Land Management Systems

Major Software Development Does Not Meet BLM's Business Needs Gao ID: T-AIMD-99-102 March 4, 1999

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spent more than 15 years and invested about $411 million to plan and develop the Automated Land and Mineral Record System Project, only to have the major software component (ALMRS Initial Operating Capability) fail. As a result, the Bureau has decided not to deploy the software component at this time. GAO has reported earlier on the significant problems and risks that BLM has encountered. GAO has made many recommendations to reduce those risks, but BLM has been slow to implement some recommendations and has not yet fully implemented others. BLM now needs to determine whether it can salvage any of the more than $67-million it reportedly invested in the ALMRS Initial Operating Capability software by analyzing the software to determine if it can be cost-beneficially modified to meet BLM's needs. In addition, to reduce the risk that future efforts will result in failure, BLM should assess its information technology investment practices and systems acquisition capabilities.

GAO noted that: (1) BLM spent over 15 years and estimates that it invested about $411 million planning and developing the ALMRS/Modernization, only to have the major software component--known as the ALMRS Initial Operating Capacity (IOC)--fail; (2) as a result of that failure, the bureau decided not to deploy ALMRS IOC at this time; (3) GAO has previously reported on the significant problems and risks that BLM has encountered; (4) GAO has made many recommendations to reduce those risks; however, BLM has been slow to implement some recommendations and has not yet fully implemented others; (5) BLM now needs to determine whether it can salvage any of the more than $67-million reported investment in ALMRS IOC software, by analyzing the software to determine if it can be cost-beneficially modified to meet BLM's needs; and (6) in addition, to reduce the risk that future efforts will result in similar failures, BLM should assess its information technology investment practices and systems acquisition capabilities.



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