Information Technology
Architecture Needed to Guide Modernization of DOD's Financial Operations Gao ID: GAO-01-525 May 17, 2001The Department of Defense (DOD) does not have a financial management enterprise architecture, and it does not have the management structures in place to effectively develop, implement, and maintain one. DOD has not applied recognized best practices--particularly support and sponsorship by the head of the enterprise and assignment of accountability and commensurate authority--to develop, implement, and maintain a DOD-wide financial management enterprise architecture. Nevertheless, DOD's various components are either spending or planning to spend billions of dollars to acquire new or modify existing financial management systems. In the absence of a complete, enforceable enterprise architecture, such investments are unwise. DOD runs the risk that its components will spend billions of dollars to modify and modernize financial management systems independently from one another, forcing DOD to maintain a system that suffers from duplication, limited interoperability, and unnecessarily costly operations and maintenance. As part of its plan to invest in financial management systems modernization, DOD has tried to use lessons learned from its Year 2000 program. DOD can build upon these actions to ensure that it uses recognized best practices for enterprise architecture management. This approach will allow DOD to position itself to cost effectively manage the billions of dollars it plans to spend on financial management operations. This approach will also increase the odds that DOD will modernize its financial management operations and supporting systems in a way that will optimize financial management performance and accountability.
RecommendationsOur 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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