One Size Does Not Fit All: A System Development Perspective

Abstract

Investments in technology have the potential to improve lives and organizations and can be force multipliers for an organization, however federal IT projects too often experience cost overruns, schedule slippages, and performance shortfalls. Specific to the Coast Guard, there are currently four Information Technology Level 1 acquisitions programs that have life-cycle costs estimates equal to or greater than $1-billion. Many of these projects are over budget, and as a result, many of the desired capabilities do not make it to the end user. Since the passage of the first Acquisition Act and every acquisition mandate since, the federal government has struggled to deliver capabilities that have met the requirements of the end-user, while staying within budget, on schedule and within cost. To alleviate this, adding more mandates and oversight has become the go to play. However, these mandates just might be having the antithesis effect on desired outcomes. This thesis describes alternative system development methodologies that could assist Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense in maximizing the delivery of capabilities to the end-user, while staying on schedule and within budget.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA589786

Entities

People

  • Erik Lasalle

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Agile Software Development
  • Business Administration
  • Coast Guard
  • Computer Programming
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Engineering
  • Extreme Programming
  • Governments
  • Homeland Security
  • Information Systems
  • Life Cycles
  • Management Personnel
  • Maritime Security
  • Project Management
  • Software Development

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies
  • Public Financial Management and Budgeting