Capability-based budgeting
A major challenge for building and maintaining technology in government is how funding flows and how precisely it’s restricted. Congress may call for a new capability or outcome, but the funding that agencies track and execute against is tied to individual systems, offices, or programs.
Capability-based budgeting solves that problem. In this series, we articulate what capability-based budgeting is, how the VA used this approach to improve service delivery, how capability-based budgeting can help agencies respond to change, and what is needed to get started.
You can also find resource guides on how Congress can help agencies transition toward capability-based budgeting, sample questions for appropriators, and a side-by-side comparison of the VA budget before and after capability-based budgeting
Article series
- Why federal IT fails — And how budgeting by capability can fix it: Modernizing software delivery requires aligning budgets to capabilities, not projects. This commentary explains why the status quo fails and how capability-based budgeting could deliver better results.
- From fragmented projects to focused products — A VA case study in capability-based budgeting: How the Department of Veterans Affairs transformed a patchwork of dozens of discrete IT projects into a unified, capability-based funding model to improve service delivery.
- Capability-based budgeting meets the real world: Navigating today’s pressures, reforms, and risks: How significant challenges to aligning funding to enduring capabilities—rather than discrete projects—can be addressed through thoughtful implementation, even in the face of tightening budgets and reduced staff
- Capability-based budgeting: A practical roadmap for getting started: How agencies can implement capability-based budgeting now
Resource guides
- Aligning Resources with Results: This resource guide explains for a Congressional audience what capability based-budgeting is, the problem it addresses, and how Congress can help agencies transition toward capability-based budgeting
- Sample Questions for Appropriators: This document provides model questions that appropriations committees can use to elicit clearer, more decision-useful budget information from agencies, even without changing appropriations accounts, statutory authorities, or scoring conventions
- Capability Based Budgeting Before and After: This practical illustration compares the FY 2023 and FY 2026 VA Office of IT (OIT) Congressional Budget Justification to demonstrate a side-by-side comparison of how program language changed to provide a greater understanding of investment impact when the VA moved to a capability based budgeting model.
