Federal CPIC Forum
The Forum for Federal Capital Planning, Investment Control & Exhibit 300 Experts
Please check back often as we add new information frequently.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Purpose:
What Kinds of Things is this CPIC Forum Going to Do? 1) Pull the CPIC community together for networking & collaboration 2) Leverage the community to communicate and partner with government - ideally OMB & GAO as well as the Federal CIO Council 3) Work together to establish training standards, guidelines, and a CPIC Professional Certification to help create some baselines and consistency among training and training vendors, so there can be formal and professional acknowledgement in this area, since it's here to stay. 4) Be a forum for finding and sharing CPIC educational and professional needs and opportunities (a subset of #1) 5) We will take on the form, direction and challenges that our members feel we need.
How is this Forum set-up? Presently we are an organization that is newly-forming and we are examining non-profit and not-for-profit charter and status. Our infrastructure and interim support are being provided/ outsourced to Federal Concierge and Blue Bird Marketing/ Federal Sales Solutions, though our charter is to be a stand-alone entity with the non or not-for-profit status in the near future.
Membership:
Can I Attend Events If I Am Not A Member? At this time, yes, for a fee that will be specified per event.
What are the time requirements - how often are meetings held? Are they mandatory? Membership is voluntary and you pay to be a member annually. Time commitments are voluntary. Meetings will be monthly or quarterly - the board of advisors is working on the events calendar now. Your membership fee grants you access to the newsletter, events and meetings for one year. Participation is entirely voluntary and at your convenience. There are no other mandatory costs at this time. The idea is for the CPIC Forum to give each and every person wanting it access to a CPIC community and network of peer-professionals and credentials.
Training:
Other than the membership fee and purchasing the guide book, what other costs are associated with membership? You only pay for your annual membership dues, which vary based on membership options. The guide book is optional. We support it but we are not the sellers of it. There are no other costs unless you choose to attend the annual conference or you opt to enroll in a training course offered by a Training Alliance Partner.
What other training will be required and when will they be announced? Costs? The training costs will vary based on provider. Right now as the organization we are establishing training alliances, curriculum, and a certification process with standards and requirements that will be refined over time. There are already courses you can take to earn credits towards the certification, though the entire Certification process is still being developed with Training*Alliance partners, will vary based on new OMB guidance, and as courses are identified that match up to areas of core competencies. We encourage Training Vendors offering CPIC-related training to contact us so we can include offerings as well as compare and contrast the value of the course offerings. We will make offerings available as we become aware of them and determine how they will fit in and be accredited.
What is the core curriculum for the CPIC Professional Certificate? We are looking into retroactive credit for courses already taken by those who forge training alliances with the CPIC Forum. Our goal isn't to sell you training, it's to create a baseline and standards for our CPIC community and ensure that the training is available to anyone who wants it - so we'll add courses that become available by our partner vendors as we learn about them and can offer them to our community. There is a core curriculum that will be required for certification, which will include a CPIC Introductory course, a subject matter expert course in CPIC, and electives on some number of competencies that each professional will choose, such as EA, Life Cycle Costing, etc. - so you would earn a certificate with a concentration in certain areas of CPIC, Portfolio Management and/ or Exhibit 300 core areas of compliance. Some training vendors are discussing training discounts for Forum members who plan to take multiple courses. That is all being developed now and we do not know exactly what the outcomes will be yet as it's not at a level of maturity to answer with specificity. Members will get outlines and information as it becomes available, typically we will release and distribute that information at our meetings and report on our progress. We do know that some of our courses will be electives for PM/ CO DAWIA certification: that has already been worked out with our Training Alliance Partner, Goverment*Horizons, Inc.
Government Participation:
Does the Forum have support or participation from OMB? Ultimately we hope that OMB will work closely with us to communicate and clarify their needs, requirements and expectations. The idea is to be synergistic. We have the same ultimate agenda: helping government be compliant and to achieve our mission goals as efficiently, effectively and appropriately as possible.
Is there support or participation from the Federal CIO council? We have members who also are part of the Federal CIO Council, obviously the goal is to be supportive and synergistic with the council. We will have projects from time to time where CPIC membership will collaborate and the products will be shared with the council.
Does "Federal" include DoD? Yes.
CPIC Guidebook:
The CPIC guidebook table of contents seems focused on X300 and some of the previous years scoring criteria. Are there Forum SMEs who also have involvement in the CPIC - Portfolio Management (PfM) arena? Is the Forum interested in PfM as a core competency? Yes. The publisher has a revised agenda as the guidebook was originally purposed to be an Exhibit 300 guidebook - and they changed it to be more of a CPIC and Portfolio Management Practitioner's book based on demand. There is SME involvement from members of the Forum with the book. The anticipated release date for the guidebook has been moved to the fall of 2007 due to changes in guidance and some re-write on chapters having to do with PfM and CPIC topics.
Member Working Group Opportunities Include:
