On August 23, the Office of Management and Budget issued stricter guidelines for achieving a green light—the highest possible mark—in e-government on OMB's quarterly management score card. Agencies must demonstrate that they are using “earned value management” (EVM) to justify and track technology investments. Specifically, agencies must answer the following questions:

1. Is the agency using earned value management to plan and manage development activities for major IT investments (including development effort under a mixed-lifecycle investment), and operational analyses for steady state performance?
2. Are the earned value data and analysis used to measure and report work progress on these investments produced by EVM systems (either departmental and/or contractor, as appropriate, depending on where the work is performed) that meet the EVMS guidelines in ANSI/EIA-STD-748?
3. Using earned value or operational analyses, as appropriate, how does actual cumulative performance measure up against the approved cost and schedule baselines, i.e., are variances equal to or less than 10 percent? Is the project generally on-track to deliver capabilities as originally intended, or have technical requirements been reduced or otherwise modified?

Karen Evans, OMB's e-government administrator, said agencies striving for top e-government marks must show they use the earned value management technique to evaluate projects, and must indicate whether investments are boosting performance as much as expected. A copy of the August 23 memo can be found at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/