Defense Computers: Improvements to DOD Systems Inventory Needed for Year
2000 Effort (Letter Report, 08/13/97, GAO/AIMD-97-112).
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of
Defense's (DOD) efforts to improve the Defense Integration Support Tools
database (DIST), which serves as the DOD inventory of automated
information systems and is intended to be used as a tool to help DOD
components in addressing year 2000 date problems.
GAO noted that: (1) a critical step in solving the year 2000 problem is
to conduct an enterprisewide inventory of information systems for each
business area to establish the necessary foundation for year 2000
program planning; (2) a thorough inventory also ensures that all systems
are identified and linked to a specific business area or process, and
that all enterprisewide cross-boundary systems are considered; (3) in
addition, the inventory can play a critical role in the later stages of
year 2000 correction; (4) for DOD, this inventory is particularly
important given the tens of thousands of systems and the many interfaces
between systems owned by the services and DOD agencies and considering
that these systems vary widely in their importance in carrying out DOD
missions; (5) in such a complex system environment, the inventory helps
facilitate information technology resource and trade-off decisions; (6)
the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Command, Control,
Communications and Intelligence (ASD/C3I) and Defense Information
Systems Agency (DISA) have recognized that, at present, DIST, the
Department's enterprisewide inventory, is not a reliable and accurate
tool for managing DOD's year 2000 effort; (7) as a result, the Office of
the ASD/C3I and DISA have initiated efforts to: (a) improve the
integrity of DIST inventory information; (b) facilitate access to
information within the database; and (c) ensure that services and
components input information needed to complete the inventory; (8)
however, given the pace at which these efforts have been proceeding, GAO
does not believe that DIST will be usable and reliable in time to have a
beneficial impact on year 2000 correction efforts; (9) without a
complete inventory, the Department as a whole cannot adequately assess
departmentwide progress toward correcting the year 2000 problem and
address crosscutting issues--such as whether system interfaces are being
properly handled and whether there is a need for additional testing
facilities; and (10) thus, the Office of the ASD/C3I and DISA need to
expedite efforts to complete the DIST inventory before substantial
renovation efforts begin in the services and components, and ensure that
the information in DIST is accurate, complete, reliable, and usable.
--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM: AIMD-97-112
TITLE: Defense Computers: Improvements to DOD Systems Inventory
Needed for Year 2000 Effort
DATE: 08/13/97
SUBJECT: Data bases
Management information systems
Data integrity
Strategic information systems planning
Information resources management
Computer software verification and validation
Systems conversions
Computer software
IDENTIFIER: DOD Year 2000 Program
Defense Integration Support Tools Database
DOD Year 2000 Management Plan
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Cover
================================================================ COVER
Report to the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command,
Control, Communications and Intelligence
August 1997
DEFENSE COMPUTERS - IMPROVEMENTS
TO DOD SYSTEMS INVENTORY NEEDED
FOR YEAR 2000 EFFORT
GAO/AIMD-97-112
Defense Year 2000 Inventory
(511621)
Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV
ASD/C3I - Assistant Secretary for Command, Control, Communications
and Intelligence
DISA - Defense Information Systems Agency
DIST - Defense Integration Support Tools
DOD - Department of Defense
Letter
=============================================================== LETTER
B-277176
August 13, 1997
Mr. Anthony Valletta
Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command,
Control, Communications and Intelligence
Dear Mr. Valletta:
On July 9, 1997, we briefed you, other members of your staff, and
officials from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) on the
results of our review to date of the Department of Defense's (DOD)
efforts to improve the Defense Integration Support Tools database
(DIST). DIST serves as the DOD inventory of automated information
systems and is intended to be used as a tool to help DOD components
in correcting Year 2000 date problems. If the Year 2000 date problem
is not addressed in time, DOD computer systems could malfunction or
produce incorrect information. The impact of these failures could be
widespread, costly, and debilitating to important military missions.
The issues we discussed in our briefing were part of the work we
performed concurrent with our overall review of DOD's Year 2000
computer systems efforts for the Chairman, Senate Committee on
Governmental Affairs; the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member,
Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology,
House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight; and the Honorable
Thomas M. Davis, III, House of Representatives. During our review,
we focused on determining the status of the Office of the Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and
Intelligence (ASD/C3I) and DISA's efforts to address data integrity
and other problems associated with DIST and whether these efforts
will be completed in time to beneficially affect departmentwide and
component Year 2000 efforts. This letter summarizes the concerns we
raised during the briefing, provides recommendations that--if
implemented--should alleviate those concerns, and documents the
actions your representatives and DISA officials agreed to for
improving DIST.
