Customs Service Modernization
Management Improvements Needed on High-Risk Automated Commercial Environment Project Gao ID: GAO-02-545 May 13, 2002The U.S. Customs Service has requested $206.9 million for its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE)--a new import processing system. Customs' second expenditure plan provides for (1) meeting the Office of Management and Budget's capital planning and investment control review requirements; (2) complying with Customs' enterprise architecture; and (3) complying with federal acquisition rules, requirements, guidelines, and systems acquisition management practices. ACE will fundamentally change Customs' and many other organizations' business processes by introducing new system capabilities. ACE will be available around the clock to support important commercial and enforcement systems. Customs did not meet key commitments made in its first ACE expenditure plan because of underestimating funding requirements. Actual requirements were 90 percent higher than estimated. This history casts uncertainty on Customs' ability to reliably estimate costs and meet future commitments. GAO found that Customs lacks management controls in four areas: enterprise architecture, human capital, software acquisition management, and cost estimation. Because Customs has compressed its ACE acquisition plans from five to four years, the degree of overlap of program increments has increased. This may increase the risk that ACE capabilities will not be delivered on time and within budget.
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.
Director: Team: Phone:GAO-02-545, Customs Service Modernization: Management Improvements Needed on High-Risk Automated Commercial Environment Project
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GAO: Report to Congressional Committees:
May 2002:
Customs Service Modernization:
Mangement Improvements Needed on High-Risk Automated Commercial
Environment Project:
GAO-02-545:
May 2002:
GAO Highlights:
United States General Accounting Office:
CUSTOMS SERVICE MODERNIZATION:
Management Improvements Needed on High-Risk Automated Commercial
Environment Project:
Why GAO Did This Study:
The U.S. Customs Service is in the early stages of a multiyear,
multibillion-dollar project: the Automated Commercial Environment
(ACE), a new import processing system that is to support effective and
efficient movement of goods into the United States. By congressional
mandate, Customs‘ spending plans for ACE must meet certain conditions,
including being reviewed by GAO. In this study, GAO addresses whether
Customs‘ latest plan satisfies congressional conditions and is
consistent with open GAO recommendations, and it identifies
opportunities for strengthening project management.
What GAO Found:
Customs‘ February 2002 ACE spending plan is the second in a series of
legislatively required plans. This plan covers certain project
management tasks as well as the definition, design, and development of
the first ACE increment. GAO found that the plan meets the legislative
conditions that Congress imposed on Customs and is consistent with
GAO‘s open recommendations. Nevertheless, investment in ACE is a high-
risk endeavor for several reasons:
* The system‘s size, performance parameters, and organizational impact
make it technically and managerially complex. For example, the
estimated cost for acquisition alone is about $1.5 billion, the system
is to operate around-the-clock, and it is to drive fundamental business
process reform not only within Customs, but also within numerous other
federal agencies and countless private sector importers.
* Customs fell far short of key commitments made in its first spending
plan because it severely underestimated costs. This track record casts
doubt on Customs‘ ability to meet future commitments.
* Despite progress, Customs still lacks important acquisition
management controls. For example, it needs to update its enterprise
architecture (its agencywide modernization blueprint) to support system
design and development, and it needs to advance its acquisition
office‘s human capital and software management processes.
* Customs has recently decided to compress its time frame for
delivering the system from 5 to 4 years. This exacerbates the level of
project risk by introducing more overlap among incremental system
releases.
Because of the system‘s national importance, Customs is taking a
schedule-driven approach to acquiring ACE. However, without the
management capacity to effectively acquire such a large and complex
system, particularly in light of Customs‘ performance to date and the
accelerated acquisition and deployment schedule, this approach could
backfire. Full system capabilities may take longer and cost more to
acquire, deploy, and make operational, because the system delivered
under the accelerated schedule could require considerable rework.
What GAO Recommends:
To increase the chances of delivering needed system capabilities on
time and within budget, GAO is making recommendations to the
commissioner aimed at improving Customs‘ management of ACE, including
strengthening system alignment with Customs‘ enterprise architecture,
cost estimating, human capital capacity, software process maturity, and
sequencing of incremental releases. Customs concurred with GAO‘s
recommendations and described specific actions that it is taking to
respond to each.
Figure: ACE Is High Risk for Several Reasons:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
This is a test for developing highlights for a GAO report. The full
report, including GAO‘s objectives, scope, methodology, and analysis is
available at www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-02-545. For additional
information about the report, contact Randolph C. Hite (202-512-3439).
