GAO tells Pentagon to share software best practices

The Defense Department needs to expand its software and systems improvement programs and spread success stories across the department, according to a new General Accounting Office report. Military operations and business functions such as logistics, personnel and financial management all depend on software-intensive systems at Defense, and the quality of these software programs is critical to the agency's ability to perform its mission, said GAO's report, "DoD Information Technology: Software and Systems Process Improvement Programs Vary in Use of Best Practices" (GAO-01-116). According to GAO, Defense's important technology programs continue to "cost more than projected, take longer to produce and deliver less than promised." As a result, the department was included in GAO's 2001 Performance and Accountability and High-Risk Update, which lists the federal programs most prone to waste, fraud and abuse due to mismanagement. In the report, GAO compared the information technology practices of the two largest units within each of the department's services with Carnegie Mellon University's IDEAL model, a five-phase continuous process improvement system developed by the university's Software Engineering Institute. The IDEAL model is based on lessons learned from the Institute's experiences and projects relating to software process capability and maturity. Under IDEAL, agencies initiate a program, then identify weaknesses, prioritize program activities, start addressing their software needs and finally, use the lessons learned from the process to enhance the program. According to GAO, the Air Force, Army and Defense Finance and Accounting Service, as well as some Navy units, fared well when compared with IDEAL, with all of them reporting improved product quality and productivity. But the Defense Department does not promote software and systems process improvements, and did not share best practices information across the department, the report said. "The Secretary of Defense has an important leadership role to play in expanding software and systems process improvements across the department," the report said. According to GAO, the Defense Secretary should build on existing programs and leverage them to accomplish high-priority initiatives. Defense has formed a working group to develop a strategy for implementing software and systems process improvements. The plan should be available by April 30, officials said in response to GAO's report. Defense officials also revised department regulations to include a section on software management that provides guidance for improving software. A Defense Department steering group has been assigned to work on sharing best practices and promoting process improvements throughout the department.