The Department of Defense’s revised systems acquisitions
policies and guidance largely incorporate best practices
such as requiring that they be justified according to cost,
benefit and risk, but they do not incorporate eight best
practices pertaining to the acquisition of commercial
component-based systems, the Government Accountability
Office has said.
It said that they do not require an impact assessment when
making decisions to modify commercial components, nor
do they address the need to prepare users for changes
in business processes and job roles and responsibilities
that commercial IT products entail.
Until DoD incorporates key systems acquisition best practices
in its revised policies and guidance, the risk that system
investments will not consistently deliver promised
capabilities and benefits on time and within budget is
greater, according to GAO-04-722.
It said DoD’s current policies lack enough controls to
ensure that components appropriately follow best practices
and that while officials intend to expand acquisition
guidance they were unable to provide a plan specifying how
that would be accomplished.