To provide comments on this test highlights, contact Keith Fultz (202-
512-3200) or E-mail HighlightsTest@gao.gov.
Highlights of GAO-02-545, a report to the Subcommittee on Treasury and
General Government, Senate Committee on Appropriations, and the
Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government, House
Committee on Appropriations.
May 13, 2002:
The Honorable Byron L. Dorgan Chairman The Honorable Ben Nighthorse
Campbell Ranking Minority Member Subcommittee on Treasury and General
Government Committee on Appropriations United States Senate:
The Honorable Ernest J. Istook, Jr. Chairman The Honorable Steny H.
Hoyer Ranking Minority Member Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service,
and General Government Committee on Appropriations House of
Representatives:
Pursuant to the U.S. Customs Service‘s fiscal year 2002 appropriation,
[Footnote 1] Customs submitted to Congress in February 2002 its second
expenditure plan, requesting $206.9 million for its Automated
Commercial Environment (ACE) project. ACE is intended to be Customs‘
new import processing system and the first project under the Customs
Modernization Program. As required by the act, we reviewed the
expenditure plan. Our objectives were to (1) determine whether the
second plan satisfied the legislative conditions specified in the act,
(2) determine whether the plan is consistent with our open ACE
recommendations, and (3) provide observations about the second plan and
Customs‘ management of ACE.
On March 8 and 11, 2002, we briefed your offices on the results of this
review. This report officially transmits to you the results of our work
and the recommendations we made to the commissioner of Customs. The
full briefing, including our scope and methodology, is reprinted as
appendix I.
In brief, we determined that Customs‘ expenditure plan satisfies the
legislative conditions specified in the appropriations act. The plan
provides for (1) meeting the Office of Management and Budget‘s (OMB)
capital planning and investment control review requirements;
(2) complying with Customs‘ enterprise architecture; [Footnote 2] and
(3) complying with federal acquisition rules, requirements,
guidelines, and systems acquisition management practices. Further, it
was reviewed and approved by Customs‘ Investment Review Board,
[Footnote 3] the Department of the Treasury, and OMB.
Regarding the second objective, activities described in the plan are
consistent with our open recommendations for Customs to (1) justify and
make investment decisions incrementally; (2) strengthen ACE software
acquisition management; (3) immediately transfer responsibility and
accountability for the International Trade Data System [Footnote 4]
(ITDS) pilot to the ACE modernization program manager; (4) include any
plans for further investing in the ITDS pilot, including cost, benefit,
and risk justification, in the next ACE expenditure plan; and
(5) clarify the roles and responsibilities of the ACE modernization
independent verification and validation [Footnote 5] (IV&V) agent to
ensure that independence is not compromised.
Finally, we made the following observations:
* ACE is technically and managerially complex and challenging. Planned
ACE functional and performance parameters are demanding, and the system
is estimated to cost at least $1.5 billion just to put in place, not
including operation and maintenance. Also, ACE aims to fundamentally
change Customs‘ and many other organizations‘ business processes
through the introduction of new system capabilities. Further, the
system is to be available around-the-clock to provide critical
information and support important commercial and enforcement systems.
* Customs did not meet key commitments made in its first ACE
expenditure
plan because of a significant underestimation of funding requirements
(actual requirements were about 90 percent higher than estimated). This
history casts uncertainty on Customs‘ ability to reliably estimate
costs and meet future commitments.
* Despite progress, Customs does not yet have important ACE management
controls in place in the following four areas:
1. Enterprise architecture: Customs‘ enterprise architecture has not
yet
been updated and extended to support ACE engineering tasks;
consequently, Customs risks having an enterprise architecture that is
not sufficiently complete to support ACE design activities. As a
result, near-term system design and development decisions could later
necessitate system rework to align ACE with the agency‘s operating
vision, embodied in the updated enterprise architecture. If such rework
is necessary, promised system capabilities are unlikely to be delivered
on time and within budget.
2. Human capital: ACE is being managed by the Customs Modernization
Office
(CMO). However, this office does not have the people in place to
perform critical system acquisition functions. Moreover, the CMO does
not have an effective strategy for meeting its human capital needs.
This also increases the risk that promised system capabilities will not
be delivered on time and within budget.
3. Software acquisition management: Customs has yet to establish
software
acquisition process controls that are recognized as best management
practices. [Footnote 6] In particular, Customs has not begun to
establish process controls for determining whether acquired software
products and services satisfy contract requirements before acceptance,
nor to establish related controls for effective and efficient transfer
of acquired software products to the support organization responsible
for maintenance. These control weaknesses further reduce the level of
assurance that ACE capabilities will be delivered on time and within
budget.
