2 Budget and Performance

The ISE’s Annual Planning Cycle is shown below in Figure 2, focuses on implementing the 16 priority objectives of the National Strategy. Driving the cycle are the implementation plans for the National Strategy’s priority objectives and the annual NSS and OMB Programmatic Guidance,^[1] which guides federal agencies’ prioritization of ISE investments in their budget formulation process. The challenging fiscal environment necessitates the need for thoughtful choices that balance the need to meet current agency mission requirements with interoperable, standards-based solutions.

Figure 2: The ISE Annual Planning Cycle

2.1 Annual Budget Planning Cycle

To more specifically implement White House priorities, PM-ISE publishes annual capability-focused ISE Implementation Guidance,^[2] which is developed by PM-ISE in collaboration with federal ISE agencies via the ISA IPC and provides ISE agencies objective, system-wide performance goals for the following year as required by IRTPA §1016(h).^[3] The ISE Implementation Guidance directly reflects the planning year actions associated with each the 16 priority objectives in the National Strategy. To measure agency performance against these goals, and in compliance with the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act (GPRA) of 2010[4] and OMB guidelines, the office of the PM-ISE conducts ISE performance assessments each year in the form of questionnaires sent to ISE agencies. Agency responses inform the ISE’s Performance Framework and help PM-ISE measure progress toward realizing the National Strategy; the maturity of ISE initiatives; identifying gaps, challenges and opportunities to be addressed in the following year’s planning; and comprise the basis for the annual ISE Report to the Congress.^[5]

Responses to the annual performance assessment also help agencies examine their own programs that support the ISE, which can be helpful when:

• Communicating with OMB examiners;
• Ensuring that efforts to implement the National Strategy’s priority objectives are aligned with performance measures and department or agency strategic goals; and,
• Making program and budget decisions in subsequent years.

The ISE Annual Planning Cycle demonstrates how the National Strategy, priorities, and implementation plans are linked in order to track, monitor, and provide and account for progress as transparently as possible.

2.2 The ISE Performance Framework

The ISE Performance Framework, through the application of the ISE Annual Planning Cycle’s tools, allows PM-ISE and ISE agencies to apply maturity-defined performance measures to monitor the performance of responsible information sharing initiatives. The framework aids PM‑ISE and ISE agencies as they:

• Identify initiatives or capabilities that will help achieve strategic ISE goals
• Align initiatives with strategic objectives
• Identify gaps in these initiatives
• Fill the gaps and implement ISE best practices
• Develop measures to track information sharing progress and its impacts
• Implement a roadmap with milestones to track progress and impact

At the core of the ISE Performance Framework are the five goals of the National Strategy. PM-ISE aligns all responsible information sharing initiatives in the ISE with those goals and then identifies the technologies, processes, and community capabilities required to mature those initiatives to point where they achieve the goals as shown below in Figure 3.

Figure 3: The ISE Performance Framework

PM-ISE and mission partners continue to evolve performance measurement, including implementing outcome-based measures to help assess the national security results achieved through key initiatives. PM-ISE and ISE agencies have developed a series of performance scenarios to help agencies think about how information sharing and safeguarding efforts impact mission outcomes, and to help turn generic maturity definitions into measures that are specific to an ISE initiative. The scenarios take strategic information sharing requirements (e.g., get the right information to the right people at the right time) and apply them to real mission situations (e.g., a maritime security analyst identifies a specific threat in an eastern port). The scenarios illustrate that as responsible information sharing capabilities mature, ISE partners can see an improvement in their ability to accomplish their mission. The Performance Scenario Guide helps partner agencies develop performance case scenarios and plan and execute information sharing initiatives that are grounded in performance metrics.

This Management Plan provides common business processes and tools to enable stakeholder collaboration while executing the National Strategy, and as such will be integrated into future performance assessments and scenarios. See Appendix A for examples of how an agency can assess their maturity in using the tools described in this Management Plan.

Benefits of Participation in the Performance Process

The following example illustrates the benefits of participating in the process to develop annual guidance for the ISE; implementing that guidance within a defined governance structure; and measuring the performance of implementation to achieve information sharing capabilities.

If you would like more information on how to participate in the ISE budget and performance processes, please contact your agency ISA IPC representative, ISE performance point of contact, or PM-ISE Planning, Resources and Performance team at ISE.gov/contact.

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