VanRoekel launches TechStat for agencies' full IT portfolios

This story has been updated.

The Office of Management and Budget launched an expansion of Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel's TechStat program for troubled technology projects Friday.

The new program, known as PortfolioStat, will require agency chief operating officers or deputy secretaries to lead agencywide information technology portfolio reviews rather than assess one project at a time, according to a White House blog post by VanRoekel.

The COOs must work with agency chief information officers, chief financial officers and chief acquisition officers, the blog post said.

"By June 15, agencies will complete a high-level survey of agency IT portfolio status and a bureau level information request for specific types of commodity IT investments that will be used to baseline the maturity of agency portfolios," the post said.

PortfolioStat will help agencies "look into the darkest corners of the organization to find wasteful and duplicative IT investments," VanRoekel said in the blog post.

VanRoekel announced the initiative during a meeting of the President's Management Advisory Board on Friday morning. Acting OMB Director Jeff Zients also outlined the program in memo to agency officials Friday.

VanRoekel previously told the board of private sector advisors during a November 2011 meeting that PortfolioStat was on its way.

TechStat reviews have saved the government roughly $4 billion since 2010 by halting or reforming failing or past-due IT projects, according to VanRoekel.

His predecessor, Vivek Kundra, designed the TechStat system as a reform-or-perish presentation managers of overdue, budget-busting IT projects must give to agency technology leaders and the federal CIO. TechStat is also being performed on the agency level now. VanRoekel conducts at least one TechStat review each month.

TechStat is one of several initiatives launched by Kundra and VanRoekel in the past three years to modernize the federal IT infrastructure and to increase efficiency in IT spending.