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DOD Business Systems Modernization: Progress Continues to Be Made in Establishing Corporate Management Controls, but Further Steps Are Needed

GAO-07-733 Published: May 14, 2007. Publicly Released: May 14, 2007.
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Highlights

In 1995, GAO first designated the Department of Defense's (DOD) business systems modernization program as "high risk," and GAO continues to do so today. To assist in addressing this high-risk area, the Fiscal Year 2005 National Defense Authorization Act contains provisions that are consistent with prior GAO recommendations. Further, the act requires the department to submit annual reports to its congressional committees on its compliance with these provisions and it directs GAO to review each report. In response, GAO assessed DOD's actions to address (1) requirements in the act and (2) GAO's recommendations that it reported as open in its prior annual report under the act. In doing so, GAO reviewed documentation and interviewed officials relative to the act and related guidance.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense To facilitate congressional oversight and promote departmental accountability, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Deputy Secretary of Defense, as the chair of the Defense Business Systems Management Committee, to include in DOD's annual report to Congress on compliance with the section 332 of Fiscal Year 2005 National Defense Authorization Act, the results of assessments by its business enterprise architecture independent verification and validation contractor of the completeness, consistency, understandability, and usability of its federated family business mission area architectures, including the associated transition plan(s).
Closed – Not Implemented
The Department of Defense (DOD) has yet to conduct an independent verification and validation (IV&V) assessment of the completeness, consistency, understandability, and usability of its federated business enterprise architecture (BEA). According to DOD, BEA-related IV&V activities have focused on the corporate business enterprise architecture and not on the entire federated family of architectures. According to Business Transformation Agency officials, the current requirement under the IV&V contract is to provide analysis of only the corporate business enterprise architecture. There are no plans for reviewing the military department's enterprise architectures and reporting on such an assessment in the department's annual report to Congress.

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Topics

AccountabilityEnterprise architectureInformation technologyIT investment managementPolicy evaluationReporting requirementsStrategic information systems planningStrategic planningSystems conversionsBusiness systems modernization