Detailed Information on the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Automation Modernization Program Assessment

Developing a long-range strategic plan that helps ICE share information with its law enforcement and immigration enforcement partners

Establishing a strong program office to monitor program's performance and use of appropriated resources.

Developing a spending plan for current resources.

Measure: Percentage of ICE users employing Single Sign On (SSO) for systems access.

Explanation:"Contributes to the Atlas Program goal to ensure integrity, availabliity, and privacy of information and data assets by establishing the information assurance and data management foundations that allow the ICE OCIO to deliver trusted enforcement information in collaboration with the ICE mission programs. Measure helps to ensure that users can access multiple systems securely and efficiently by using a single mechanism for uniquely identifying themselves, as well as, providing strong authentication services to validate their identity and associate appropriate access controls to ICE systems."

Measure: Percent of investigative and enforcement personnel with access to Decision Support System data marts (ensuring interoperability among ICE systems).

Explanation:"At present, ICE personnel have to query a large number of databases to gain access to the law enforcement information they need. This measure will serve as an indicator of the attainment of the Atlas goal to increase workforce productivity by giving ICE personnel easy, complete access to ICE consolidated enforcement data. More importantly, it helps to verify through increased uasge that the consolidated data mart Decision Support System is meeting the requirements of the ICE investigative and enforcement communities. "

Measure: Percent reduction in ICE's O&M contribution for network services.

Explanation:Under the constraints of the current technical environment, ICE contributes $20M annually toward O&M costs for network services ($57M total). Under the new scenario, ICE's contribution would be reduced by more than 50% to $10M per annum -- for a broader and more comprehensive network service package. Contemplating O&M costs projected for the following five years, ICE's annual O&M contribution actually decreases over the same interval. In short, significant efficiencies are realized through both dramatic improvements in price-performance ratio and through the future value of a scalable, extensible solution.

Measure: Percent of progress in implementing a complete refresh of ICE personnel desktop equipment.

Explanation:"Contributes to the Atlas Program goal to enhance ICE workforce productivity by building a technology foundation to empower ICE staff with the tools necessary to achieve mission requirements. Measure helps to ensure that state-of-the-art desktop equipment is available for use by ICE personnel through a continuous 3 year ICE hardware refresh project."

Measure: Percent of ICE sites using DHS standard high speed network circuits.

Explanation:One of the ICE Program goals is to establish a standard IT environment. This measure, combined with Measure 1 and others, will serve as an indicator of the attainment of this goal. Ensuring ICE personnel are connected and integrated through a single-standard communications infrastructure (DHS OneNetwork) will provide seamless interoperability between ICE offices and other DHS components.

Measure: Percent increase in ICE investigative and enforcement systems incorporated into ICE Decision Support System consolidated data marts.

Explanation:"Contributes to the Atlas Program goal to enhance security and protection of US citizens by improving investigative and intelligence capabilities to prevent terrorist and other criminal activities both domestically and internationally. Measure helps to ensure that ICE law enforcement personnel have access to and can retrieve enforcement information from a single integrated-source of enforcement data. "

Measure: Percent of ICE personnel using the DHS standard Microsoft Outlook E-mail platform.

Explanation:"Contributes to the Atlas Program goal to enhance ICE workforce productivity by building a technology foundation to empower ICE staff with the tools necessary to achieve mission requirements. Measure helps to ensure that ICE's ability to communicate more effectively both internally and externally is strengthened. It helps to ensure that there is standardized interoperability with ICE enterprise applications, desktop programs, and E-mail archives for legacy E-mail systems. It helps to ensure that overall O&M costs are reduced by eliminating multiple vendor support for separate platforms and by eliminating unsupported vendor E-mail products."

Is the program purpose clear?

Explanation: The ICE Atlas Program is the principal ICE automation modernization program for improving information sharing across the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE organizations, strengthening information availability, providing a fully secure IT environment, and maintaining workforce productivity.

Evidence: 2004 Expenditure Plan 2005 Expenditure Plan 2002 Atlas Business Case

Does the program address a specific and existing problem, interest, or need?

Explanation: The ICE Atlas Program is working to create a standardized IT environment for ICE that will include a defined refresh strategy for ICE equipment; for integrating all ICE employees into one E-mail package; for revising the ATLAS Business Case; and, integrating multiple independent and legacy networks to improve interoperability.

Evidence: 2004 Expenditure Plan 2005 Draft Expenditure Plan 2002 Atlas Business Case

Is the program designed so that it is not redundant or duplicative of any other Federal, state, local or private effort?

Explanation: The ICE Atlas Program addresses only organizational components, networks, systems, and equipment within the ICE organizational umbrella.

