United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office National Security and International Affairs Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1997-05-05 monographic deposited born digital 35 p. GA 1.13:NSIAD-97-108 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-108 P0b002ee1803780e0 f:ns97108 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-108 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-108 NSIAD-97-108 Defense procurement Financial management systems Contract administration Defense contracts Contract monitoring Cost overruns Management information systems Reporting requirements Cost analysis DOD Integrated Program Management Initiative Letter Report NSIAD GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's (DOD) Earned Value Management process, focusing on the: (1) problems facing the cost/schedule control system (CS2) process; (2) progress DOD has made with reforms; and (3) challenges DOD faces in fostering and managing potentially significant changes.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) the core concept of the CS2 process, earned value, is recognized as a sound way to measure progress on a major acquisition programs; (2) over the years, however, the process has evolved to where the needs of some of its key users are being satisfied, while others are not; (3) because the data contained in the CS2 reports are typically up to 2 months old, the reports do not function as an early warning system needed by program managers; (4) moreover, the process has not fully integrated cost, schedule, and technical data as intended; (5) DOD has acknowledged the problems with CS2 for a decade, but reforms have proceeded slowly mainly because responsibility for the process has resided with the oversight organizations that have been its architects; (6) DOD attempted to effect change in 1989 by transferring top-level responsibility for the system from the comptroller staff to the acquisition staff; (7) despite this transfer, little progress was made because execution of CS2 at the field level remained within the comptroller community; (8) nonetheless, DOD has embarked on several reforms that could dramatically change the CS2 process; (9) recently, DOD accepted industry's earned value management criteria as a replacement for the government's long-standing CS2 criteria; (10) DOD has also transferred responsibility and control over the process from the services to the Defense Contract Management Command (DCMC), which currently provides the on-site interface between the government program office and the contractor; (11) another reform underway involves giving DOD program managers latitude to tailor their contract data to the specific needs of their program, such as the categories and the level of detail; (12) these recent steps to reform the CS2 process have potent implications; (13) for example, adopting the industry criteria could result in less burdensome and more useful contractor management information systems, but could also lessen the government's ability to oversee defense programs; (14) in light of both the day-to-day demands of managing the process on individual contracts and implementing recent reforms, DCMC faces a significant challenge as it takes over stewardship of the process; (15) service officials are concerned about how quickly it can meet these demands, given its decline in staffing over the last several years; and (16) ultimately, DCMC will have to ensure that the p* https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-108/html/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-108.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-108/pdf/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-108.pdf GAO/NSIAD-97-108 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-108 Letter Report GAO/NSIAD-97-108; Major Acquisitions: Significant Changes Underway in DOD's Earned Value Management Process; Defense procurement Financial management systems Contract administration Defense contracts Contract monitoring Cost overruns Management information systems Reporting requirements Cost analysis DOD Integrated Program Management Initiative