RESULTS IN BRIEF
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :1
A critical step in solving the Year 2000 problem is to conduct an
enterprisewide inventory of information systems for each business
area to establish the necessary foundation for Year 2000 program
planning. A thorough inventory also ensures that all systems are
identified and linked to a specific business area or process, and
that all enterprisewide cross-boundary systems\1 are considered. In
addition, the inventory can play a critical role in the later stages
of Year 2000 correction. For example, it can help an organization
identify connections, also called interfaces, between systems and the
need for additional testing facilities, and can help ensure that the
most mission-critical systems are receiving enough attention.
For Defense, this inventory is particularly important given the tens
of thousands of systems and the many interfaces between systems owned
by the services and Defense agencies and considering that these
systems vary widely in their importance in carrying out Defense
missions. In such a complex system environment, the inventory helps
facilitate information technology resource and trade-off decisions.
The Office of the ASD/C3I and DISA have recognized that, at present,
DIST, the Department's enterprisewide inventory, is not a reliable
and accurate tool for managing DOD's Year 2000 effort. As a result,
the Office of the ASD/C3I and DISA have initiated efforts to (1)
improve the integrity of DIST inventory information, (2) facilitate
access to information within the database, and (3) ensure that
services and components input information needed to complete the
inventory. However, given the pace at which these efforts have been
proceeding, we do not believe that DIST will be usable and reliable
in time to have a beneficial impact on Year 2000 correction efforts.
Some military services and Defense components will not be hurt by the
failure to improve DIST information and capabilities in the immediate
future because they can turn to their own databases and tracking
mechanisms to facilitate Year 2000 correction efforts. However, the
Navy intends to use DIST as its Year 2000 tracking tool and its
efforts will be hampered if the tool continues to contain inaccurate
and incomplete information.
Moreover, without a complete inventory, the Department as a whole
cannot adequately assess departmentwide progress toward correcting
the Year 2000 problem and address crosscutting issues--such as
whether system interfaces are being properly handled and whether
there is a need for additional testing facilities. Thus, your office
and DISA need to expedite efforts to complete the DIST inventory
before substantial renovation efforts begin in the services and
components, and ensure that the information in DIST is accurate,
complete, reliable, and usable.
--------------------
\1 Enterprisewide cross-boundary systems are systems that are used
across the agency or "enterprise" and also cut across the various
business areas within the agency or enterprise.
SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :2
DISA was included in our review because of its unique role in DOD's
information processing and the Year 2000 process. DISA is
responsible to the ASD/C3I for maintaining DIST as the Department's
enterprise inventory database and its primary tool for performing
oversight of the Year 2000 correction efforts. In assessing DIST's
effectiveness in facilitating Year 2000 efforts, we interviewed DIST
managers and a representative from the contractor. Since the
services have different approaches to entering data in DIST, we spoke
to officials at various organizational levels regarding ease of use
and how they are entering information.
In addition, we analyzed the contents and capabilities of DIST to
gauge its accuracy, performance, reliability, and usefulness as a
Year 2000 enterprise inventory database. In conducting this
analysis, we relied on our previous work on DIST which was conducted
as part of a review on Defense's migration strategy--a DOD effort
focused on improving and modernizing automated information systems.
We also reviewed Air Force and Army comparisons of DIST inventories
against their own inventories. In addition, we assessed whether DIST
conformed to system inventory-related guidance included in our Year
2000 Assessment Guide,\2 and DOD's Year 2000 Guidance Package and
Year 2000 Management Plan.\3
We specifically focused on the Assessment Phase of the Year 2000
process described below, during which agencies are to develop an
enterprise inventory. We conducted our work from November 1996
through July 1997 in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards.
The Department of Defense provided written comments on a draft of
this report. These comments are discussed in the "Agency Comments
and Our Evaluation" section and are reprinted in appendix I.
--------------------
\2 Year 2000 Computing Crisis: An Assessment Guide (Exposure Draft)
(GAO/AIMD-10.1.14, February 1997).
\3 Department of Defense Year 2000 Management Plan (Version 1.0,
April 1997).