Evidence: ICE Atlas Program is designed to meet ICE"s technological needs. The program priorities are reviewed and approved by the ICE Chief Information Officer and the ICE Investment Review Board chaired by the Deputy Assistant Secretary with final approval by the ICE Assistant Secretary. Annual expenditure plans define the activities to be accomplished during each fiscal year.

Is the program design free of major flaws that would limit the program's effectiveness or efficiency?

Explanation: An Atlas management structure is in place to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the program. A Senior Atlas Program Manager has been appointed and reports directly to the ICE CIO on Atlas matters. Government Project Managers are appointed for each of the Atlas projects. Fiscal controls are being developed to monitor program progress. FY budgets are prepared, reviewed, and approved by the Program Manager and the ICE CIO. Expenditure plans are developed identifying project activities for each fiscal year, how funds are to be obligated, and the contract vehicles to be used. Bi-weekly and one-on-one Project Manager meetings are held to discuss project activities, performance, and project risks. Initial performance measures are defined. Primavera, an enterprise management tool, will be used to ensure consistency in project management reporting.

Evidence: Project Manager Appointment Designation letters 2004 Expenditure Plan 2005 Expenditure Plan Atlas Draft Mission Needs Statement - April 2005 Atlas FY 2004 & 2005 Investment Program Priorities OMB PART measures Atlas Project Manager meeting minutes

Is the program design effectively targeted so that resources will address the program's purpose directly and will reach intended beneficiaries?

Explanation: Atlas has not designed its program so that resources read intended beneficiaries. However, Atlas project investment activities are designed to acomplish modernization of ICE Mission Components with one E-mail system, state-of-the-art desktop equipment and supporting servers, integration of component networks into the standard DHS OneNet network, consolidation of enforcement information into query supported data marts, strengthen information, computer, and network security, enabling capabilities to assess new and effective technologies for implementation, and staff an overall program management capability.

Evidence: 2004 Expenditure Plan 2005 Expenditure Plan 2002 Atlas Business Case

Does the program have a limited number of specific long-term performance measures that focus on outcomes and meaningfully reflect the purpose of the program?

Explanation: ATLAS has defined a limited number of specific long-term performance measures. However, many of the measures focus on outputs for the short-term goals of the program. The program is in the process of developing long-term outcome measures that focus on its information sharing and interoperability missions. These measures will be included in the FY 2007 Congressional Justification.

Evidence: 2005 PART 2005 Expenditure Plan

Does the program have ambitious targets and timeframes for its long-term measures?

Explanation: The program has ambitious targets and timeframes for long-term measures. However, many of these measures focus on outputs for the short-term goals of the program. ATLAS needs to define additional measures for its interoperability and information sharing missions. These measures will be included in the FY 2007 Congressional Justification.

Evidence: 2005 PART 2005 Expenditure Plan

Does the program have a limited number of specific annual performance measures that can demonstrate progress toward achieving the program's long-term goals?

Explanation: ATLAS has a limited number of specific annual performance measures. However, ATLAS needs to define additional annual measures for its interoperability and information sharing missions, as well as refine the output measures. These measures will be included in the FY 2007 Congressional Justification.

Evidence: 2005 PART 2005 Expenditure Plan

Does the program have baselines and ambitious targets for its annual measures?

Explanation: The program has baselines and ambitious targets for its annual measures. However, ATLAS needs to define additional outcome measures for its interoperability and information sharing missions. These measures will be included in the FY 2007 Congressional Justification.

Evidence: 2005 PART 2005 Expenditure Plan

Do all partners (including grantees, sub-grantees, contractors, cost-sharing partners, and other government partners) commit to and work toward the annual and/or long-term goals of the program?

Explanation: Atlas has been approved by the ICE Investment Review Board as the cornerstone to modernize and integrate ICE systems in support of the DHS strategic goal of "One DHS, One Network." Atlas work is performed primarily by contractors. All contract vehicles used to support Atlas are compliant with ANSI Earned Value Management Standard 748 as required by OMB Circular A-11. An initial Atlas integrated project plan with cost, schedule, and performance goals has been developed and will be maintained. Bi-weekly meetings with project managers are conducted in order to ensure that the project remains on track.

Evidence: 2004 Expenditure Plan 2005 Expenditure Plan Atlas Integrated Project Schedule Atlas Project Manager meeting minutes ITESS and TEAMS contracts

Are independent evaluations of sufficient scope and quality conducted on a regular basis or as needed to support program improvements and evaluate effectiveness and relevance to the problem, interest, or need?

Explanation: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reviews the annual ATLAS expenditure plan.

Evidence: GAO review of ATLAS expenditure plan.

Are Budget requests explicitly tied to accomplishment of the annual and long-term performance goals, and are the resource needs presented in a complete and transparent manner in the program's budget?

