GAO Report Finds DOD Management Approach for GIG Not Optimal

February 10, 2006

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) management approach for the Global Information Grid (GIG) is not optimized to enforce investment decisions across the department because no single entity is accountable for results, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Without a management approach optimized to enforce department-wide investment decisions, the DOD is at risk of not knowing whether the GIG is being developed within cost and schedule, whether risks are being adequately mitigated or whether the GIG will provide a return on DOD's investment, according to the report.

The DOD chief information officer has lead responsibility for the GIG development effort, but this office has less influence on investment and program decisions than the military services and defense agencies, which determine investment priorities and manage program development efforts. Consequently, the services and defense agencies have relative freedom to invest or not invest in the types of joint, net-centric systems that are consistent with GIG objectives.

The department's three major decision-making processes are not structured to support crosscutting, department-wide development efforts such as the GIG. In some respects, the department's processes for setting requirements, allocating resources and managing acquisitions encourage investing in systems on an individual service and defense agency basis.

While the department has developed a new process for determining requirements, the framework to assess capability needs is still evolving; the new process does not identify shortfalls and gaps in joint military capabilities on a department-wide basis and requirements-setting continues to be driven by service perspectives.

In addition, the resource allocation process is structured in terms of individual service programs and outdated mission areas instead of crosscutting capabilities such as net-centricity, and it is not flexible enough to quickly accommodate requirements resulting from lessons learned or from rapidly emerging technologies.

Also, the process for managing acquisitions is unsuited to developing a system of interdependent systems such as the GIG, and the DOD has struggled to achieve service buy-in on joint-service development programs to address interoperability problems. Finally, the lack of integration among these three processes makes it difficult to ensure that development efforts are affordable and technically feasible.

The GAO recommends the DOD adopt a management approach with clearly defined leadership, authority to enforce investment decisions across organizational lines and accountability for ensuring the objectives of the GIG are achieved.

Source: The Government Accountability Office (GAO).