BACKGROUND
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :3
Under DOD's Year 2000 Management Plan, DISA is responsible for
enhancing and maintaining DIST as a Year 2000 enterprise inventory
tool. In February 1997, we published the Year 2000 Computing Crisis:
An Assessment Guide, which addresses common issues affecting most
federal agencies and presents a structured approach and a checklist
to aid them in planning, managing, and evaluating their Year 2000
programs. The guidance is consistent with DOD's Year 2000 Management
Plan. The guide describes five phases--supported by program and
project management activities--with each phase representing a major
Year 2000 program activity or segment. The phases and a description
of what each entails follow.
-- Awareness: Define the Year 2000 problem and gain
executive-level support and sponsorship. Establish a Year 2000
program team and develop an overall strategy. Ensure that
everyone in the organization is fully aware of the issue.
-- Assessment: Assess the Year 2000 impact on the enterprise.
Identify core business areas and processes, inventory and
analyze systems supporting the core business areas, and rank
their conversion or replacement. Develop contingency plans to
handle data exchange issues, lack of data, and bad data.
Identify and secure the necessary resources.
-- Renovation: Convert, replace, or eliminate selected platforms,
applications, databases, and utilities. Modify interfaces.
-- Validation: Test, verify, and validate converted or replaced
platforms, applications, databases, and utilities. Test the
performance, functionality, and integration of converted or
replaced platforms, applications, databases, utilities, and
interfaces in an operational environment.
-- Implementation: Implement converted or replaced platforms,
applications, databases, utilities, and interfaces. Implement
data exchange contingency plans, if necessary.
In addition to following the five phases described, a Year 2000
program should also be planned and managed as a single, large
information system development effort. Agencies should promulgate
and enforce good management practices at the program and project
levels.
SYSTEM INVENTORIES ARE INTEGRAL
TO CORRECTING THE YEAR 2000
PROBLEM AND MANAGING
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
RESOURCES
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :4
As discussed in our Year 2000 Assessment Guide, agencies need to
ensure that they have complete and accurate enterprisewide
inventories of their information systems during the assessment phase
of the Year 2000 correction effort. This inventory helps the agency
analyze the systems supporting its core business processes and rank
its conversion or replacement based on key factors, such as business
impact and the anticipated date the systems would experience Year
2000-related date problems.
The inventory also plays a very critical role in the later stages of
the Year 2000 process, which include renovation, validation, and
implementation. For example, the inventory can be used in monitoring
the status of each system included in DOD's Year 2000 efforts,
assessing whether the most mission-critical systems are receiving
appropriate attention, determining needs for testing facilities, and
identifying areas that may require additional resources. The
inventory can also assist in identifying and coordinating interfaces
between and among systems. Even if all systems within one
organization were made Year 2000 compliant, an external interfacing
system on which the system is dependent for data or information
processing can still introduce and propagate Year 2000-related
errors.
Having an accurate and reliable enterprisewide systems inventory is
also fundamental to having a good information technology investment
process. In today's environment of rapidly changing information
technology and the demands for government organizations to operate
effectively and more efficiently, agencies need to ensure that their
information technology projects are being implemented at acceptable
costs, within reasonable and expected time frames, and are
contributing to tangible, observable improvements in mission
process.\4 In order to make the kinds of trade-off decisions that
would produce these benefits, good visibility into their information
system environment is indispensable. The enterprisewide inventory of
information systems provides this visibility. In addition, Defense
will need a reliable and complete system inventory in order to
successfully implement the recently passed Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996,
which aims to ensure that agencies strengthen their information
technology investment processes. Among other things, this act
requires that agencies (1) provide their senior managers with timely
and accurate information on system costs and (2) have the capability
to meet performance requirements, timeliness, as well as other
conditions.
As discussed in our Year 2000 Assessment Guide, system inventories
serve as a useful Year 2000 decision-making tool, by offering added
assurance that all systems are identified and linked to a specific
business area or process, and that all enterprisewide cross boundary
systems are considered. Thus, good inventories include information
for each system on (1) links to core business areas or process, (2)
systems platforms,\5 languages,\6 and database management systems,
(3) operating system software and utilities, (4) telecommunications,
(5) internal and external interfaces, (6) systems owners, and (7) the
availability and adequacy of source code and associated
documentation.
--------------------
\4 Assessing Risks and Returns: A Guide for Evaluating Federal
Agencies' IT Investment Decisionmaking (GAO/AIMD-10.1.13, February
1997, Version I).
