Even after spending four years and US$318 million trying to develop a business enterprise architecture (BEA), the U.S. Department of Defense hasn"t made much progress, according to a report issued last week by the Government Accountability Office.

The report, written by Randolph Hite, the GAO"s director of IT architecture and systems issues, said that the defense agency"s enterprise architecture is incomplete, inconsistent and not integrated. It labeled the agency"s modernization efforts a "high risk" effort, something that has not changed in 10 years.

According to the GAO, the Defense Department has 4,200 systems, including accounting, acquisition, finance, logistics and personnel, to support a variety of business functions.

"As we have previously reported, this systems environment is overly complex and error-prone and is characterized by little standardization across the department, multiple systems performing the same tasks, the same data stored in multiple systems, and manual data entry into multiple systems," Hite said.

Hite said those problems remain despite the fact that the agency has spent billions of dollars annually to operate, maintain and modernize its business systems.

"Until the department develops an approved, well-defined architecture that includes a clear purpose and scope and integrated products, it remains at risk of not achieving its intended business modernization goals," Hite wrote. He went on to say that by not having an architecture to guide planned business systems investments the agency runs the risk of having duplicative systems that don"t work well together.

Hite noted that the Defense Department hasn"t incorporated previous GAO recommendations, including the establishment of an effective governance structure, the development of program plans that spell out measurable goals and outcomes, the creation of an effective configuration management system, the development of a well-defined architecture that describes current business and technology environments, or a transition plan.

"Despite six BEA releases and two updates, DOD still does not have a version of an enterprise architecture that can be considered well defined, meaning that the architecture, for example, has a clearly defined purpose that can be linked to the department"s goals and objectives and describes both the "As Is" and the "To Be" environments; consists of integrated and consistent architecture products; and has been approved by department leadership," according to the GAO report.

In a telephone interview, Hite said the GAO is required by law to issue an annual report to Congress on the department"s business systems modernization efforts to let members know what is working and what isn"t.

Hite pointed to a change in leadership at the agency in the past four or five months and said he hopes officials will act on the GAO"s recommendations.

In a letter to members of the U.S. Committee on Armed Services, Hite said the GAO first designated the DOD"s business systems modernization efforts as a high-risk program in 1995 and continues to see it that way now.

In this latest report, the GAO recommended that the agency"s enterprise architecture development plans be fully disclosed to congressional committees. It said its earlier recommendations are integral to the department"s next steps, and it called on the department to provide effective BEA workforce planning.

In a written response, Defense Department officials concurred with the GAO"s recommendations and said the department plans to implement them.