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 information technology (IT) projects too often experience cost overruns, schedule slippages, and performance shortfalls. The Coast Guard currently has four IT Level 1 acquisition programs that are outlined in the "Major Systems Acquisition Manual" as having life-cycle cost estimates equal to or greater than $1 billion. Many of these projects are over budget, and as a result, many of the desired capabilities will not make it to the end user. Since the passage of the first acquisition act and in every acquisition mandate since, the Federal Government has struggled to deliver capabilities that meet the requirements of the end user while staying within budget and on schedule. To alleviate these problems, adding more mandates and oversight has become the "go-to play." However, these mandates may be having the opposite effect on desired outcomes. The primary objective of this report was to investigate factors that may have contributed to Coast Guard IT projects that were delivered late, were out of scope, or were over budget through an analysis of the WatchKeeper Project and the Mission and Asset Scheduling Interface (MASI) Project. The variables that led to the success or failure of these projects were explored, and an analysis was conducted to find out whether agile methodologies would have been suitable for IT projects of this kind. The author contends that agile methodologies would have been suitable for these projects, and that agile software development should be explored as an option for all IT systems within the Federal Government.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 09, 2013
- Accession Number
- ADA591732
Entities
People
- Erik Lasalle
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School