Step 1 - Establish Program Governance
You should establish a formal governance structure to ensure your agency’s ICAM programs meet compliance standards by using an existing program structure or by establishing new governance as necessary. The governance structure is responsible for aligning and consolidating your agency‘s various ICAM investments, monitoring programs for alignment with organizational objectives, and ensuring broad awareness and understanding. Program governance should also establish goals, mission priorities, organization, accountability, metrics, and management controls within an agency.
Follow the checklist below to establish a formal governance structure with your agency. Remember, you must create and assign a specific group the responsibility to provide oversight, management, development, and enforcement of agency-specific policies, processes, and performance measures.
Checklist
Create an Executive Steering Committee (ESC). The ESC is chartered by the agency’s executive leadership to govern and align the ICAM program with your agency’s mission. The committee is usually departmental heads, bureau/component leadership, business owners, and application owners. The ESC‘s charter should specify the group‘s authority to enforce changes, when necessary, to align ICAM technology, policy and execution with the agency‘s overall mission.
ESC Roles and Responsibilities
The role and responsibilities of each agency‘s ESC are usually governed by its charter. The list below describes some of the ESC’s responsibilities:
- Create and approve a process that ensures the review of ICAM program changes and the resolution of disputes between ICAM and individual program offices
- Provide direction and counsel to the ICAM Program Management Office (PMO)
- Ensure proper resource allocation to ICAM programs and projects
- Review and approve the program business architecture
- Provide input for, or participate in, the critical development stages of the ICAM program
- Take responsibility for overall stakeholder management to include internal and external stakeholders
- Provide strategic guidance for cost, schedule, performance, and technical solutions to ensure program success
- Review post-implementation evaluations to ensure that forecasted benefits and outcomes of the ICAM program are met
- Provide program status information to oversight organizations, such as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Office of Inspector General (OIG), and Government Accountability Office (GAO), upon request
- Establish collaboration to provide guidance, identity common agency challenges, identify best practices, and share solutions
Establish Bureau/Component Governance. The bureau/component interdisciplinary team provides ICAM-related recommendations to the department‘s ESC and help drive the success of the ICAM program. These teams are usually comprised of working-level roles and employ a bottom up approach for managing implementation. An interdisciplinary team at the bureau/component level plays an important risk mitigation role by providing insight into the implementation effort from a functional point of view. This information helps the ESC understand the impact certain decisions may have on program executors and ultimately promote buy-in across various stakeholders. This team should be able to enhance communication and promote cohesion among the various subgroups within an agency.