USPTO Performance and Accountability Report - U.S. Patent and ...

Management Goal: Achieve Organizational Excellence
Fulfillment of the USPTO’s mission requires strong
leadership and collaborative management.
While the three strategic goals focus on our core
mission, our overarching management priorities focus
on the shared responsibility that is a prerequisite for
achieving those goals and objectives, namely, the
priorities of sound resource management, solid
workforce planning, corporate support services, and
effective use of IT.
OBJECTIVE 1: Improve IT infrastructure
and tools
The USPTO continued to make improvements in our
IT enterprise architecture, internal processes, and
organizational alignment to improve our ability to be
more responsive and better manage and deliver
quality products at enhanced service levels.
In particular, these initiatives directly support the
USPTO 2010-2015 Strategic Plan to:
●● Improve overall efficiency;
●● Improve availability of and streamline access to
USPTO information, data, and services with
improvements to the USPTO website;
●● Serve an increasing, geographically dispersed
workforce with the deployment of the UL;
●● Implement faster, more secure information
exchange by adhering to the Federal
Information Security Management Act (FISMA);
●● Continue expansion and improvement of e-filing,
e-processing, and other e-government efforts;
and
●● Improve the USPTO’s IT infrastructure and tools.
Completed seven of nine infrastructure modernization
projects comprising our Office of the Chief
Information Officer (OCIO) Road Map and Transformation
Plan on time and on budget. These initiatives
covered everything from basic network infrastructure
to connectivity to systems virtualization to new
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
personal computers and laptops. The remaining two
projects are expected to be completed in FY 2013.
In keeping with the administration’s commitments for
“Transparency, Participation, and Collaboration”, the
USPTO expanded access to all patent and trademark
data through the www.data.gov and www.google.
com websites; has a “cloud first” policy; is working to
align the IT budget with modular development; is
reforming and strengthening the agency’s Investment
Review Boards; and has created “TechStat” and “PortfolioStat”
models for the USPTO. The OCIO continues
to work in improving the visibility of IT costs through
a standardized budget execution system with assistance
from the OCFO. This has allowed for the OCIO
to work with all of the USPTO business units to create
an improved long-term IT investment strategy, which
is discussed further in the USPTO Strategic Information
Technology Plan for 2010-2015. See www.uspto.gov/
about/offices/cio/ITP_Overview.pdf.
In fulfilling responsibilities under 44 U.S.C. § 3504(h),
the USPTO uses a Capital Planning and Investment
Control process to prioritize investments and determine
funding levels for subsequent fiscal years.
Projects are carefully managed throughout their life
cycle, and progress reviews are conducted at key
milestone dates to compare the project’s status to
planned benefit, cost, and schedule, along with technical
efficiency and effectiveness measures. All major
IT system investments are reported in OMB Circular
A-11 Exhibit 53, Exhibit 300A and 300B, and the USPTO’s
IT Investment Portfolio. See www.itdashboard.gov for
more information on USPTO’s IT investments.
The USPTO’s OCIO continued to work diligently with
the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the
DOC to improve the USPTO’s overall IT security program
and the quality of the certification and authorization.
See www.oig.doc.gov for more detailed information.
The chart (Figure 27) shows trend of total number of
Open Plan of Actions and Milestones (POA&M) for
the USPTO’s 39 operational systems at the end of
FY 2011 and every quarter of FY 2012. Any known
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