White House passes GAO review

The Executive Office of the President has improved its systems but has room for improvement, according to a recent General Accounting Office analysis.

The GAO report, "Executive Office of the President: Analysis of Mandated Report on Key IT Areas," noted the office has finished a business reference model that describes its administrative processes, IT requirements and existing networks and infrastructure. The executive office still is working on an officewide architecture, which will be used to modernize its operations, the GAO said.

The Executive Office of the President is a group of 12 agencies and offices, and several support organizations that provide policy and support to the president.

The executive office is focusing on low-risk and high-payoff projects, such as a $5 million redesign and relocation of its data center and a $1.5 million project for desktop and customer service systems, GAO said.

In addition, the executive office's IT team is assessing its human resources needs against 14 core knowledge and skill areas, has begun training staff in project and enterprise architecture management and contractor oversight, and plans to hire more staff, GAO said.