Comment from email: IT Modernization Plan Review Comments from The MITRE Corporation - 9-20-2017

[konklone]

SSP Maturity Assessment Template 08162017.docx
Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments to the Draft IT Modernization Report to the President. We are pleased to provide our input (attached). Also attached is the USSM’S Shared Service Provider Maturity Assessment. We reference this document as it supports some of our comments regarding Shared Services.

We are available for any follow-up discussions. We look forward to the opportunity for future engagement.

Regards,
Jim Cook
Vice President and Director, Center for Enterprise Modernization
A Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) Operated by the MITRE Corporation
Report to the President on Federal IT Modernization - Comments from the MITRE Corporation.docx

[johnaweiler]

Having documented a dozen of the largest IT failures in Federal IT sector, we find many of the same failure patterns occur;

• HHS CMS Healthcare.gov program which Mitre and Noblis guided, promoting Free Open Source over COTS, and following an arcane architecture process similar to the DODAF Mitre created in competition with leading standards bodies. Mitre's $1.5B contract dwarfed CGI's $60 implementation contract by 25x.
• DHS SBNet, Mitre also supported, promoting a "make" vs "buy" Common Operational Picture, supporting Boeing's revenue generating objectives. This cost the tax payer $1.5B
• FBI's Virtual Case File, program Mitre also guided, promoting a "build" vs "buy", ignoring Clinger Cohen Act, and blocking adoption of a commercial Case Mgt tool eventually implemented after wasting over a $1B in "open source agile development"
• AF ECSS, Mitre also supported, forcing significant modifications and reconfiguration of a viable COTS solution from Oracle that wasted $1.5B, vs following a BPR and Change Management approach recommended by many others.
• Army DCGS, which Mitre supported at many levels, providing market research on commercial ISR solutions claiming no solutions exists, leading to another "make biased" approach. This DIVA architecture analysis was successfully challenged in court by Palantir proving Mitre's anti-COTS bias.
  -AF DCGS was a similar story, with Mitre providing the role of both CIO and CTO of the program, while also performing against its own recommendations, a serious OCI violation.
• NGA GEOScount was another Mitre supported, major IT program failure that cost close to $10B in avoidable waste. Based on Mitre's recommendations, NGC and LMCO custom built a mapping technology ignoring the work of many commercial providers.
• USCIS Transformers program spent over $3.5B following Mitre's agile, Free Open Source development approach, gaining multiple IG and GAO critical reports before being cancelled.

Mitre does not seem to be working in the public interests, but rather its own, promoting costly, high risk approaches that seek 100% perfection that is not possible nor affordable. Please stop competing unfairly and stay in the R&D swim lane as directed under FAR Part 35