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DOD Business Systems Modernization: Military Departments Need to Strengthen Management of Enterprise Architecture Programs

GAO-08-519 Published: May 12, 2008. Publicly Released: May 12, 2008.
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Highlights

In 1995, GAO designated Department of Defense (DOD) business systems modernization as a high-risk program, and the program remains on the high-risk list today. A key to successful systems modernization is having and using an enterprise architecture as an authoritative frame of reference, or blueprint, for system investment decisions. To assist DOD in modernizing its business systems, Congress passed legislation consistent with prior GAO recommendations for DOD to develop and implement a business enterprise architecture (BEA). In response, DOD developed a corporate BEA that it intends to federate, or extend, to the military departments and defense agencies. To support GAO's legislative mandate to review DOD's BEA, GAO evaluated the status of the Air Force, Navy, and Army architecture programs. To accomplish this, GAO used its Enterprise Architecture Management Maturity Framework and associated evaluation method.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense Because we have outstanding recommendations to the Secretary of Defense aimed at, among other things, having the Departments of the Air Force, Navy, and Army fully satisfy each of the core elements in our architecture framework, we are not making additional recommendations relative to our framework at this time. However, given the uneven status and progress of the respective military departments, we reiterate our outstanding recommendations and further recommend that the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretaries of the Navy and Army to ensure that their respective departments reach out to the Department of the Air Force to learn from and apply the lessons and experiences that have allowed the Air Force to make the progress it has in maturing its architecture program.
Closed – Implemented
On May 2, 2008, Air Force representatives met with officials from the Army and Navy to discuss lessons learned in maturing the Air Force architecture program, and on May 15, 2008, Air Force representatives met again with Navy officials to further discuss lessons learned. According to the Air Force, lessons learned that were shared included having a dedicated staff to implement the department's enterprise architecture vision, institutionalizing the enterprise architecture through departmental policy, formally defining and implementing enterprise segment architectures, and securing senior leadership support for developing and using the enterprise architecture.

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Topics

Defense capabilitiesDefense cost controlDefense operationsEnterprise architectureEvaluation criteriaFederal agency reorganizationInformation technologyInternal controlsMilitary forcesProgram evaluationProgram managementStrategic planningSystems analysisSystems conversionsSystems evaluationSystems integrationSystems managementBusiness planningBusiness transformation