Defense Information Management: Continuing Implementation Challenges Highlight the Need for Improvement
Abstract
Thank you for inviting me to participate in today's hearing on the Department of Defense's (DOD) effort to strengthen its information technology management processes. Defense invests about $11 billion annually in technology to support a wide range of activities, including military operations and maintenance, personnel management, health services, and routine business and financial management functions--and tens of billions more on technology supporting sophisticated weaponry. This reliance will only grow as the Department moves to modernize and respond to technological advances that are changing the traditional concepts of warfighting through improved intelligence and improved command and control. However, DOD faces a number of serious management challenges to ensure that technology-driven processes and business systems provide an adequate level of service and an appropriate rate of return on investments. Namely, it has lacked effective fundamental management and oversight controls for assessing the costs and risks of proposed information technology projects; ensuring that projects follow departmentwide technical and data standards; measuring performance; and discontinuing projects shown to be technically flawed or not cost effective. Moreover, Defense faces a major challenge in removing long-standing organizational and cultural barriers to effective investment processes. This environment has consistently resulted in expensive system failures as well as systems that have not lived up to expectations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 25, 1999
- Accession Number
- AD1169449
Entities
People
- Jack L. Jr Brock
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office