To assist agencies in understanding and devising effective IT measurement implementation approaches, public and private org. well-known for their IT performance, leadership and mgmt. expertise were examined. Chapters: the demand for performance mgmt.; fundamental practices: the foundation of IT performance mgmt.; follow an IT "results chain"; follow a "balanced scorecard" approach; target measures, results, and accountability at decision-making tiers; build a comprehensive measurement, data collection, and analysis capability; strengthen IT processes to improve mission performance; key lessons learned for effective implementation.

If managed wisely, investments in information technology (IT) can enrich people's lives and improve organizational performance. For example, during the last decade the Internet has matured from being a technical novelty to a national resource where citizens can visit the Library of Congress or file their tax returns. Some organizations have realized substantial improvements in processing data and information by switching from centralized mainframe computing to decentralized personal computers linked by local area networks. The ability of software applications to locate and correlate relevant data in a data warehouse permits organizations to discover unknown fiscal or physical resource relationships and thus provide appropriate assistance where there had been none. The Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996' was enacted to address many of the problems related to federal IT management.

The Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 was enacted to address many of the problems related to Fed. information technology mgmt. In 1997 GAO developed guidance that provides a method for evaluating & assessing how well a Fed. agency is selecting & managing its information technology resources & identifies specific areas where improve. can be made. The Info. Technology Investment Mgmt. (ITIM) framework enhances this guidance by identifying critical processes for successful information technology invest. & organizing these processes into a framework of increasingly mature stages. Chapters: overview, components, & uses of ITIM; uses of ITIM; & critical process for the ITIM stages. Charts & tables.