4. Cost estimation: Customs has not validated its ACE expenditure plan
cost estimates, and its estimates of management reserve costs are not
justified. As a result, its plan does not provide Congress with
credible cost information needed for overseeing the project.
5. Customs has compressed its ACE acquisition plans from 5 to 4 years.
This compression increases the degree of overlap of program increments,
which in turn further increases the risk that ACE capabilities will not
be delivered on time and within budget.
Recommendations for Executive Action:
To improve Customs‘ ACE modernization management, we recommend that the
Customs Service commissioner direct the chief information officer, as
the designated modernization executive, to take the following actions:
* Before building each ACE release (i.e., beginning detailed design and
development), certify to Customs‘ House and Senate appropriations
subcommittees that the enterprise architecture has been sufficiently
extended to provide the requisite enterprise design content and has
been updated to ensure consistency and integration across business
areas.
* Immediately develop and implement a CMO human capital management
strategy that provides both near- and long-term solutions to the CMO‘s
human capital capacity limitations, including defining the office‘s
skill and capability needs in terms that will allow Customs to attract
qualified individuals and that will provide sufficient rewards and
training, linked to performance, to promote their retention.
* Develop and implement process controls for the SEI SA-CMM level 2 key
process areas and the level 3 acquisition risk management key process
area.
* By September 30, 2002, conduct and report to Customs‘ House and
Senate
appropriations subcommittees on the results of an internal assessment
of the CMO‘s maturity against the SEI SA-CMM level 2 key process areas
and the level 3 acquisition risk management key process area.
* Develop and implement a rigorous and analytically verifiable cost
estimating program that embodies the tenets of effective estimating as
defined in SEI‘s institutional and project-specific estimating models.
* Limit future expenditure plan requests for management reserve funds
to
10 percent of the total funds requested for the program or adequately
justify any management reserve requests in excess of 10 percent.
* Address the risks associated with the accelerated ACE acquisition
strategy, including (1) immediately analyzing the risks associated with
the degree of design, development, and testing concurrency across ACE
increments that is inherent in Customs‘ 4-year, schedule-driven
acquisition strategy; (2) reconsidering the merits of this accelerated
strategy; and (3) within 90 days of the date of this briefing,
reporting to Customs‘ House and Senate appropriations subcommittees on
the agency‘s strategy for going forward and its plans for mitigating
the inherent risks associated with this strategy.
Agency Comments:
In written comments on a draft of this report, the director, Office of
Planning, U.S. Customs Service, concurred with our recommendations and
described specific actions that are being taken to respond to each. The
director‘s comments are reprinted in appendix II.
We are sending copies of this report to the chairmen and ranking
minority members of other Senate and House committees and subcommittees
that have authorization and oversight responsibilities for the Customs
Service. We are also sending copies to the secretary of the treasury,
the commissioner of the Customs Service, and the director of OMB.
Should you or your staff have any questions on matters discussed in
this report, please contact me at (202) 512-3439. I can also be reached
by e-mail at HiteR@gao.gov . Key contributors to this report were Mark
Bird, Barbara Collier, Tamra Goldstein, Randolph Tekeley, Scott Pettis,
and Aaron Thorne.
Randolph C. Hite Director, Information Technology
Architecture and Systems Issues:
Signed by Randolph C. Hite:
[End of section]
Appendix I: Customs‘ Service Automated Commercial Environment (ACE)
Expenditure Plan:
[See PDF for image]
[End of Section]
Appendix II: Comments from the U.S. Customs Service:
U.S. Customs Service
Memorandum.
DATE: April 24, 2002.
FILE: AUD-I-OP MD.
MEMORANDUM FOR RANDOLPH C. HITE, U.S. GENERAL
ACCOUNTING OFFICE
FROM: Director Office of Planning.
SUBJECT: Draft Audit Report on the United States Customs Service‘s
Second Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Expenditure Plan.
Thank you for providing us with a copy of your draft report entitled
’Customs Service Modernization: Management Improvements Needed
on High-Risk Automated Commercial Environment Project“ and the
opportunity to discuss the issues in this report.
We agree with GAO‘s overall observations that the Customs
Modernization program is large, complex and important, and thus
represents considerable risk. We have taken, and will continue to take
prudent steps to address the risks associated with the Modernization
program. Key actions are highlighted below:
While we believe that the Customs Modernization Office (CMO) was
appropriately staffed and structured for the early phases of the
program,
our early experiences also led to recognition that a new structure and
additional resources were required to oversee application development
and deployment. A new, expanded organizational structure has been
approved doubling the size of the CMO. These positions are being filled
now.
