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Return to Article: The Success of Failure

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  Follow the money. Which companies have the most retired military/government "good old boys" in VP positions and which of these companies are getting the big contracts? As long as projects come from the top down and not from the bottom up; failure is almost a certainty. Follow the money.

  Dan Lindsay Posted May 14, 2007 9:40 AM
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  Can anyone say NMCI.....did anyone go to jail? Did anyone get fired? No, we just all drank the Koolaid.

  Pam Dixon Posted May 9, 2007 9:33 AM
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  The problem is simple. The mangers do not know the objectives or requirements of the systemns they are esponsible to design and implement! DoD is in a multi-year process of developing processes and systems for all the services that are so far off the correct mark and being defined and implemented by those that have no idea what they are supposed to do. However, they believe they know, which is even a greater sourece of problems. DoD is wasting over $10 billion across several years developing its idea of the business emterprise systems for everyone but they are so far off that the result will be a waste and the higher ups will cover it up because they had control and responsibility for the process. They develop processes and systems by rank and not by knowledge so what they get is really bad. The financial systems are a disaster because none of the financial community involved can address the issues of the "new" accounting systems imposed by GAO and OMB that are meaningless for managfement purposes. However, the top dogs think the information should be good for management decisions and therefore have designed accounting processes that are far in excess of what is necessary and required by policy the services to do thins that are not necessary for reporting purposes. They have mixed management accounting and financial reporting with management accounting heavily favored. This is very costly and calls for an entire rewrite of the accounting systems for financial reporting that will never be compliant withy accounting requirements.

  taxpayer Posted April 6, 2007 7:37 AM
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  This is the true description of Life Cycle Management. The big shots in charge don't believe that current systems are working well. Snake Oil Salesmen bring them fancy presentations, with pretty screens and many colorful pictures. The snake oil salesmen convince the big shots that they can give them a brand new system that can do everything they ever dreamed of, and a contract is agreed upon. Years later, the snake oil salesmen are rich with taxpayer dollars, the new system is scrapped when everyone figures out what the worker bees have been saying all along, the old systems are still running, and the big shots go searching for a new snake oil salesman, thus repeating the cycle.

  GovExec.com reader Posted April 5, 2007 1:02 PM
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  Too little detailed documentation of current processes. Too many stuffed shirts sitting at big tables watching PowerPoint briefings.

  GovExec.com reader Posted April 4, 2007 1:55 PM
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  Considering the slight of hand in the name changes, I'm just curious if there could be an element of disinformation in this process. While I have no doubt as to the Shane's belief in his article and the information he gleaned, it's just that there is little to be gained for the US intelligence network to proclaim from the mountain tops "We've done it! We can see and hear you whenever we want!"

  The new names given in the article are just the latest in the cornucopia of intelligence programs. Just glancing through your back issues, I wonder if there is any significant difference between these programs, the Pentagon and John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness (TIA) project, its spawn the Research Development and Experimental Collaboration (RDEC, pronounced ARdeck), or the later progeny Tangram?

  Strategically speaking, it seems to me there could be a case made for wanting a continuing funnel of funds being laundered through a functional spy system that is constantly and publicly lamented as broken. It appears to be a win-win situation to me. The spooks have a force to be reckoned with, the administration has a feeling of omnipotence, the public has the reassurance that Big Brother working hard to get the job done but won't be looking over their shoulder anytime soon.

  Kind of sounds like my relationship with my son when he was around sixteen; and that was fraught with dread and uncertainty also.

  Tip off

  GovExec.com reader Posted April 4, 2007 11:46 AM
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  Here is an oxymoron of enormous proportions.

  It is a well-written story and obviously well-researched.

  But when will the waste stop?

  Bilal Yasin El-Amin Posted April 4, 2007 7:16 AM