California Assembly Bill AB2523 Amended / Bill

 BILL NUMBER: AB 2523AMENDED BILL TEXT AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 21, 2014 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Cooley FEBRUARY 21, 2014 An act  to amend Section 11548.5 of,  to amend the heading of Chapter 5.6 (commencing with Section 11545) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of, and to add Section 11547.5 to, the Government Code, relating to state government. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2523, as amended, Cooley. Department of Technology. Existing law establishes, until January 1, 2015, the Department of Technology, within the Government Operations Agency, headed by the Director of Technology, who is also known as the State Chief Information Officer. The department is responsible for the approval and oversight of information technology projects by, among other things, consulting with agencies during initial project planning to ensure that project proposals are based on well-defined programmatic needs and consider feasible alternatives to address the identified needs and benefits consistent with statewide strategies, policies, and procedures. This bill would  extend the establishment of the Department of Technology to January 1, 2020, and  require the Director of Technology, on or before July 1, 2016, to report recommendations to the Legislature, as specified, on how a team of senior consulting information technology experts could be developed to serve as support for state agencies and senior project team members in state government on information technology projects. This bill would require the director to consider specified factors when making those recommendations. This bill would make legislative findings in this regard. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) The state has identified the management of large technology projects as high risk for the last several decades. (b) Large technology projects may take years to develop and, similar to issues with a recent technology project for the Department of Employment Development, the implementation of a project, from conception through implementation, can span multiple gubernatorial administrations and include a change in senior managers, retirements, and career moves that affect the project. (c) To address these issues, the state has steadily worked to improve its organizational and institutional capacity to manage large technology programs. This effort is vital, because at the present time, there over 100 identified information technology projects in progress throughout state government in various phases of progress and completion. (d) An important milestone in this ongoing effort was the July 2013 issuance of the California Project Management Methodology Reference Manual completed by the Director of Technology, also known as the State Chief Information Officer. The manual breaks large information technology projects into the phases of initial concept, initiating, planning, executing, and closing. The manual emphasizes that the critical role throughout these phases is with the attendant management duties of monitoring and controlling to ensure the project is advancing in accordance with budget and outcome expectations. The manual highlights the critical role of the project management team, which includes the distinct roles of the executive sponsor, project steering committees, project director and project manager. (e) The difficulty of maintaining continuity among senior project leadership is highlighted by the experience of a recent technology project for the Department of Employment Development, which began under Governor Davis, continued under Governor Schwarzenegger, and is now being implemented under Governor Brown. In addition, testimony before the Assembly Committee on Insurance oversight hearing made clear the project has lost key personnel during the project course to retirement and career transfer. (f) The state would benefit from the development of a senior cadre of information technology consultative expertise in the Department of Technology who can serve as technology advisors to executive sponsors and other senior level persons charged with project implementation throughout state government. SEC. 2. The heading of Chapter 5.6 (commencing with Section 11545) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code is amended to read: CHAPTER 5.6. DEPARTMENT OF TECHNOLOGY SEC. 3. Section 11547.5 is added to the Government Code, to read: 11547.5. (a) The Director of Technology shall review the California Project Management Methodology Reference Manual and draft a report, based on the manual, recommending how a team of senior consulting information technology experts could be developed to serve as support for state agencies and senior project team members in state government to support their exercise of leadership, monitoring, control, and direction over information technology projects to minimize risks of those projects being completed improperly and over budget. In drafting the recommendations, the Director of Technology shall also consider how a team of senior consulting advisors can assist senior executives charged with oversight of major information technology projects in terms of the challenges arising from all of the following: (1) Governance. (2) Development and management of contracts. (3) Testing. (4) Organizational change management. (5) Data conversion and migration. (6) Schedule development and management. (7) Evaluation and possible pitfalls of seeking value for taxpayers by re-engineering state systems and procedures. (8) Risk and issue identification and management. (9) Interface identification and management. (10) Quality assurance and quality control. (11) Requirements definition and management. (12) Architecture. (13) Roll-out planning and approach. (b) On or before July 1, 2016, the Director of Technology shall transmit the report completed pursuant to subdivision (a) to all legislative committees with jurisdiction over state information technology, including, but not limited to, the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review, in compliance with Section 9795.  SEC. 4.   Section 11548.5 of the Government Code is amended to read: 11548.5. This chapter shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2020, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2020, deletes or extends that date.