We have taken a number of steps to improve our cost estimating
capability including use of an independent government cost estimator
TRADITION and implementation of software tools that allow for a
reliable cost estimation process. These efforts will be reflected in
future
Expenditure Plans.
Although the original cost estimate differed from the actual cost, this
is
not representative of Customs current cost estimating capabilities. The
cost estimates from the first ACE expenditure plan pre-dated the
contract award and did not include task order changes recommended by
eCP and approved by the CMO. Once the scope changes were approved,
Task Orders 1-3 have come in on time, on budget, and without
modification. Customs believes that now that the task statements are
being developed collaboratively with eCP, and with the cost estimation
improvements that CMO has implemented, the issue of large cost
variances will pass.
Customs and eCP recognize the risks associated with pursuing a 4-year
application rollout. We have identified the inherent risks of this 4-
year
approach, analyzed the potential impacts, and briefed the Modernization
Executive Steering Committee. The CMO and eCP are employing risk
management procedures that conform to Systems Engineering Institute
standards to mitigate risks associated with the entire Modernization
program, including the first ACE release. Prior to receiving
authorization to proceed in each of the subsequent 6 releases, we
commit
to re-assessing the risk environment and developing mitigation
strategies
to meet cost and quality targets. At any point, if risks cannot be
credibly
mitigated Customs and its Integration Contractor will recommend
schedule adjustments.
Customs has tasked eCP to update and extend the existing enterprise
architecture in concert with ACE requirements, planning and
engineering work to provide the requisite design content, and
consistency and integration across the full scope of the Customs
business areas. We will do this in an incremental and logical fashion
to
minimize risks of subsequent re-work. We believe we can accomplish
this objective by completing the basic enterprise architecture
frameworks prior to beginning detailed design for each increment. Thus,
the enterprise architecture frameworks and relevant derivative
artifacts
pertinent to the specific ACE increment content will be sufficiently
complete prior to beginning detailed design for each increment.
The CMO is proceeding with implementation of software acquisition
controls that comply with the Software Engineering Institute‘s Software
Acquisition Capability Maturity Model and is 75 percent complete. The
CMO continues to focus on the most critical plans, processes and
procedures first across all KPAs as we proceed through the
Modernization effort.
The attachment to this memorandum details the specific actions that are
being taken to respond to the recommendations.
If you have any questions regarding these comments, please contact Ms.
Michele Donahue at (202) 927-0957.
William F. Riley.
Signed by William F. Riley.
Attachment.
Attachment: U.S. CUSTOMS SERVICE.
GAO Review of Second Automated Commercial Environment
Expenditure Plan.
Recommendation 1: Before building each ACE release (i.e., beginning
detailed design and development), certify to Customs‘ House and Senate
appropriation subcommittees that the enterprise architecture has been
sufficiently extended to provide the requisite enterprise design
content
and has been updated to ensure consistency and integration across
business areas.
Response:
Customs recognizes and supports the imperative to establish and
incrementally enhance the enterprise architecture to effectively guide
and constrain large system development or acquisition projects such as
ACE. Customs has tasked eCP to update and extend the existing
enterprise architecture in concert with ACE requirements, planning and
engineering work in order to provide the requisite design content, and
consistency and integration across the full scope of the Customs
business areas. The tasking and schedules are specifically designed to
ensure the necessary enterprise architecture framework is in place to
adequately guide and constrain each release of the ACE system, while
also reflecting any resulting changes in the strategic business
direction
of the enterprise.
Customs agrees with the GAO recommendation to certify that
extensions to the enterprise architecture provide sufficient context to
effectively design the system prior to building each ACE release and
reflect any necessary strategic business updates required to ensure
consistency and integration across all business areas. eCP has
recommended tailoring of Customs System Development Life Cycle
(SDLC) to include a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) which will
include an enterprise and ACE system architecture assessment
component. This review occurs prior to beginning detailed design and
development, and therefore is the proper point in the lifecycle to
demonstrate the necessary architectural framework and content exists to
proceed. The results of this review will provide the objective evidence
necessary to provide certification of the enterprise architecture to
the
House and Senate appropriation subcommittees.
Customs expects to demonstrate compliance with this recommendation
prior to the start of Task Order 4 detailed design work in June 2002.
