June 2013

VA Report Promotes Use of IT for Lifecycle FM

Report for Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Construction & Facilities Management, Combines Both Information Technology and Facility Management Perspectives Promoting the Effective Use of IT for Lifecycle FM

Earlier in fiscal year 2013, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Construction and Facilities Management (CFM) engaged the National Institute of Building Sciences to develop an enterprise-wide facilities management information technology strategic plan to support performance and sustainability over the lifecycle of VA facilities. The Institute team of subject matter experts (SMEs) has completed the initial fact-finding phase of the study. Strategic Recommendations (Phase 2) and an Action Plan (Phase 3) to implement those recommendations will follow.

The findings and observations that comprise this report are the result of a series of interviews between the SMEs and VA staff familiar with either or both VA information technology (IT) processes or facilities management (FM) lifecycle processes. The report presents findings and observations from both the FM lifecycle perspective as well as from the IT perspective of people, process, technology and data. The team determined that both perspectives provide a robust construct for discovery, analysis and documentation of issues regarding the effective use of information technology for lifecycle facility management.

The methodology included VA stakeholder interviews, as well as interviews with a large national health system and other owners, builders, consultants, owner’s representatives and technology integrators, academics and Federal peers, and included results of previous VA Facilities Management (VAFM) benchmarking efforts.

The interviews were focused on FM business processes and the systems and tools employed to support those processes. The Institute team was interested in why a system was used, how it benefited the process, the types of challenges users faced and the flow of data between this system and other processes/systems. Discussion topics included business processes, IT applications/systems, data or categories of data, users, individuals or groups that create and/or use the systems and data.