\5 Any configuration of hardware and software used in computer
processing.
\6 In the computer environment, a set of alphabetic, numeric, and
symbolic character elements used with a rule structure to communicate
between people and machines.
IMPORTANCE OF DIST FOR DOD'S
YEAR 2000 EFFORTS
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :4.1
Defense has designated the Defense Integration Support Tools database
to be the departmentwide automated information systems inventory for
use in making information technology decisions and managing the Year
2000 effort. DIST was originally designed to track Defense migration
systems for the Corporate Information Management initiative\7 but has
evolved into a multipurpose tool. DIST presently contains over 9,000
systems and has a total capacity of 40,000. Each system is provided
with its own identification number and should be accompanied by a
host of informative data elements, including information on hardware
platforms, operating systems, applications languages, communications,
and interfaces.\8
Early in its Year 2000 effort, DOD recognized the value of having a
reliable enterprisewide system inventory and the potential beneficial
role its DIST database could have in the initiative. For example, in
November 1996, the Under Secretary for Defense (Comptroller) and the
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications
and Intelligence issued a joint memorandum to senior Defense managers
stating that they considered DIST to be "the backbone tool for
managing the Department's Information Technology investment
strategies, identifying functional information systems interfaces and
data exchange requirements, and managing the efforts to fix the Year
2000 problem."
In its Year 2000 Management Plan, Defense reaffirmed that DIST will
be the official repository for the DOD components and added that the
reason components are required to report every quarter on their
systems and are encouraged to report significant progress on their
systems is "to give DOD the visibility necessary to ensure a thorough
and successful transition to Year 2000 compliance for all DOD
systems." It also stated that this reporting "will also keep other
functional [areas], that your systems interface with or exchange data
with, informed as to the status of your Year 2000 compliance
progress." Finally, Defense noted that the DIST needed to be
up-to-date so that it could keep the Congress informed on the
Department's efforts to achieve Year 2000 compliance.
--------------------
\7 A departmentwide effort to improve operations and reduce costs by
streamlining business processes, consolidating information systems,
and standardizing and integrating data.
\8 These data elements are listed in DOD's Year 2000 Management Plan.
DOD RECOGNIZES DIST DATA
INTEGRITY PROBLEMS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :5
Defense has recognized that DIST is currently not a reliable and
accurate management tool that can have a beneficial impact on the
Year 2000 effort or on other initiatives to improve and manage
information systems. As a result, the ASD/C3I and DISA have
undertaken initiatives to improve the reliability of DIST data and to
increase their user friendliness. These efforts will address a wide
range of problems associated with data integrity and the ability of
users to have direct and quick access to the database.
During our review, DOD officials and users told us that updating DIST
was traditionally a low priority for the services and components
largely because DIST is an antiquated and labor-intensive system. A
number of officials also told us that they have grown frustrated with
DIST because it contains erroneous data and that they are now
reluctant to use DIST because they do not have confidence in the
accuracy or reliability of the data it contains. Our analysis of
DIST as well as comments by officials in DOD components have revealed
significant data integrity problems associated with DIST's ability to
transfer information to other information systems. The following
examples below illustrate the magnitude and range of problems
pervading the database.
-- DIST managers, service-level Year 2000 teams, and component Year
2000 teams acknowledge that the database contains duplicate,
outdated, and erroneous information. The Air Force's Year 2000
team compared its own Year 2000 database to DIST and found over
1,100 systems that were shown on DIST but not on its database.
The Army's Year 2000 team found a discrepancy of over 200
systems when it compared its system inventory to the DIST. The
Army team also stated that it does not trust the data in DIST
and that it would continue to update and rely on its own Year
2000 database instead of DIST. Air Force, Army, and DIST Year
2000 focal point representatives agree that until DIST is purged
of duplicate, outdated, and erroneous information, the
service-level databases contain the most accurate inventories
for those agencies.
-- Many systems in DIST do not have complete status and descriptive
information. Each entry in DIST is supposed to include over 140
data elements, such as name, size, system manager, software,
hardware, and interfaces. But for many systems, managers
responsible for the systems have merely entered "placeholder"
information, that is, the bare minimum of information required
to get the system into the database. In some cases, this may
mean that only the system name appears in the database. At
present, DIST contains an undetermined amount of these
incomplete entries. However, a February 1997 Defense analysis
of migration systems listed in DIST illustrated that there are
high levels of incomplete data. The analysis, which was
conducted on the 223 migration systems included in DIST, found
that
55 percent of the migration systems did not identify interfaces with
other systems,
77 percent did not disclose the computer installations where the
system operated,
68 percent did not indicate the computer hardware on which the system
operated,
61 percent did not disclose the system software, and
26 percent did not identify the organization responsible for the
system.
