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I am currently working on a team who is replacing the hodgepodge of pay and personnel systems the Air Force uses with a single system. The old COBOL systems ar

by JPKab 13y ago

I am currently working on a team who is replacing the hodgepodge of pay and personnel systems the Air Force uses with a single system. The old COBOL systems are an absolute nightmare. DFAS is a nightmare. The entrenched bureaucracy is a nightmare. There was already an effort to integrate these systems for the entire DoD, the idea being that paying a Naval, Air Force, or Army person shouldn't be too different. It completely failed due to stupid decisions made involving bloated enterprise software, but most crucially a lack of leadership at the top to force the various branches of the military to shut the fuck up and accept change. Now, each service is building an integrated system. I'm happy to say that, so far, the Air Force is doing it right. The Navy is also completely on track, and I can't speak for the Army. I just wish they would have fixed this years ago for the sake of these folks.

DanielBMarkham 13y ago
I hate to be snarky, but I could rant and joke for a long time about the state of information processing at DoD. What came to my mind first? The funniest part about DFAS is that it has the word "accounting" in it :) Once a project gets entangled with the massive systems-of-systems stuff DoD has going on in all of its agencies the prospects for improvement are slim. Remember, each system has its own champion, and folks making money keeping it updated. Many of these folks have powerful friends. Good luck to you, sir.
stephengillie 13y ago
I've heard a friend, who is an Army drill sergent, complain about how badly their new system works compared to the old one.
jcurbo 13y ago
It's good to hear the current project is doing it right. (Former USAF here) The Air Force hasn't done too well in recent years... DIHMRS (the integrated one you mentioned) then ECSS, which just got cancelled at the end of last year. (http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/air-force-cancels-ecss/2012-11-29 http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/air-force-cancels-ec...) DoD acquisition at any level is about as convoluted as imaginable, trying to do things the 'right' way is that much harder when dealing with organizational inertia and red tape.
- JPKab 13y ago
  My God, don't even get me started with how awful the ECSS debacle was. I didn't work on it, but had a buddy who did. For those reading this who don't know the random acronyms of the DoD, ECSS was a billion dollars flushed down the toilet attempting to integrate the dozens/hundreds? of the Air Force's logistics systems into a single ERP. The Air Force learned (far too late) that the only way these integrations can succeed is if all of the funding for the legacy IT systems is controlled by the executive in charge of replacing them with the new system. (believe it or not, they didn't have this in place before, so the legacy systems had an actual disincentive to cooperate.) ECSS was an eye opener for me when it came to one of the key challenges in reforming IT in the DoD: geographically isolated fiefdoms that make up the legacy systems that any new, efficient, integrated will replace. The awful truth is that the knowledge required to build new, integrated systems is in the heads of the workers of the disparate legacy systems, scattered in helter skelter throughout the country. These workers don't WANT any new system to succeed. They know there is no way they are going to be have a job with the new consolidated system in place. They, for the most part, are coasters who haven't kept a remotely current skill set, and could NEVER get a job in the private sector. So they drag their feet, won't return the phone calls of business analysts, let alone cooperate with them in documenting the current data and processes. I love the military community, especially the officers and enlisted. I like about a 1/4 of the civillians I encounter. The other 3/4 of the civillian workforce I encounter are either lazy or grossly incompetent. I hate saying that, but its been brewing too long in my head for me to think any different. The 12,000 asshats at DFAS are proof.
mpyne 13y ago
We in the Navy are only just now completing the roll-out of the modified NSIPS (PeopleSoft) software that can interface with DJMS well enough to get rid of the TTY DMO interface. And even then it looks like our PSDs will have to be submitting tons of DWOWS trouble tickets to manually fix things up in the servicemember's MMPA after something in the NSIPS <-> DJMS interface fails to take properly.

by JPKab 13y ago

DanielBMarkham 13y ago

I hate to be snarky, but I could rant and joke for a long time about the state of information processing at DoD. What came to my mind first? The funniest part about DFAS is that it has the word "accounting" in it :) Once a project gets entangled with the massive systems-of-systems stuff DoD has going on in all of its agencies the prospects for improvement are slim. Remember, each system has its own champion, and folks making money keeping it updated. Many of these folks have powerful friends. Good luck to you, sir.

stephengillie 13y ago

I've heard a friend, who is an Army drill sergent, complain about how badly their new system works compared to the old one.

jcurbo 13y ago

It's good to hear the current project is doing it right. (Former USAF here) The Air Force hasn't done too well in recent years... DIHMRS (the integrated one you mentioned) then ECSS, which just got cancelled at the end of last year. (http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/air-force-cancels-ecss/2012-11-29 http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/air-force-cancels-ec...) DoD acquisition at any level is about as convoluted as imaginable, trying to do things the 'right' way is that much harder when dealing with organizational inertia and red tape.

JPKab 13y ago
My God, don't even get me started with how awful the ECSS debacle was. I didn't work on it, but had a buddy who did. For those reading this who don't know the random acronyms of the DoD, ECSS was a billion dollars flushed down the toilet attempting to integrate the dozens/hundreds? of the Air Force's logistics systems into a single ERP. The Air Force learned (far too late) that the only way these integrations can succeed is if all of the funding for the legacy IT systems is controlled by the executive in charge of replacing them with the new system. (believe it or not, they didn't have this in place before, so the legacy systems had an actual disincentive to cooperate.) ECSS was an eye opener for me when it came to one of the key challenges in reforming IT in the DoD: geographically isolated fiefdoms that make up the legacy systems that any new, efficient, integrated will replace. The awful truth is that the knowledge required to build new, integrated systems is in the heads of the workers of the disparate legacy systems, scattered in helter skelter throughout the country. These workers don't WANT any new system to succeed. They know there is no way they are going to be have a job with the new consolidated system in place. They, for the most part, are coasters who haven't kept a remotely current skill set, and could NEVER get a job in the private sector. So they drag their feet, won't return the phone calls of business analysts, let alone cooperate with them in documenting the current data and processes. I love the military community, especially the officers and enlisted. I like about a 1/4 of the civillians I encounter. The other 3/4 of the civillian workforce I encounter are either lazy or grossly incompetent. I hate saying that, but its been brewing too long in my head for me to think any different. The 12,000 asshats at DFAS are proof.

mpyne 13y ago

We in the Navy are only just now completing the roll-out of the modified NSIPS (PeopleSoft) software that can interface with DJMS well enough to get rid of the TTY DMO interface. And even then it looks like our PSDs will have to be submitting tons of DWOWS trouble tickets to manually fix things up in the servicemember's MMPA after something in the NSIPS <-> DJMS interface fails to take properly.