OMB statement on TechStat November 2012
For your information regarding the TechStat initiative, please note that OMB's objective in developing the TechStat initiative was to establish a repeatable and thorough process for evaluating investments at critical junctures in their lifecycle to identify opportunities for better return on investment, make improvements to project execution and management, and better identify root causes of issues and mitigate risks. These reviews would facilitate the governance process, and often result in executive-level decisions as to whether to continue, modify or tenninate an investment.
Per OMB's 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management, the TechStat initiative began with OMB developing the framework and general process, conducting OMS-led TechStats for a number of projects considered "High Priority" investments in need of review at that point in time, and providing training to agencies on how to implement and execute the TechStat review processes. The program design then called for OMS to push the TechStat to be broadly adopted by executive agencies and their bureaus, shifting the workload to internal agency governance and management while maintaining OMB involvement in a smaller number of Tech Stat reviews. As a result, the number of OMB-Ied TechStats decreased from the initial number of reviews conducted at the onset of the program as agencies ramped up their review processes and began conducting more of their own TechStat reviews.