-- When we analyzed DIST as part of our review of Defense's
migration effort, we also found that the database contained a
high number of inaccurate system implementation and termination
dates. For example, for three functional areas--clinical
health, civilian personnel, and transportation--DIST showed that
92 legacy systems were terminated by April 1996, while
functional managers told us that only 43 had actually been
terminated. And, DIST showed that 53 legacy systems were
scheduled for future termination, but functional managers told
us 91 were slated for termination.
-- Our migration review also found that DOD had not ensured that
the data definitions used in DIST were fully compatible with
data maintained in other Defense information systems that track
and report on systems. Without standard definitions and
formats, data cannot be easily transferred to DIST from other
systems that may be used by the DOD Principal Staff Assistants,
program managers, and other decisionmakers.
-- Although DOD has progressed in populating the DIST database,
component officials told us that they have been confused about
what is to be entered. Since Year 2000 efforts began, for
example, components were unsure what qualifies as a system. The
Office of the ASD/C3I has just recently addressed the issue in a
memo and its DOD Year 2000 Management Plan. The plan now states
that mission-critical systems, migration systems, legacy
systems, systems with an annual operating budget over $2
million, and any system that interfaces with the previous
criteria must be reported to DIST. All other systems must be
accounted for in a "one-line entry" to the ASD/C3I office. This
new criteria will prompt DOD systems managers to revisit their
Year 2000 project plans and apply this new criteria for
reporting.
-- Component and service officials indicated that inputing
information into DIST is time consuming and difficult, and the
rules for entering and updating data are unclear. For example,
database tables that would provide information on hardware
manufacturers, series, and models are not up-to-date. Yet, as
late as May 1997, no new entries on these hardware data elements
were allowed to be made to the database. Also, while DOD
components are required to enter Year 2000-related information
on weapons systems into DIST, the database itself was not
designed to apply to weapon systems or embedded systems.\9
Without guidance on what data elements are applicable to what
type of system, it is difficult to decide what information to
enter on weapon systems and embedded systems.
-- Component and service officials indicated that DIST cannot be
easily queried and does not provide timely feedback. For
example, components and services cannot directly query DIST for
information. Instead, they have to request that a query be made
by DIST managers. The lack of user friendliness and querying
capabilities has compounded the level of distrust in DIST by
service and component-level managers responsible for addressing
the Year 2000 problem and further diminished the incentive to
keep the database updated.
-- DIST also does not contain key scheduling and tracking
information, such as when critical systems within the services'
and components' Year 2000 programs will be in the various phases
and whether a system is behind schedule. Managers of
interfacing systems need to know this information to coordinate
key Year 2000 activities such as the start of system renovation,
testing, and implementation of the modified system and to
determine, as well as whether software bridges will be
necessary.
Because the data in DIST are incomplete, inaccurate, and difficult to
use, a number of Defense components and military services have
developed and are relying on their own system inventories to manage
and oversee their Year 2000 efforts. During our review, however,
officials from the Navy informed us that they will be using DIST for
their Year 2000 efforts because they do not have a servicewide
inventory of their own.
--------------------
\9 An embedded system is integral to a larger system whose primary
purpose is not computational; for example, a computer system in an
aircraft or a rapid transit system.
DOD EFFORTS TO ADDRESS DIST
PROBLEMS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :6
DIST managers are planning to implement new releases in September and
October 1997 to make DIST a more user friendly tool and enable the
services and components to directly query the database. They are
also planning to increase the accuracy of the tool by developing a
purging methodology to validate the data in DIST.
The new DIST releases, which DISA has made partially available and
plans to make fully available by October 1997, are designed to make
it easier to input changes into DIST through the use of such features
as on-line help pages, navigational buttons, and expanded tables on
hardware and software types. The new versions are also designed to
make it easier to send and receive database information. While the
services and components will be able to directly query the database
for some types of information, they will not be able to enter or
obtain data related to the Year 2000 problem, such as
progress-related information that we believe is necessary for
effective system management and departmentwide oversight of Year 2000
program status.
