IT-Strategic Plan Introduction

Section 1: Introduction

This section introduces key factors that played a major role in the formation of the Department's IT strategy. As best practices dictate, the IT Strategic Plan makes use of missions, visions, goals and desired outcomes defined at the Department and Agency level. The key elements of mission, vision, organization, and the drivers of change are presented prior to the Department's IT strategy and goals.

1.1 Department of Labor and This IT Strategic Plan

"As I start my second term, we must take action to keep our economy growing. I will not be satisfied until every American who wants to work can find a job. I have laid out a comprehensive strategy to sustain growth, create jobs, and confront the challenges of a changing America."

President George W. Bush, February 2005

For almost a century, the U.S. Department of Labor has been helping Americans find employment, feel more secure in the workplace, and benefit fairly from their hard work. The role of IT in helping to deliver those services has grown ever more important over the past several decades, and today IT is an indispensable contributor to the success of the Department. With a robust information technology infrastructure that is properly managed and implemented, the Department will be optimally positioned to achieve its mission.

This IT Strategic Plan presents the Department's IT Program priorities for the next several years. It also communicates DOL's commitment to a process of inclusion, strategic planning and continuous improvement. Given the breadth of the Department's mission, it is not easy to communicate IT Program priorities thoroughly. However, doing so demonstrates the Department's commitment to achieving results and becoming more accountable for those results to Americans.

The Department of Labor's policies, programs and initiatives are a cornerstone of the President's commitment to increased employment. DOL and its IT Program must periodically consider market circumstances, re-order priorities, and re-allocate resources to provide the greatest returns-on-investment. This IT Strategic Plan is a working, living plan and will be updated during its five-year term to maximize the IT Program's positive impact on the Department and the American worker.

1.2 Scope

This IT Strategic Plan provides a specific course of action for the IT Program at the Department of Labor over the next five years. The plan's primary purpose is to establish a strategic framework for guiding the course of the IT Program and to orient DOL's IT Strategic Planning and strategic decision making processes. Focusing internally, this plan also succeeds in defining the strategy that will ensure that the IT resources deployed across DOL will optimally align with the business goals of the Department. Looking externally, this plan integrates the management reform goals embodied in the President's Management Agenda and the strategic planning processes prescribed by the Office of Management and Budget.

1.3 Working Group Processes

Early in this plan's development, it was recognized that one measure of this plan's quality would be the process employed to produce it. Implementing a structured process and establishing a Working Group composed of business and IT planners from DOL's twenty-five Agencies, Bureaus and Offices were the first two milestones achieved in the strategic decision making process. The Department's Chief Information Officer accepted the recommendations of the CIO Council, the Office of Management and Budget and the President's Management Agenda and expanded this plan to reflect external stakeholder needs as well as the IT Program's internal stakeholders.

"When preparing this strategic plan, the IT Program Managers should consult, solicit, and consider the views of ALL of the Department's Agencies, Bureaus and Offices," said DOL's Chief Information Officer, Patrick Pizzella. He also provided guidance on the process, saying, "those who ultimately engage themselves in this process should consider how this particular IT Strategic Plan integrates and more importantly, operates within the Department's Strategic Plan, the annual performance planning, and the annual performance budgeting processes. Even though such a process may result in contrary views being expressed, our strategic decision making process must strive for inclusion."

Building on this mandate, this IT Strategic Plan represents a synergistic inter-Agency collaboration on IT at the Department. The process that DOL used to produce its IT strategy included a Department-level integration of business and IT program planning, while its business and IT leadership collaborated on defining the Department's IT strategic goals and IT strategy. The Department sought opportunities for collaboration on IT strategy and IT initiatives across the U.S. Government. Since the process of creating this IT Strategic Plan was inclusive and iterative, each stakeholder had a voice in the creation of measures for effectiveness and efficiency. (See Appendix A: Operational Diagram of the Strategic Decision Making Process Employed for This IT Strategy Development.)

1.4 Mission, Vision and Organization

The critical examination and evaluation of the Department's current mission and vision, along with the alignment of the IT Program's mission and vision is critical to crafting the IT Strategic Plan.

"The purpose of the Department of Labor shall be to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment."

Public Law 426-62, the Organic Act of the Department of Labor
March 1913

Some aspects of the American labor situation and the Department of Labor's mandate have changed dramatically in recent years - the need for greater security after 9/11 being just one aspect of these changes. All Americans acknowledge our lives are different now. This plan recognizes these new aspects and is based on the understanding that these factors are likely to continue changing in the years ahead. Since 1913, the Department's mission has evolved and expanded. In 2005 the mission is broader and requires the efforts of over 17,000 employees and 25 different internal organizations.

1.4.1 Mission of the Department

Mission of the Department

The Department of Labor promotes the welfare of job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United States by improving working conditions, expanding opportunities for training and profitable employment, protecting retirement and health care benefits, helping employers find workers, strengthening free collective bargaining, and tracking changes in employment, prices, and other national economic measurements.

Vision of the Department

The Department of Labor will help workers and their families share in the American Dream through better wages, more secure pensions and health benefits, and expanded economic opportunities while fostering safe and healthful workplaces that are free from discrimination.

Organization of the Department

The Department of Labor is organized into major Agencies, each headed by an Assistant Secretary or Commissioner who administers the various statutes and programs for which the Department is responsible. These programs are carried out through a network of regional offices and smaller field, district, and area offices, as well as through grantees and contractors. The largest program Agencies are the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), Employment Standards Administration (ESA), Employment and Training Administration (ETA), Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management (OASAM), and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Figure 1 below depicts the organizational structure of the Department.

Figure 1: DOL Organizational Chart

1.4.2 IT Program: Mission and Vision

The mission and vision of the IT Program have always been closely aligned with the Department's mission, vision, and organization. Much of the day-to-day work of the Department could not be accomplished without the significant information technology investments in people, processes, and infrastructure.

Mission of the IT Program

The Department of Labor's IT Program mission is to contribute to the success of the Department's mission through the management and delivery of reliable, high quality information that can be readily shared in a secure, cost-effective manner to our customers.

Vision of the IT Program

The Department of Labor's IT Program vision integrates a strong IT governance framework and innovative technological processes to ensure access to modern, reliable, and secure IT infrastructures and systems to support and enhance DOL's vision and mission in the 21st Century.

As simple as these IT Program statements of vision and mission might appear, the reality of managing and sharing reliable information on this scale (both internally and with the public) is a far more complex and issue-rich task. A strong IT governance/management framework is a core component of the Department's IT strategy and will be discussed in Section 4.0 (IT Management).

The IT Program's mission and vision recognize the evolution of IT best practices and aim to deliver what is best - from the U.S. Government and U.S. industry - into the Department. The process of continually checking the alignment of the IT Program's mission and vision with the Department's mission and vision is lengthy. However, since IT Program mission and vision alignment is critical to producing a viable IT strategy, the Department's alignment efforts are noted in our operational process and weigh heavily in the IT strategy formation.

1.5 Drivers of Change

Internal Drivers

Internal drivers of change are those factors that affect the Department's operating environment from within the organization. These drivers are often the result of synergistic discussion and collaboration among the Department's operating units working towards a common goal.
The internal drivers of change most relevant to the IT Strategic Plan are:

DOL's IT Program exists within a heterogeneous environment where important differences in business goals must be supported. The Department of Labor was an early adopter of Information Technology - the first major computer systems being implemented in the 1950's. Highly customized, non-integrated systems developed over a period of many decades as was the norm across the U.S. Government. Now the Department and the IT Program managers operate within a complex internal IT environment even though in 2005, efficiency and productivity are best achieved through homogeneity (unified architectures, shared platforms, and truly cross-cutting system approaches).
The DOL IT Program operates within a complex mission and business environment. Even though DOL is one department, each of the 25 different entities operates under varying agency-level program and mission goals. The IT Program must support each of these different business areas. This diversity aids in the generation of ideas allowing many different solutions to be considered.
DOL is challenged to continue to achieve results-driven performance by balancing appropriate IT resources

External Drivers

The Department recognizes the need to adapt to changes in government, business, and the economy. DOL must also adapt to changes mandated by the Administration and Congress. An effective IT strategy and appropriate IT initiatives must be based upon a thorough understanding of the legislative, inter-departmental, and public interest factors within the external environment. These external drivers of change include prominently:

Presidential, legislative, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and other key stakeholder directives continually require modifications to any IT strategy. These modifications of strategy can create the conditions for positive unexpected developments in new areas of IT.
The Office of Management and Budget's emphasis on achieving universal standards for the preparation of Federal Strategic Plans, Annual Performance Plans, and Annual Performance Reports.
The President's Management Agenda and the emphasis it places on bringing commercial best practices and accountabilities to U.S. Government Departments to enhance their performance for the benefit of the American public.
The CIO Council's analysis and recommendations that present a Federal perspective on information technology which benefits all Federal Agencies.

Substantial legislation and Presidential Directives play a key role and include the 16 governmental drivers noted in Table 1 below.

External Drivers of Change (Legislation and Presidential Directives) that Impact IT Planning and Management in the U.S. Federal Government

IT Management Reform Act of 1996 (ITMRA or Clinger-Cohen Act)
Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 (CFO Act)
Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA)
Government Management Reform Act of 1994 (GMRA)
Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (FASA)
Federal Acquisition Reform Act of 1996 (FARA)
Government Paperwork Elimination Act 1998 (GPEA)
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA)
Presidential Decision Directive 63 (PDD-63)
Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)
Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMFIA)
Section 508, Rehabilitation Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. '794d)
FY 2002 President's Management Agenda\
E-Government Act of 2002
CIO Council
OMB A-11, A-130, A-94

Table 1: External Drivers of Change that Impact IT Planning and Management in the U.S. Federal