The Defense Department has spent almost $1 billion to develop as new personnel and pay system called the Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System, or DIMHRS. And what has it got? Bubkes, said Congress in its final version of the fiscal 2010 Defense authorization act, which a Senate-House conference approved on Wednesday.
The conference report accompanying the bill said "the DIMHRS program has not been successfully developed or deployed due to a number of technical and organizational difficulties," which goes to show a billion bucks doesn't go as far as it used to.
Congress decided to fix this problem by directing Defense to set up - are you ready for this? - a high level "transition council" to adjudicate funding, architectural, process and other technical issues that plague enterprise information systems programs.
When was the last time a high level Defense body ever solved problems with a system that's gone off the rails?
Bob Brewin
Bob Brewin joined Government Executive in April 2007, bringing with him more than 20 years of experience as a journalist focusing on defense issues and technology. Bob covers the world of defense and information technology for Nextgov, and is the author of the “What’s Brewin” blog.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION