Not much is publically known about Office of Management and Budget TechStat meetings--far less than we think should be known--so we searched for trends in the TechStat meeting data we managed to get ahold of through a Freedom of Information Act request.

This is what we came up with, based on data that spans January 2010 through Aug. 4, 2010.

Federal agency participation in TechStat meetings appears minimal. Of the 31 TechStat meetings that apparently occurred during that time period, FierceGovernmentIT received an anticipated participant list for 30 of those. Only six meetings included personnel from the agency, or agencies, the subject of a TechStat review, whether the agency personnel were "required" to attend or listed as "optional" to attend.

Only 20 percent, in other words, of TechStat meetings for which enough data exists to draw a conclusion could have the presence of an agency representative at them. Many meetings appear to be attended by only OMB staff.

It is possible that the invitee lists we got through our FOIA request are incomplete; we attempted to schedule an interview with Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, but repeated attempts to hear back from the OMB press office ultimately met with no response.

Based on the released data, the federal entity the subject of the most TechStat meetings is the Homeland Security Department. OMB looked at DHS and DHS component programs on March 10 (SBInet), March 31 (Automated Commercial Environment / International Trade Data System), March 31 (Homeland Security Information Network) and on August 4 (National Flood Insurance Program).

HSPD-12--the Homeland Security Presidential Directive that requires federal agencies to issue personnel a standardized personal identity verification cards--appears to be the single most popular topic of TechStat meetings, with four of the 31 known meetings dedicated to that issue. HSPD-12 accounts for almost 13 percent of known TechStat meetings.

While Kundra, whose title is also the OMB administrator for e-government and information technology, has attended 18 of the 30 meetings for which we have a list of anticipated participants, two other OMB staffers are more likely to be at a TechStat meeting than him, according to the data we received.

Namely, Michael Howell OMB deputy administrator for e-government and information technology, who was "required" to attend 29 of the 30, and Adrienne Walker, OMB Capital Planning and Investment Control policy lead, who was "required" to attend 19 of the 30.

For anyone keeping count, that's Howell: 97 percent; Walker, 63 percent; Kundra, 60 percent.

The data also shows TechStat meetings apparently losing steam starting in May. This graph, which shows the number of TechStat meetings per month from January through July (we have incomplete August data) shows why:

UPDATE Nov. 3 - OMB sent the following statement:   

"Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra and agency staff have been represented at all of the TechStat sessions and their participation has been vital to delivering better value and results for the American people."

 For more:
- go to our webpage with links to our FOIAed information about TechStat

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