DOD Business Transformation: Preliminary Observations on Defense Travel System

摘要

DTS's development and implementation have been problematic, especially in the area of requirements and testing key functionality to ensure that the system would perform as intended. Thus, it is not surprising that critical flaws have been identified after deployment, resulting in significant schedule slippages. As originally envisioned, the initial deployment of DTS was to commence within 120 days after the effective date of contract award in September 1998, with complete deployment to approximately 11,000 locations by April 2002. However, that date has been changed to September 2006-a slippage of over 4 years. Our recent analysis of selected requirements for one key area disclosed that system testing was ineffective in ensuring that the promised capability was delivered as intended. For example, we found that DOD did not have reasonable assurance that flight information was properly displayed.3 This problem was not detected prior to deployment since DOD failed to properly test the system interfaces through which the data is accessed. Accordingly, DOD travelers might not have received accurate information on available flights, which could have resulted in higher travel costs. PMO-DTS officials have acknowledged that the problem has existed since the implementation of the system. PMO-DTS officials have indicated that the problem was corrected in an August 2005 release of the software. We are in the process of following up to determine whether the corrective actions have resolved the problem and will include the results in our report that will be issued subsequent to the testimony.