, Size, and Fiscal Year. The data can be visualized as a bubble chart, bar graph or line graph.
The Treemap is a hierarchal chart composed of blocks and sub-blocks which represent categorical dimensions. The data displayed on the Treemap may be customized by selecting a Fiscal Year, Size/Color indicator, and up to three drilldowns. Users can then explore the selected criteria by clicking a box and viewing the corresponding results. The table below the chart lists the investments based on the box selections and chosen criteria.
The Data Quality Report is an area where agencies can review which investments have potential data quality issues across 6 major categories. Within each category, there are certain metrics which can trigger a red flag based on pre-determined thresholds in the investment data. For detailed information about the data quality report metrics, what each of them mean, and how they are calculated, please refer to the Data Quality Report - Detailed Metrics documentation.

The data reported to the IT Dashboard is based on the Office of Management and Budget's IT Portfolio and Business Case referred to in OMB Circular A-11. The design of these exhibits is typically updated on an annual basis, so the types of data reported to the IT Dashboard may vary year to year. Because these exhibits are related to agencies' budget submissions to OMB, "editions" of IT Dashboard data can be tied to the year of the budget being planned at any given time.

Starting in August 2012, archive versions of IT Dashboard data for previous budget years will be maintained for public access. Generally speaking, data submitted from September to August relate to a single, common budget year. The following table shows the history of submissions to the IT Dashboard and how to access their archived version, if available.

Start Month	End Month	Budget Year	URL (if available)
June 2009	August 2010	FY2011 Edition
September 2010	August 2011	FY2012 Edition
September 2011	August 2012	FY2013 Edition	https://it-2013.itdashboard.gov/
September 2012	August 2013	FY2014 Edition	https://it-2014.itdashboard.gov/
September 2013	August 2014	FY2015 Edition	https://it-2015.itdashboard.gov/
September 2014	August 2015	FY2016 Edition	https://it-2016.itdashboard.gov/

Large structural changes:
- Renamed the Agency Cloud Computing Spending Summary to Agency Provisioned IT Services Spending Summary.
- Managing Partner OMB E-Gov and Line of Business investments are now required to be reported as Major IT Investments.
- Codified the requirement to provide a CIO Evaluation for Major IT Investments in Section 16.
- Update text to be consistent with pending OMB FITARA Memo
The IT Dashboard team is always looking for ways to improve analytical capabilities and user experience. User feedback is always appreciated and can be submitted via the Feedback form.