Committee, Agency of Digital Services agree on outcome-focused IT reporting; dashboard to show on-time, on-budget indicators

The House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee continued work on draft committee bill 250896 on Feb. 26, focusing on how the Agency of Digital Services (ADS) will report on information-technology projects. Committee members pressed for statutory language that ensures the public and the Legislature can see whether projects are on time and on budget; ADS officials previewed a public dashboard and said the agency will expand annual reports and provide more frequent updates to the committee.

Representative Kathleen James, chair of the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee, said the bill’s purpose is to “be really clear about what kind of data we’re looking for and what kind of data we think would be useful to us,” and stressed the intent that statutory reporting survive changes in leadership so the public and future legislatures retain oversight.

ADS officials described a two-part approach: a redesigned annual report produced by the Enterprise Project Management Office and an interactive public dashboard. Stacy Gibson, project management office director for the Agency of Digital Services, said the annual summary will include project scope, budget, timeline and status and will “include details as to changes over time, including project closure details and indicators of projects being on time and on budget.” Gibson added that…