The US Government's Configuration Management Problems
Anyone who has been in the configuration management (CM) field for any length of time would probably tell you that the US government and Department of Defense are on top of their game when it comes to CM. Most would agree that these entities have stricter controls in place than the private sector— that is until now.
FEDweek.com has a story out on a recent Government Accountability Office report that found CM-related issues in all twenty-four major departments and agencies of the US government. This news made me want to dig deeper and see what else has been reported on this issue in the last few months.
I discovered there are issues in other areas as well. On FierceGovernmentIT.com, a story details how the Coast Guard is experiencing issues in its CM world; the audit by KPMG can be viewed in its entirety. In this instance, the basic issue involves the lack of controls on script changes to financial systems as well as quality control as it applies to testing to see if those financial changes were correct.
Testimony on Capitol Hill on October 17, 2013, has shown that the Department of Veteran Affairs has had multiple issues as well as it applies to CM, quality assurance, project management, oversight, and requirements management. This is very troubling when you consider that this department provides medical care and services to fifteen million active-duty and veteran soldiers.
Unfortunately, these issues not only apply to the application world, but they also extend into the government’s mobile device usage. A report on cio.com looking at the use of mobile technology by the federal government exposes even more issues with CM as it applies to the mobile landscape.
Think of this as a CM plan of CM plans, for lack of a better term. I think it’s a step in the right direction. There was also a replacement for the old MIL-STD-973 earlier this year, and the following presentation was given at the ACDM annual conference in April 2013 describing the new MIL standard to be used.
Both the private and public sectors have issues, but I think that the defense industry and government agencies should be able to improve if they follow their own standards and directives.
How do you feel about this news regarding CM and the government?