The purging methodology is the first step of a systematic program of
improving the quality and accuracy of DIST data. Its purpose is to
identify duplicate, inactive, and incomplete data. DIST managers
cautioned that the purge has to be done carefully. While some older
systems may be obsolete, they may be attached to smaller, feeder
systems which are not obsolete. These smaller systems may not be
readily identifiable on the database. Other systems that may appear
obsolete on the database may actually be older legacy systems with no
recent updates.
At the end of January of 1997, DIST officials told us that it would
take 90 days just to determine the methodology for the purge.
However, as of July 1997, the methodology to purge the DIST database
and ensure the validity of information it contains had not been
completed. DISA officials told us that their inability to obtain
funds to make the needed improvements was the reason for delays in
completing DIST modifications. Although the ASD/C3I recently
provided $2.5 million in funding for the upgrades, this delay has
resulted in the database not being valid and usable for managing
corrective actions while most of DOD is in the assessment phase, a
phase which the Department as a whole planned to complete during June
1997. DOD's unwillingness to fund needed improvements to DIST until
recently is inconsistent with both its previously stated importance
of DIST to DOD's Year 2000 program, and the ability of DIST to be the
primary tool of DOD's future information technology efforts.
Efforts to improve DIST may be further slowed by the failure of the
military services and their components to input information on all of
their systems into the database. The DOD Comptroller and the ASD/C3I
recognized that earlier calls for the services and components to
enter information into DIST did not succeed in completing the
inventory. Consequently, they have set deadlines for entering this
information and warned the services and components that if their
systems were not entered into the database, they would risk losing
funding for them. However, this deadline has been changed several
times--from January 15, 1997, to March 5, 1997, to April 18, 1997. A
DISA spokesperson recently reported that a new deadline would be
established because they have not completed the DIST upgrade.
Accordingly, as the June 1997 deadline for completion of the Year
2000 assessment phase for the Department passed, the database still
remained incomplete. We believe that if DIST improvement efforts are
not expedited, the inventory will be of little use to the services
and components during the remaining critical stages of the Year 2000
correction efforts as well.
The potential consequences of not having this inventory for the
assessment phase and the remaining phases of the Year 2000 effort are
significant. First, without having a complete and reliable DIST
during the assessment phase, DOD organizations that plan to use DIST
would not have it as a management tool for ranking systems based on
their importance to their mission and, in turn, ranking systems for
correction. Many DOD components can utilize their own inventories,
assuming they are accurate and reliable, to do this, but the Navy
will not be able to since it does not have a servicewide inventory
and it was planning to use DIST for this purpose. Second, the
Department as a whole will be constrained in its ability to ensure
that all systems owned by the military services and components are
being made Year 2000 compliant. While the Department can use
individual service and component inventories for this purpose, there
is a chance that some systems which fall between the boundaries of
ownership of the components may not be reflected in any inventory.
Third, without an enterprisewide inventory, Defense cannot adequately
ensure that all interfaces are properly identified and corrected.
Fourth, for DIST to be an effective enterprise inventory, it is
necessary to add data fields that provide DOD, the components, and
the individual organizations with a much needed mechanism to track
the progress of both the overall program and, if necessary,
individual programs. Such a mechanism is needed to quickly identify
schedule delays, enact timely corrective measures, and if necessary,
trigger contingency plans. Finally, in not having a single,
enterprisewide inventory, the Department will not be able to readily
identify areas that may need additional resources, such as testing
facilities.
CONCLUSIONS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :7
The concerns we raised above demonstrate that if immediate attention
is not given to ensuring that DIST is reliable, complete, and
accurate, the Department's Year 2000 efforts will be at risk of
failing. In addition, without a good enterprisewide system
inventory, Defense will not be in a position to make the trade-off
decisions necessary to ensure that information technology projects
are being implemented at acceptable costs, within reasonable and
expected time frames, and are contributing to tangible, observable
improvements in mission process. Given the fact that Defense has a
major effort ongoing to improve its information systems, and that the
Year 2000 problem will likely call on the Department to divert
resources from other information technology-related initiatives,
decisive action is needed to provide the resources and schedule
priorities needed to accomplish DIST improvements, and to ensure that
the currency and accuracy of DIST information is maintained in the
future.