Explanation: ATLAS does not prepare its expenditure plans until after budget development. Its budget requests have been based on inflating current amount with little consideration for the performance goals. Expenditure plans are routinely submitted two years after budget development.

Evidence:  

Has the program taken meaningful steps to correct its strategic planning deficiencies?

Explanation: ATLAS has only begun to correct its strategic planning deficiences and needs to improve its strategic plan. It has documented several elements required by GPRA and OMB Circular A-11 such as a mission statement, vision, goals, and objectives, defined annual and long term performance measures, and is working on a revised Atlas Business Case. Atlas has promised to submit its FY 2005 Expenditure Plan by September 1 possible, to submit the FY 2007 Exhibit 300 by September 2005, to submitting the FY 06 Expenditure Plan by September 2005, and will prepare a FY 2007 Congressional Justification.

Evidence:  

Has the agency/program conducted a recent, meaningful, credible analysis of alternatives that includes trade-offs between cost, schedule, risk, and performance goals, and used the results to guide the resulting activity?

Explanation: The original Atlas Business Case, October 2002, completed for the INS served as the overall framework for the Atlas Program. ATLAS program is undertaking a review of the business case to reflect the current ICE/DHS environment but the plan has not been completed.

Evidence:  

Does the agency regularly collect timely and credible performance information, including information from key program partners, and use it to manage the program and improve performance?

Explanation: ATLAS has just recently created performance measures.

Evidence:  

Are Federal managers and program partners (including grantees, sub-grantees, contractors, cost-sharing partners, and other government partners) held accountable for cost, schedule and performance results?

Explanation: Contract vehicles used to support Atlas are compliant with ANSI Earned Value Management Standard 748 as required by OMB Circular A-11. An initial Atlas integrated project plan with cost, schedule, and performance goals has been developed and will be maintained. Bi-weekly meetings with project managers are conducted in order to ensure that the project remains on track. Atlas primary contracts, ITESS and TEAMS, have incorporated the following performance incentives: ITESS - performance based with cost plus award fee, and TEAMS - time and materials with service level objectives.

Evidence: 2004 Expenditure Plan 2005 Draft Expenditure Plan Atlas Integrated Project Schedule Atlas Project Manager meeting minutes ITESS and TEAMS contracts

Are funds (Federal and partners') obligated in a timely manner and spent for the intended purpose?

Explanation: ATLAS Expenditure plans are routinely submitted to OMB and to the Congress two years after the funds have been requested and appropriated. ATLAS will submit its 2005 Expenditure Plan by September 1st, 2005; will submit the FY 2007 Exhibit 300 by September 2005, will submit the FY20 06 Expenditure Plan in September 2005, and will prepare a formal budget submission.

Evidence:  

Does the program have procedures (e.g. competitive sourcing/cost comparisons, IT improvements, appropriate incentives) to measure and achieve efficiencies and cost effectiveness in program execution?

Explanation: ICE OCIO currently manages a portfolio of contracts that provide for IT supplies and services across ICE IT mission requirements. These include the use of several contract types, including stand alone IT Service Contracts, Task Order (TO) Contracts, GSA Schedule Contracts, and Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs). These contract vehicles are a combination of ICE contracts and BPAs, GSA BPAs, and the NIH CIO-SP2i Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). These contract vehicles have varying periods of performance that go out to December 31, 2010 with contract ceilings in excess of $1.3B in total. Atlas requirements will be satisfied using these existing vehicles to the fullest extent possible. Following the acquisition regulations and other Department guidance, ICE OCIO decided to use existing vehicles from other agencies or conduct new procurements where it is a superior alternative to the available contract vehicles. All Atlas procurements are governed by the ICE Contract and Acquisition Procedures (ICECAP)."

Evidence: ICE Contract and Acquisition Procedures (ICECAP).

Does the program collaborate and coordinate effectively with related programs?

Explanation: The Atlas Program is managed under a CPIC framework and is controlled under the DHS CPIC process. The ICE IT Business Council (Stakeholder Business Representatives) review Atlas Expenditure Plans in preparation for the ICE Investment Review Board (IRB). The IRB provides managerial oversight in the selection, control, and evaluation of investments. The Atlas Program is being aligned with the Department's Enterprise Architecture, including: business architecture; data Architecture; application architecture; and, technology architecture. The Atlas EA is reviewed and approved for according to specification and standards by the DHS EA Center of Excellance (CoE).

Evidence: 2005 Expenditure Plan

Does the program use strong financial management practices?

Explanation: While ATLAS has not incorporated strong financial management practices in the past, it plans to incorporate an obligation plan for project activities in its expenditure plans. In addition, the Atlas Program Office will be staffed with a dedicated financial analyst to monitor, control, and coordinate program financials. Standard Operating Procedures for financial management are defined. Atlas will procure Primevara, an enterprise project management tool, to solidify tracking and reporting on program costs, schedules and performance.

