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IT Modernization
streams established in ARP.
Further, agencies can connect the
dots while prioritizing HVAs that need modernization, addressing the criteria for a successful business case and the focus areas outlined in OMB’s TMF/ ARP guidance, and accounting for the stated goals of the executive order on cybersecurity.
In making this linkage, they can take advantage of opportunities to develop TMF proposals that meet all those imperatives. Connecting those dots would enable agencies to focus on TMF proposals that:
• Leverage modernization solutions that move HVAs to cloud environments with zero trust architectures, upgraded authentication and fine-grained permis- sions for access control.
• Leverage a common and well- designed solution, platform or soft- ware to address remediation of multiple HVAs based on the analysis of integra- tion points within and across agency enterprise portfolios, for both mission support and mission delivery processes.
• Use solutions provided by and mar- ketplaces developed by GSA that have been designated Quality Service Man- agement Offices in the areas of finance, human resources, cybersecurity and grants management. QSMOs serve as governmentwide storefronts and offer multiple solutions for technology and services in their functional areas.
• Employ a DevSecOps approach to develop modernized applications while following secure practices for software development as outlined in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Special Publication 800-160 and related guidance. The DevSecOps approach automates the integration of security at every phase of the software devel- opment life cycle, from initial design through integration, testing and delivery.
• Leverage a modernization solution that improves the customer experience and enhances the cybersecurity posture of citizen-facing systems that contain personally identifiable information.
The federal government continues to be well overdue for modernization. Past efforts have often lacked the level of investment needed to accelerate prog- ress. TMF was designed specifically to address that issue with increased fund- ing and added flexibilities to improve the opportunities to accelerate progress. Investments made based on the strate- gic significance of assets (as with HVAs) and the use of modernization approach- es that leverage commercially available, scalable solutions consistent with TMF criteria will present opportunities to
drive progress by optimizing return on those investments.
Given the multiple efforts focused on HVA modernization and cyberse- curity that TMF guidance integrates, more foundational elements of success now exist. These elements apply within TMF and can drive progress across the $100 billion federal IT portfolio. Agen- cies and their industry partners can and should take advantage of the moment and opportunity for significant mission and performance improvement from modernized, secure technology.
How TMF can enable broad improvements across government
The idea:
Investments in technology that support mul- tiple agencies would expand TMF’s impact considerably.
Agencies can learn from experience about how modernization investments can be sustained and scaled over time as they prepare their first round of pro- posals for TMF. Specifically, OMB’s TMF guidance calls for proposals that reach across the government enterprise for “public-facing or agency-facing shared services, including technical infrastruc- ture that can offer agency technology teams a scalable, secure foundation for the rapid creation and modernization of digital services.”
Linking TMF to shared services con- tinues a long-standing strategy to mod- ernize governmentwide programs led by agencies that have experience and expertise in specific domains. The cur- rent QSMOs for financial management, human resources, grants management and cybersecurity demonstrate the con- tinuity of this approach.
The current QSMO construct pro- vides a clear channel for TMF invest- ments to support expansion in these four critical areas of government opera- tions. Each QSMO is governed by a lead
agency that collaborates across govern- ment to promote services that meet high standards. For example, the Treasury Department’s financial management experience enables solutions for other agencies to deliver social services to the public with accuracy and integrity, and the cyber expertise in CISA sup- ports modern approaches to protect- ing agency information and assets that serve the public.
TMF funding that supports this gov- ernment enterprise construct will spark and accelerate efforts that reach mul- tiple agencies, increasing the return on investment by modernizing processes beyond a single program or project.
Similarly, a number of agencies continue to develop enterprise service approaches that reach across their own programs in a way that allows their com- ponents to focus on mission outcomes while relying on the central provision of common functions. The Commerce and Labor departments are among the agency leaders in this space, and TMF’s impact would expand by making invest- ments that support additional agency enterprise approaches.
Another path for investments with cross-agency impact comes at the infra-
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