Knowing which tactics make for smooth, investment-worthy IT efforts can be as tricky as the projects themselves. Looking to shed some light on the matter, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) compiled a list of best practices based on interviews with CIOs and other acquisitions and procurement officials.

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Using as a basis seven government IT projects – one of those being the VA’s Occupation Health Record-keeping System – the GAO boiled that list down to the “common factors that were critical to the success of three or more of the seven investments.”

Those are:

1. Program officials were actively engaged with stakeholders
2. Program staff had the necessary knowledge and skills
3. Senior department and agency executives supported the programs
4. End users and stakeholders were involved in the development of requirements
5. End users participated in testing of system functionality prior to formal end user acceptance testing
6. Government and contractor staff were stable and consistent
7. Program staff prioritized requirements
8. Program officials maintained regular communication with the prime contractor
9. Programs received sufficient funding

In the report, titled "Critical Factors underlying successful major acquisitions," the GAO also listed its top seven projects – so judged because they “best achieved their respective cost, schedule, scope and performance goals.”

In addition to the aforementioned VA Occupation Health Record-keeping System, these include the Department of Commerce’s Decennial Response Integration System, the DoD’s Global Combat Support System-Joint, Increment 7, DoE’s Manufacturing Operations Management (MOMentum) Project, Homeland Security’s Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, Transportation’s Integrated Terminal Weather System and Treasury’s Customer Account Data Engine 2 (CADE 2).

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“Given the size of these investments and the criticality of many of these systems to the health, economy and security of the nation, it is important that federal agencies successfully acquire these systems,” GAO wrote in the report, “that is, ensure that the systems are acquired on time and within budget and that they deliver the expected benefits and functionality.”