The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) initiate steps to come up with reliable cost and schedule estimates for the Financial Management Business Transformation (FMBT) program using best practices outlined in GAO’s cost estimating and schedule assessment guides.
GAO made the recommendations after it found that VA did not fully meet certain best practices for the development and management of schedule and cost estimates for the FMBT program, according to a report publicly released Tuesday.
The FMBT initiative seeks to replace VA’s aging financial and acquisition systems with a single integrated platform. The congressional watchdog said its assessment showed that the department has met IT management best practices for Agile project management, program governance, defect management and testing.
“Reliable cost and schedule estimates provide a road map for project execution and are critical elements to delivering large-scale IT systems. Without reliable estimates, VA management may not have the information necessary for informed decision-making,” the GAO report reads.
