United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Accounting and Information Management Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1997-08-13 monographic deposited born digital 24 p. GA 1.13:AIMD-97-112 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-112 P0b002ee180390794 f:ai97112 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-112 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-112 AIMD-97-112 Data bases Management information systems Data integrity Strategic information systems planning Information resources management Computer software verification and validation Systems conversions Computer software DOD Year 2000 Program Defense Integration Support Tools Database DOD Year 2000 Management Plan Letter Report AIMD 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.<p/>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. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-112/html/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-112.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-112/pdf/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-112.pdf GAO/AIMD-97-112 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-97-112 Letter Report GAO/AIMD-97-112; Defense Computers: Improvements to DOD Systems Inventory Needed for Year 2000 Effort; Data bases Management information systems Data integrity Strategic information systems planning Information resources management Computer software verification and validation Systems conversions Computer software DOD Year 2000 Program Defense Integration Support Tools Database DOD Year 2000 Management Plan