Weather Forecasting

Recommendations to Address New Weather Processing System Development Risks Gao ID: AIMD-96-74 May 13, 1996

GAO testified in February 1996 on the National Weather Service's (NWS) Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System, the cornerstone of NWS' $4.5 billion modernization program. (See GAO/T-AIMD-96-47.) This report discusses the recommendations GAO made during its testimony before Congress. These recommendations, if fully implemented, will strengthen NWS' ability to achieve a fair return on its investment in the system.

GAO found that: (1) NWS needs to validate proposed AWIPS capabilities on a mission-impact basis and only implement validated capabilities; (2) NWS needs to tie its decisions on information technology investments to explicit and quantifiable mission improvements or it will lower its return on investment; (3) NWS should not overlap its incremental steps in software development so that problems in a previous module do not adversely affect a later module; and (4) the present $525-million estimate of AWIPS costs is out-of-date, omits certain costs, and is understated.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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