TMF Board investing methodically in new projects: Clare Martorana

The Technology Modernization Fund has $766.1 million left because the board is methodically investing in projects with the “greatest chance of success,” federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana said Monday.

Initial project proposals take 100 hours to review and move to the second, final phase: a full project proposal, where agencies must demonstrate their commitment to the board‘s performance- and milestone-based transformation process.

To date the TMF has received $1.2 billion to fund federal IT and cybersecurity modernization projects, between the annual budget process and American Rescue Plan Act, and the board has committed $408.9 million of that money.

“We have limited funding, so we have to invest in agencies that are committed to the framework of us building in an iterative manner,” Martorana told The Daily Scoop Podcast. “In showing us that they have the change management capabilities, that they’re willing to dig into the business process.”

The TMF Board also looks at agencies’ agile acquisition methods, whereas in an ideal situation the fund would have $10 billion and the board more leeway to invest, Martorana said. Agencies have submitted more than 130 proposals seeking more than $2.5 billion.

Both the board and the Federal CIO Council have been releasing modernization playbooks on a “pretty consistent basis” to help agencies complete TMF projects faster, Martorana said.

“The playbooks are really going to be some of the catalysts for transformation,” she said.

Most recently the TMF Board awarded $9 million for two projects modernizing systems and protecting personal data at smaller agencies, the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission and the Selective Service System.

In both cases the agencies presented minimum viable products that could serve as models for others as they move to Cloud First software and data architectures for security, Martorana said.

The TMF Board continues to look at other proposals in the first tranche of rolling submissions.

“We are still going full steam ahead on the entire portfolio of projects that came in under the American Rescue Plan,” Martorana said.