Planning and Budgeting

Agencies shall establish agency-wide planning and budgeting processes in accordance with OMB guidance. As discussed below, important components of planning and budgeting consist of developing and maintaining an Agency Information Strategy, as well as ensuring effective collaboration between agency leadership on budget activities.

Strategic Planning

In support of agency missions and business needs, and as part of the agency’s overall strategic and performance planning processes, agencies shall develop and maintain an Agency Information Strategy that describes the agency’s technology and information resources goals, including but not limited to the processes described in this Circular. The Agency Information Strategy shall support the goals of the Agency Strategic Plan required by the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRA Modernization Act). The Agency Information Strategy shall demonstrate how these goals map to the agency’s mission and organizational priorities. These goals should be specific, verifiable, and measurable, so that progress against these goals can be tracked. The agency should review its Agency Information Strategy annually alongside the Annual Performance Plan reviews, required by the GPRA Modernization Act, to determine if there are any performance gaps or changes to mission needs, priorities, or goals. As part of the planning and maintenance of an effective Information Strategy, agencies shall consider the following, in addition to all other requirements in this Circular:

Taking explicit account of information resources and information technology (IT) assets, personnel, and policies when planning, budgeting, and executing Federal programs and services;
Maintaining the following, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. § 3506(b)(4) and 3511) and Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. § 552(g)), an inventory of the agency’s major information systems, holdings, and dissemination products; a description of the agency’s major information and record locator systems; an inventory of the agency’s other information resources, such as personnel and funding (at the level of detail that the agency determines is most appropriate for its use in managing the agency’s information resources); and an online resource for persons to obtain public information from the agency pursuant to these Acts;
Ensuring the terms and conditions of grants and contracts involving the processing, storage, transmission, and destruction of Federal information are sufficient to enable agencies to meet necessary policy and legal requirements;
Ensuring that all resources planning and management activities consider information security, privacy, and supply chain security issues throughout the system development life cycle to assure Federal information systems are “secure-by-design” and that the risks associated with those issues are appropriately managed; and
Ensuring information systems and components that cannot be appropriately protected or secured are given a high priority for upgrade or replacement.

Business Continuity Planning

Agencies shall develop a Business Continuity Plan.

A Business Continuity plan to continue agency operations during times of services disruption is essential. Therefore, recovery strategies should be developed so services and/or access can be restored in time to meet the mission needs. Manual workarounds should be part of the plan so business can continue while information systems are being restored. For additional information on business continuity planning, refer to Ready.gov.

Planning, Programming, and Budgeting

Agencies shall, in accordance with FITARA and related OMB policy:

Ensure that Program leadership, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Information Officer (CIO) jointly define the level of detail with which IT resource levels are described distinctly from other resources throughout the planning, programming, and budgeting stages. This should serve as the primary input into the IT capital planning and investment control documents submitted within the budget.
Ensure the agency-wide budget development process includes the CFO, Chief Acquisition Officer (CAO), and CIO in the planning, programming, and budgeting stages for programs that include IT resources (not just programs that are primarily IT oriented). The agency head, in consultation with the CFO, CIO, and program leadership, shall define the processes by which program leadership works with the CIO to plan an overall portfolio of IT resources that achieve program and business objectives efficiently and effectively by:
1. Weighing potential and ongoing investments and their underlying capabilities against other proposed and ongoing investments in the portfolio; and
2. Identifying gaps between planned and actual cost, schedule, and performance goals for IT investments and identifying strategies and time frames to close such gaps.
Ensure the CIO approves the IT components of any plans, through a process defined by the agency head that balances IT investments with other uses of agency funding. Agencies shall also ensure the CIO is included in the internal planning processes for how the agency uses IT resources to achieve its objectives at all points in their lifecycle, including operations and disposition or migration.
Ensure that agency budget justification materials, in their initial budget submission to OMB, include a statement that affirms:
1. The CIO has reviewed and approves the major IT investments portion of the budget request;
2. The CFO and CIO jointly affirm that the CIO had a significant role in reviewing planned IT support for major program objectives and significant increases and decreases in IT resources; and
3. The IT Portfolio (formerly Exhibit 53) includes appropriate estimates of all IT resources included in the budget request.
Ensure the CFO, CAO, and CIO define agency-wide policy for the level of detail of planned expenditure reporting for all transactions that include IT resources.