The Air Force’s canceled Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS), which cost $1 billion without apparently producing any significant military capability, was simply too big, according to the Defense Department’s deputy chief management officer (CMO).
“We still learn from this program,” Elizabeth McGrath told the House Armed Services Committee intelligence, emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee March 13. “(ECSS) was clearly one of those programs that was too big.”
ECSS was an information technology (IT) effort to globally view, standardize and manage logistics resources to help close process gaps. ECSS was also to use enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to more efficiently manage logistics like end items, materiel and people. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and former Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) called ECSS “one of the most egregious examples of mismanagement in recent history” in a December letter to former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
McGrath said DoD is try to produce future IT programs in more manageable portions instead of trying to produce one large program, a key lesson learned from ECSS.
“We needed to chunk these IT systems, if you will, into smaller capability sets,” McGrath said. “So we’re delivering, and then adding, as opposed to trying to deliver the whole thing at once.”
The Air Force estimated in December it would have required an additional $1.1 billion for about a quarter of the original ECSS scope to be produced and fielding would have not occurred until 2020. The Air Force’s official explanation for cancellation was that ECSS was no longer a viable option for meeting the fiscal year 2017 Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness (FIAR) statutory requirement, leading to its cancellation (Defense Daily, Dec. 11).
McGrath also said DoD has made changes to better observe the health of these IT programs as they move throughout their life cycles, but she didn’t elaborate how. Though DoD IT programs have attracted criticism for mismanagement, McGrath told the House panel the Pentagon has made progress in delivering IT programs with supply chain, financial and contracting capabilities.
CSC [CSC] was the prime contractor for ECSS. CSC spokeswoman Heather Williams said yesterday “chunking” is one approach to large transformation programs that can be successful and that when doing so, CSC advocates prioritizing implementation of high business value solutions to the end user to gain momentum for the program.