An examination of the efforts to automate the procurement system of the Navy field contracting system.

Abstract

In 1974, the Naval Supply Systems Command initiated actions to automate the procurement process within the Navy Field Contractina System (NFCS). The development project was titled. Automation of Procurement and Accounting Data Entry (APADE) . By 1979, the original project was discontinued and a redesign effort was initiated. In an effort to determine the underlying reasons for the project's delay and problems encountered in developing an Automated Data System (ADS), this thesis examines the APADE project. In addition to the reasons and problems addressed by the Naval Data Automation Command's evaluation report, the researcher concluded that the procurement procedures utilized by the NFCS activities were not defined nor standardized sufficiently to facilitate ADS development. Additionally, there was no indication that this situation was addressed or corrected during the planning phase of APADE II development. The researcher also concluded that various environmental conditions significantly impacted upon the development process.