RECOMMENDATIONS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :8
In order to ensure that DIST can be effectively used for Year 2000
efforts, we recommend that you direct your staff assigned to oversee
implementation of the DOD Year 2000 Management Plan and the Director
of the Defense Information Systems Agency to
-- ensure that all duplicate, inactive, and incomplete entries be
identified and investigated,
-- expedite development and implementation of the purging
methodology,
-- expand Year 2000 information included in DIST for individual
systems to include key program activity schedules that managers
of interfacing systems need to ensure that their system
interfaces are maintained during the renovation phase. This
expansion should also include information that will enable the
Office of the ASD/C3I, component, and organizational-level Year
2000 program officials to quickly identify schedule delays,
promptly correct them, and if necessary, trigger contingency
plans.
After the new criteria for reporting information systems are applied
by system managers, we recommend that your staff, and the Director of
DISA, in conjunction with the services and components, act to ensure
that the DIST database is kept up-to-date and accurate, identify
instances of noncompliance so that responsible command organizations
can take corrective actions, and move forward with any other
initiatives needed to make DIST an effective management tool.
AGENCY COMMENTS AND OUR
EVALUATION
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :9
The Department of Defense provided written comments on a draft of
this report. These comments are summarized below and reprinted in
appendix I. The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control,
Communications and Intelligence concurred with our recommendations.
In concurring with our recommendations Defense stated that it planned
to perform statistical sampling of DIST data to validate accuracy,
and that it would rely on the DOD Inspector General to validate DIST
data accuracy during its Year 2000 audits. It stated that the
services and components were responsible for entering their automated
information systems into DIST or be at risk of losing funding for
their systems. Also, DISA has instituted a data quality program for
DIST which includes purging of duplicative and obsolete data and will
assist users in completing systems entries as necessary.
These actions will help to enable DIST to become an effective tool
for both DOD management oversight and for the components day-to-day
management of the department's Year 2000 system correction efforts
and beyond. However, in order to ensure complete validation of DIST,
we believe that the Office of the ASD/C3I and DISA need to supplement
these actions with efforts that involve fully comparing service
inventories (and command inventories in the case of the Navy) to DIST
and reconciling differences identified. Further, these offices must
play a more active role in ensuring that data fields necessary to
track Year 2000 progress are included in DIST upgrades and that this
information is also reconciled with the services and components
specific Year 2000 project status databases.
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :9.1
We appreciate the courtesy and cooperation extended to our audit team
by your representatives and DISA officials and staff. Within 60 days
of the date of this letter, we would appreciate receiving a written
statement on actions taken to address these recommendations. We are
providing copies of this letter to the Chairman and Ranking Minority
Member of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs; the Chairmen
and Ranking Minority Members of the Subcommittee on Oversight of
Government Management, Restructuring and the District of Columbia,
Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, and the Subcommittee on
Government Management, Information and Technology, House Committee on
Government Reform and Oversight; the Honorable Thomas M. Davis, III,
House of Representatives; the Secretary of Defense; the Deputy
Secretary of Defense; the Acting Under Secretary of Defense
(Comptroller); the
Director of the Defense Information Systems Agency; and the Director
of the Office of Management and Budget. If you have any questions on
matters discussed in this letter, please call me at (202) 512-6240 or
Carl M. Urie, Assistant Director, at (202) 512-6231.
Sincerely yours,
Jack L. Brock, Jr.
Director, Defense Information and
Financial Management Systems
(See figure in printed edition.)Appendix I
COMMENTS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF
DEFENSE
============================================================== Letter
(See figure in printed edition.)
(See figure in printed edition.)
(See figure in printed edition.)
MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS REPORT
========================================================== Appendix II
ACCOUNTING AND INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT DIVISION,
WASHINGTON, D.C.
-------------------------------------------------------- Appendix II:1
Carl M. Urie, Assistant Director
Cristina T. Chaplain, Communications Analyst
ATLANTA REGIONAL OFFICE
-------------------------------------------------------- Appendix II:2
Christopher T. Brannon, Evaluator-in-Charge
Teresa Tucker, Information Systems Analyst
CHICAGO/DAYTON FIELD OFFICE
-------------------------------------------------------- Appendix II:3
Thomas Hewlett, Staff Evaluator
Robert P. Kissel Jr., Senior Evaluator
KANSAS CITY REGIONAL OFFICE
-------------------------------------------------------- Appendix II:4
George L. Jones, Senior Information Systems Analyst
David R. Solenberger, Senior Evaluator
*** End of document. ***