Target Date: June 30,2002 Responsible Executive: Charles Armstrong.
Recommendation 2: Immediately develop and implement a CMO human
capital management strategy that provides both near-term and long-term
solutions to the CMO‘s human capital capacity limitations, including
defining the office‘s skill and capability needs in terms that will
allow
Customs to attract qualified individuals and that will provide
sufficient
rewards and training, linked to Performance, that promote their
retention.
Response:
Customs believes it did apply appropriate program management
resources to the initial phases of the Modernization program. However,
Customs concurs with GAO that additional resources are required to
manage the expanding complexity of the project. To that end, the CMO
has defined a new organizational structure for managing the
developmental phases of the Modernization program that more than
doubles the government positions from 11 to 23. Knowledge and skills
required to perform each role have already been identified. Customs is
proceeding to staff the new organizational structure now, and by May 1,
2002, the CMO will have filled a number of positions with full-time,
Customs- experienced individuals leading the efforts in executive
support, program management, workforce transition, integration, ACE
requirements development, and ACE Increments 1 and 2
implementation. New CMO members will be quickly oriented to the
Modernization Program and provided necessary training as defined in
the Modernization Training Plan for Fiscal Year 2002. Customs will
continue an aggressive recruiting program both within and external to
Customs to fully staff the CMO. Further, the CMO will work with
appropriate other Customs Offices to develop a human resources
strategy by September 30, 2002 that will focus on defining core
competencies to support recruiting, retention and training efforts;
tying
performance and reward programs to Modernization goals; and
developing a succession plan to enable Customs to effectively adapt to
personnel changes.
Target Date: September 30,2002 Responsible Executive: Charles
Armstrong.
Recommendation 3: Develop and implement process controls for the
SEI SA-CMM level 2 key process areas and the level 3 acquisition risk
management key process area.
Response:
The CMO‘s comprehensive SA-CMM process development effort is 75
percent complete and spans all of SEl‘s SA-CMM Level 2 Key Process
Areas (KPAs)--including the Evaluation and Transition to Support
KPAs-and to the Level 3 KPA, Acquisition Risk Management (ARM).
As originally noted in the CMO‘s briefing to GAO on February 26,
2001, the CMO continues to focus on the most critical plans, processes
and procedures first across all KPAs as we proceed through the
modernization effort.
As the processes are completed, they are immediately released to the
organization for use in an institutionalization effort. Process
institutionalization will continue after the last plan, process and
procedure is approved and will end when all SA-CMM process artifacts
are in systematic use within the CMO.
The CMO anticipates that the process development activities will
culminate in an internal self-assessment that will be completed by
September 2002, and the CMO will use the September internal self-
assessment to baseline the process institutionalization activities as
well.
The capstone of the institutionalization effort will be a SA-CMM
external pre-assessment at the end of December 2002. The results of the
external pre-assessment will be used to schedule the full SEI
assessment
in 2003.
Target Date: September 30,2002 Responsible Executive: Charles
Armstrong.
Recommendation 4: By September 30, 2002, conduct and report to
Customs‘ House and Senate appropriation subcommittees on the results
of an internal assessment of the CMO‘s maturity against the SEI SA-
CMM level 2 key process areas, and the level 3 acquisition risk
management key process area.
Response:
The CMO‘s current Process Improvement schedule supports the GAO‘s
recommendation to conduct and report to Customs‘ House and Senate
appropriation subcommittees on the results of an internal assessment of
the CMO‘s maturity against SA-CMM Level 2 KPAs and the Level 3
acquisition risk management KPA. Customs will report the results of its
internal self-assessment by September 30, 2002.
Target Date: September 30,2002 Responsible Executive: Charles
Armstrong.
Recommendation 5: Develop and implement a rigorous and analytically
verifiable cost estimating program that embodies the tenets of
effective
estimating as defined in SEl‘s institutional and project-specific
estimating models.
Response:
Customs agrees with the GAO recommendation that a rigorous and
analytically verifiable cost-estimating program is essential to the
success
of ACE. Customs has taken measures that have proven successful in
providing a solid foundation on which the program has effectively
contracted for three large Task Orders with no cost over-runs.
While there was a variance from the original cost estimates for Task
Orders 1 and 2, that delta was due to a two-year old estimate, and a
significant change in scope. To remedy the situation, Customs employed
an independent contractor, MCRI to develop Independent Government
Cost Estimates (IGCEs) in line with SEl‘s estimating checklist. When
the IGCEs were delivered and the subsequent contract negotiations took
place, Customs was able to issue Task Orders 1-3 that IGCE have come
in on-time, on-budget, and without modification. Using the eCP method
estimates, to Customs provide independent validation has of recently
contracted for two more Task Orders (4 and 5) that fell well within the
acceptable range of the initial estimates from MCRI.
