Completing DoD Program on Schedule and on Budget

The House Armed Service Committee, Panel on Acquisition Reform, released its findings on March 23rd, 2010. This report outlines some disturbing statistics on IT programs:

• Only 16% of IT programs are completed on time and on budget.
• 31% are canceled before completion.
• The remaining 53% are late and over budget, with the typical cost growth exceeding the original budget more than 89%.
• Of the IT programs that are completed, the final product contains only 61% of the originally specified features.

These findings bolster the case for changing the IT management processes.  It is widely recognized that the current lifecycle rules encompasses requirements, architecture, tech assessment, procurement and certification processes, each performed one program at a time. That is unworkable because the development of separate infrastructures for over 3,000 programs increases costs, reduces interoperability and fractures the integrity of security.

57% of DoD costs are now in its infrastructure as noted below as reported in
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/e-gov/
 
Most of these costs should to be extracted from individual programs and offered as a shared infrastructure and not as program specific software.  This would deliver large savings and improved security.