The Department of Defense faces “significant management
challenges” implementing the so-called defense integrated
military HR system, part of an ongoing effort to address
IT problems with military personnel and pay, according
to a new Government Accountability Office report calling
for further management improvements.
The DIMHRS program, “a major system acquisition program,”
is expected to transform military personnel and pay
processing and currently undergoing its first phase.
GAO praised Defense for taking steps to ensure
requirements and design are consistent.
It did that by “tracing backward and forward between
the detailed requirements and the system design,” as
well as gaining “formal user acceptance of high-level
system requirements,” according to GAO-05-189.
However, it said Defense has not managed to ensure
detailed requirements are complete and clear.
GAO said the requirements for the interface between
the new and existing legacy systems have not been fully
defined because DoD has not determined how many systems
are going to be partially replaced and need modification.
Further, while the new system is supposed to be
integrated, “its development is not being governed by
integrated tools and approaches, such as an integrated
program management structure, enterprise architecture,
or master schedule,” said GAO.
It said DoD, appropriately, is trying to use a lot of
off-the-shelf products, but even there it has not
followed best practices.
GAO said DoD’s problems defining requirements and with
program governance partly stem from Defense’s “overly
schedule-driven approach,” as well as a “cultural
resistance to department-wide solutions,” and warned
the system could take longer and cost a lot more than
expected, or perform poorly.