Customs is always exploring ways to refine its cost estimating
practices,
and will implement improvements as they are identified. One such
improvement that has Ball risk analysis software already been
implemented is the use tool Crystal calculate levels of certainty
around
different estimating values. This software tool was used in formulating
the Expenditure Plan that is currently undergoing Executive Branch
review prior to submission to Congress. This software tool, employing
elements of SEl‘s cost estimation checklist, will be used to formulate
all
subsequent expenditure plans, elevating the estimating rigor, providing
a
greater level of confidence in the estimates, and allowing for better
planning for known program risks.
Target Date: Customs believes it has taken actions responsive to this
recommendation. Responsible Executive: Charles Armstrong.
Recommendation 6: Limit future expenditure plan requests for
management reserve funds to I0 percent of the total funds requested for
the program or adequately justify any management reserve requests in
excess of 10 percent.
Response:
The CMO understands GAO concerns regarding management reserve.
To better define risk and uncertainty, CMO is using Crystal Ball, a
risk
analysis tool. Consequently, Customs will have adequate justification
for
future expenditure plan requests for management reserve funds.
Target Date: Customs believes it has taken actions responsive to this
recommendation. Responsible Executive: Charles Armstrong.
Recommendation 7: Address the risks associated with the accelerated
ACE acquisition strategy, including (1) immediately analyzing the risks
associated with the degree of design, development, and testing
concurrency across ACE increments that is inherent in Customs 4-year,
schedule-driven acquisition strategy, (2) reconsidering the merits of
this
accelerated strategy, and (3) within 90 days of the date of this
briefing,
reporting to Customs House and Senate appropriations subcommittees
on the Agency‘s strategy going forward and its plans for mitigating the
inherent risks associated with this strategy.
Response:
Customs and its Integration Contractor have already identified the
inherent risks of this 4-year approach, analyzed the potential impacts,
and briefed the eCP are employing Modernization Executive Steering
Committee. The CMO and risk management procedures that conform to
Systems Engineering Institute standards to mitigate risks associated
with
the entire Modernization program, including the first ACE release.
Prior
to receiving authorization to proceed in each of the subsequent 6
releases, the risk environment will be re-assessed and mitigation
strategies will be developed to meet cost and quality targets. At any
point, if risks cannot be credibly mitigated, Customs and its
Integration
Contractor will recommend schedule adjustments. As suggested by the
GAO, Customs will also provide a report to the House and Senate
Appropriation Committees by April 30, 2002, outlining the risks
identified and the corresponding mitigation plans. Within this same
time
period, Customs will also reconsider and analyze the merits of the
current ACE program plan and include the findings in this report.
Target Date: April 30,2002.
Responsible Executive: Charles Armstrong.
[End of Comments]
Footnotes:
[1] Public Law 107-67, dated Nov. 12, 2001.
[2] An enterprise architecture is an institutional blueprint for
guiding and constraining investments in business process change and
systems.
[3] Customs‘ Investment Review Board makes information technology
funding decisions on the basis of comparisons and trade-offs among
competing project proposals.
[4] ITDS is a component of the ACE project that is to support
governmentwide collection, use, and dissemination of trade data.
[5] The purpose of IV&V is to provide an independent review of system
processes and products. The use of IV&V is a recognized best practice
for large and complex systems development and acquisition projects. To
be effective, IV&V should be performed by an entity that is independent
of the processes and products that are being reviewed.
[6] These best practices are described in the Software Acquisition
Capability Maturity Model (SA-CMM), developed by the Software
Engineering Institute (SEI). In this model, SEI has provided criteria
for characterizing an organization‘s software development and
acquisition processes according to five levels of maturity, with level
2 providing the minimum level of acceptable effectiveness. The
Capability Maturity Model is a service mark of Carnegie Mellon
University, and CMM is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office.
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To Report Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in Federal Programs:
Contact:
Web site: www.gao.gov/fraudnet/fraudnet.htm
E-mail: fraudnet@gao.gov
Automated answering system: (800) 424-5454 or (202) 512-7470
Public Affairs:
Jeff Nelligan, managing director, NelliganJ@gao.gov (202) 512-4800
U.S. General Accounting Office, 441 G Street NW, Room 7149
Washington, D.C. 20548:
