System support/sustainment plan platform for the Defense Enterprise Accounting Management System (DEAMS)

Abstract

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in a memo dated 19 July 2001, indicated that one of his highest priorities in transforming the Department of Defense (DoD) is to have reliable, accurate and timely financial management information. To facilitate this, Secretary Rumsfeld established the Business Management Modernization Program (BMMP). The BMMP is an implementation program charged with transforming the DoD's framework. One of the initiatives of the BMMP is to provide a modern financial management system that transforms business operations to achieve improved warfighter support while enabling financial accountability. The tool, the Defense Enterprise Accounting Management System (DEAMS) is a modified Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) financial management system. DEAMS is expected to transform DoD financial management so that timely and accurate information supports effective decision-making. According to DoD guidance, to effectively develop, acquire, test, and support DEAMS it is critical that system resources are identified, tracked and evaluated. Through out this document, this process will be referred to as a support/sustainment plan. To date, a viable system support/sustainment plan has not been developed for DEAMS. The focus of this MBA project is to create a platform for a support/sustainment plan. The support plan is a living management tool. Its purpose is to ensure the system performs to warfighters requirements and identifies system performance short-comings over its life cycle.