We also reviewed DOD’s Year 2000 Management Plan, Department of the Army and Army Materiel Command (AMC) Year 2000 guidance, and private industry Year 2000 guidance. To determine the status of LSSC’s Year 2000 project and the appropriateness of its strategy and actions for ensuring successful completion, we interviewed LSSC’s Year 2000 Project Manager, Project Officer, and Focal Point who are responsible for project management, direction, and reporting. The Department of Defense provided written comments on a draft of this report. Because CCSS is the Army’s wholesale logistics system, a loss of CCSS operational support to AMC and other DOD agencies poses a serious threat to overall mission capability. The five phases are consistent with those prescribed by DOD in its Year 2000 Management Plan. Also, the Year 2000 project team prepared a project charter and schedule, secured contractor support to assist with assessment tasks, and began to determine the date impact on CCSS program code. Nevertheless, despite LSSC’s and AMC’s position that a contingency plan is not needed for CCSS because the system is not being replaced prior to the year 2000, the system still risks unanticipated operational failure. Without a contingency plan that identifies specific actions to be taken if CCSS fails at the year 2000, the procurement of weapon systems and their spare parts, accounting for the sale of Army equipment and services to allies, and the financial management of $9 billion of inventory could be disrupted. As a result, the Army could be unable to efficiently and effectively equip and sustain its forces around the world. However, LSSC has yet to resolve several critical problems associated with the assessment phase to ensure that (1) systems are adequately tested, (2) contingency plans are developed, and (3) interface partners are fully aware of LSSC’s Year 2000 plans. Immediately assess the impact of competing workload and staffing demands on the CCSS Year 2000 project. Ensure that LSSC has the capability to complete the testing of all CCSS subsystems and programs. Specifically, LSSC should (1) determine test requirements, (2) identify the testing staff needed, (3) finalize Year 2000 test plans describing how the testing staff will be acquired and scheduled for developing Year 2000 compliant test scenarios and data, and (4) revise the Year 2000 test schedule to assure that enough time is available to meet Army-mandated deadlines for Year 2000 implementation. After completion of these projects, LSSC plans to resume its efforts to achieve a CMM level 2 maturity. As our report states, we have recommended that information technology organizations be at least a CMM level 2 to successfully manage large-scale projects such as the Year 2000 project.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed: (1) the status of the Logistics Systems Support Command's (LSSC) efforts to correct Commodity Command Standard System (CCSS) Year 2000 systems problems; and (2) the appropriateness of LSSC's strategy and actions for ensuring that CCSS Year 2000 issues will be successfully addressed.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) the Year 2000 problem is one of the most comprehensive and complex information management projects ever faced by LSSC; (2) if not successfully completed, the procurement of weapon systems and their spare parts, accounting for the sales of Army equipment and services to allies, and the financial management of $9 billion of inventory could be disrupted; (3) as a result, it could be extremely difficult to efficiently and effectively equip and sustain the Army's forces around the world; (4) LSSC has completed several actions to address the CCSS Year 2000 problem; (5) a Year 2000 project manager and management staff have been designated, a project manager charter and schedule were developed, and supplementary contractor support was acquired to assist with assessment tasks; (6) regularly scheduled quarterly meetings are held by the Army Materiel Command (AMC) headquarters to report LSSC Year 2000 status; (7) these steps are compatible with the Department of Defense's (DOD) suggested approach and consistent with those found in GAO's five-phased approach for planning, managing, and evaluating Year 2000 projects; (8) although LSSC commenced its Year 2000 project over a year ago, there are several issues facing LSSC that, if not completely addressed, may result in the failure of CCSS to successfully operate at the year 2000; (9) LSSC has yet to completely address: (a) competing workload priorities and staffing issues; (b) the appropriate mix and scheduling of needed testing data and expertise as well as the development of test plans; (c) the scope and substance of written interface agreements with system interface partners to ensure that CCSS subsystems will be capable of exchanging data at the year 2000; and (d) contingency plan development to help assure that Army missions will be accomplished if CCSS is not fully available to users by the year 2000; (10) LSSC's risk of failure is increased because the agency has not attained the level of software development and maintenance maturity that would provide the foundation needed for successful management of large-scale projects such as the Year 2000 initiative; and (11) because CCSS is used to support military readiness, these critical elements must be resolved and aggressively pursued to enable LSSC to achieve a Year 2000 compliant environment prior to the year 2000.