Evidence:  

Has the program taken meaningful steps to address its management deficiencies?

Explanation: Atlas continues to improve on its strategic plan. It has documented several elements required by GPRA and OMB Circular A-11such as a mission statement, vision, goals, and objectives, defined annual and long term performance measures, and is working on a revised Atlas Business Case. Moreover, Atlas has committed to closing out its FY05 Expenditure Plan by September 1st, will submit the FY07 Exhibit 300 by September 2005, will submit the FY 06 Expenditure Plan by September 2005, and will prepare a full budget justifi cation for its FY 2007 budget by October 1st.

Evidence:  

Is the program managed by maintaining clearly defined deliverables, capability/performance characteristics, and appropriate, credible cost and schedule goals?

Explanation: Atlas is scheduled to provide a number of clearly defined deliverables, including desktop refresh to approximately 16,000 employees, consolidating 12,000 employees into a common email system, integrating 550 network sites with DHS standard high speed network circuits, and as a long term goal, consolidating 25 enforcement systems into query accessable data marts. Atlas has also committed to a number of capability / performance characteristics. However, ATLAS needs to improve its accountability by holding managers and partners accountable for the timely obligation of resources.

Evidence: 2004 Expenditure Plan 2005 Expenditure Plan Atlas Integrated Project Schedule

Has the program demonstrated adequate progress in achieving its long-term performance goals?

Explanation: ATLAS has just recently created performance measures and still needs to develop additional measures to address interoperability and information sharing. However, ATLAS did have some preliminary measures in place for the 2002 and 2003 resources.

Evidence:  

Does the program (including program partners) achieve its annual performance goals?

Explanation: ATLAS has just developed new performance measures to reflect its new ICE goals and needs to develop additional measures for its long-term information sharing and interoperability goals. However, Atlas did have have some preliminary measures in place for its 2002 and 2003 resources. In FY 2002 and FY 2003 Atlas achieved its annual performance measures. Atlas exceeded its "% of Technology Adequate Equipment" measure by 15% in FY 2002 and 22% in FY 2003. Atlas was within 10% of meeting its "% of total sites and systems that are unconditionally accredited" measure. Atlas exceeded its original target (300) for its "# of obsolete routers replaced across the network" measure by 30 in FY 2002 and FY 2003. Atlas met its "% of network resources available" measure in both years. Performance measures were defined in the Atlas FY 2004, FY 2005, FY 2006 Exhibit 300s. ATLAS has just recently created additional performance measures for its future activities.

Evidence: Atlas FY 2002 - FY 2003 performance measures Atlas Exhibit 300 inputs to DHS Exhibit 300 for FY 2004, FY 2005, and FY 2006

Does the program demonstrate improved efficiencies or cost effectiveness in achieving program goals each year?

Explanation: ATLAS has just recently created performance measures and needs to develop additional measures for its interoperability and information sharing goals.

Evidence:  

Does the performance of this program compare favorably to other programs, including government, private, etc., with similar purpose and goals?

Explanation: It is difficult to define whether the program compares favorably to other programs. ATLAS did not undertake such a review. GAO review of the 2004 Expenditure Plan indicated that ATLAS had some significant management deficiencies.

Evidence:  

Do independent evaluations of sufficient scope and quality indicate that the program is effective and achieving results?

Explanation: The Atlas program undergoes annual GAO, OMB, and Congressional oversight of its expenditure plans. GAO's preliminary review gave ATLAS mixed reviews, but credited the program with some small successes.

Evidence: 2005 Expenditure Plan OMB Exhibit 300s 2005 PART GAO Oversight/Review of 2004 and 2005 Atlas Expenditure Plans.

Were program goals achieved within budgeted costs and established schedules?

Explanation: The Atlas program was launched in FY 2002 with counterterrorism funds. In FY 2002 and FY 2003, $54.391 million in investment costs was expended in support of Connectivity, Information Assurance, Common Computing Environment, and Enterprise Information. The investments: upgraded the WAN network infrastructure; implemented a network performance monitoring capability, installing Network Operations Center (NOC) tools at primary and back-up NOC's; integrated 100 remote locations along the Canadian border into the WAN; implemented a Security Operations Center (SOC); implemented network and host-based vulnerability scanning capabilities; installed network and intrusion detection systems within the SOC; implemented a Digital Identity Management Center (DIMC) to support Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Identity Management operations; procured and installed standard hardware and software; started deployment of a common E-mail environment; established an environment to support enterprise query and interoperability capabilities; developed enterprise query prototype and web farm upgrades. However, in 2004 and 2005, the lack of goals and performance measures, as well as the inability to obligate funds, has limited Atlas' ability to acheive its goals within budgeted costs and established schedules.

Evidence: 2002 and 2003 Project reports