The Senate took a step toward smart information technology contracting on May 19, passing S. 920, the “Information Technology Investment Oversight Enhancement and Waste Prevention Act of 2009.” The bipartisan bill, which PSC helped the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee craft, would improve agency and congressional processes to track the performance, cost and schedule of IT projects and prevent the requirements creep that often lead complex IT procurements into failure. The legislation, which was sponsored by Sens. Tom Coburn, D-Del. and Susan Collins, R-Maine, would also create an “IT SWAT Team” of government, industry and non-profit IT experts to provide skilled support to agencies managing complex IT projects. The SWAT Team would support government project managers from system development to execution to ensure it is successfully deployed. The bill now heads to the House for approval, as it travels on the School House Rock described path to becoming law.
