Software Development: DOD Faces Risks and Challenges in Implementing Modern Approaches and Addressing Cybersecurity Practices
Abstract
For fiscal year 2021, DOD requested approximately $37.7 billion for IT investments. These investments included major business IT programs, which are intended to help the department carry out key business functions, such as financial management and health care. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 included a provision for GAO to assess selected IT programs annually through March 2023. GAO's objectives for this review were to (1) summarize DOD's reported performance of its portfolio of IT acquisition programs and the reasons for this performance; (2) evaluate DOD's assessments of program risks; (3) summarize DOD's approaches to software development and cybersecurity and identify associated challenges; and (4) evaluate how selected organizational and policy changes could affect IT acquisitions. To address these objectives, GAO selected 29 major business IT programs that DOD reported to the federal IT Dashboard (a public website that includes information on the performance of major IT investments) as of September 2020. GAO reviewed planned expenditures for these programs, from fiscal years 2019 through 2022, as reported in the department's FY 2021 budget request. It also aggregated program office responses to a GAO questionnaire that requested information about cost and schedule changes that occurred since January 2019 and the early impacts of COVID-19.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1138131
Entities
People
- Adam Vodraska
- Anne Mcdonough
- Bea Alff
- Chanetta Reed
- Chris Businsky
- David Blanding
- Erin Carson
- Gerard V. Aflague
- Hai Tran
- Jennifer Leotta
- Kevin Walsh
- Logan Arkema
- Lorraine Ettaro
- Marilyn Wasleski
- Michael Holland
- Monica Perez-nelson
- Noah Levesque
- Priscilla Smith
- Scott Pettis
- Shelby Oakley
- Tommy Baril
- Tyler Mountjoy
- Whitney Starr
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office