Underperforming Software and Information Technology in the Department of Defense

Bonnie L. Triezenberg, Sarah Zabel, Rachel Steratore, Adrian Salas, Ivan Lepetic, Katie A. Wilson, Natalia Henriquez Sanchez, James Fan, Alexis Levedahl, Sarah W. Denton

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Introduction

This report presents results of an independent study regarding the performance of information technology and software systems in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the impact of that performance on DoD operations and mission readiness.1 The study was sponsored by the DoD Chief Information Officer (CIO) in accord with direction in Section 241 of the fiscal year 2023 (FY23) National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Section 241 of the FY23 NDAA directed an independent study of the challenges associated with the use of software and information technology (IT) in DoD, the effects of such challenges, and potential solutions. More specifically, the NDAA directed that this independent study should include (1) a survey of members of each armed service to identify the most important software and IT challenges that result in lost work hours; (2) a summary of policy and technical challenges that limit the ability of military departments to implement needed software and IT reforms, based on interviews with military department CIOs; (3) the development of a framework for assessing underperforming software and IT; and (4) the development of recommendations to address challenges identified in the survey and to improve processes through which DoD provides software and IT. The study explicitly excluded embedded software in weapon systems. The full text of Section 241 of the NDAA is provided in Appendix E.