Federal IT Capital Planning and Investment Control (with CD)

CHAPTER 8

Communicating with a Business Case

Technology provides no benefits of its own; it is the application of technology to business opportunities that produces ROI.

—ROBERT MCDOWELL AND WILLIAM SIMON, IN SEARCH OF BUSINESS VALUE, 2005¹

The President’s budget for fiscal year 2008 proposes cutting the IT budget for a number of agencies by as much as 11 percent compared to their prior approved budget level, reversing a long-term trend of steady increases in IT funding.² While agencies have been pressed to be more accountable for the results of their IT initiatives, the new constrained budget environment focuses even more attention on the IT investment management process. With fewer funds to support a growing list of IT initiatives, an agency’s ...