Defense Project Down to the Wire

he Defense Travel System is five years behind schedule and has cost the government $190 million, but the majority of Defense Department travelers have yet to see any benefit.

The project, launched in 1995, promised to bring the best in travel management technology and business practices to Defense's 3.5 million active duty service members, reservists and civilian employees. They file an estimated 5 million vouchers for $5.5 billion in travel costs a year. The entire Defense Department was supposed to be using the system by 2001.

As of November, a test version of DTS was processing roughly 1,300 trips a month at 18 of Defense's 11,105 sites worldwide.

TRAIL OF WOES

Defense's project to reengineer travel processing got off to a good start. It began with changes in business practices, which cut travel costs and processing time in half at 27 pilot sites. Then-comptroller John Hamre predicted the paperless, end-to-end system would save the Defense Department a million dollars a day. In the summer of 1997, Navy Cmdr. Bill Schworer, then-deputy program manager, told Government Executive, "In a year or so down the road, users will say, 'this is the greatest thing since sliced bread.'"

Then the initial wave of success lost momentum. In 1998, the DTS software contract was awarded. The project's primary contractor-TRW, now Northrop Grumman Mission Systems-was supposed to make its money by collecting fees for processing travel transactions. Because that money hasn't materialized, the contract was restructured, and Northrop Grumman is being paid through appropriations. DTS' Project Management Office is funded the same way. Appropriations are expected to reach $486.4 million before the project is fully up and running, now slated for 2006.

Delays have cost the project its place on the cutting edge. Critics in government and industry, some of whom spoke to Government Executive on condition of anonymity, say the system is out of date. An industry expert says the Defense Department is piloting 5-year-old technology and paying Northrop Grumman to modify it. "It's an antique, and that's a shame," says a government travel expert. "It had so many bells and whistles that it sank." A trade group representative agrees, "A lot better stuff is available now. It has failed to keep pace."

Behind the money and schedule problems are the technical troubles that slowed things down. For example, the system was scheduled to be tested at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri from Oct. 23 to Dec. 22, 2000. After only two weeks, the tests were canceled because errors and glitches were so common.

DTS security features weren't compatible with firewalls at the test sites and at many other installations worldwide. "Working out the solution set back deployment in the Midwest by almost two years," Col. Al Arnold, then Project Management Office director, told Government Executive in March 2000. The system was supposed to be up and running in 11 Midwest states by May 1998.

At a Dec. 6, 2002, meeting with travel industry representatives, a member of the DTS staff reported on problems with the software, including missing data (such as phone numbers, e-mail addresses, credit card numbers and seat preferences), failures in a feature designed to book hotel rooms and rental cars, inconsistent ticketing dates, and incorrect flight information, one meeting participant says.

The biggest stumbling blocks for DTS probably are the entrenched culture and business practices of an enterprise as huge and diverse as the Defense Department.

"There are not too many other applications that will potentially touch every single DoD employee," says Air Force Col. Larry Schaefer, DTS' program director. "DTS is one of them. God love the Department of Defense, but a lot of them are stubborn and like doing business the way they have for 20 years."

ANOTHER LOOK

Responding to complaints made to its hot line, the Defense inspector general's office investigated management of the DTS program. "The Defense Travel System remains a program at high risk of not being an effective solution in streamlining the DoD travel management process," the IG reported in July.

Among other things, the investigation found that:

• Immediately after testing began in 1998, project management officials said the travel system they envisioned was more cumbersome than anticipated.
• In 1999, officials could see that commercial off-the-shelf software would require "major development and modifications" to meet Defense's requirements.
• The DTS timeline was unrealistic.

The report was due in October, but as of mid-December, results had not been released. A travel industry representative who has been closely associated with DTS says, "The word on the street is that the study recommended the project be canceled."

SIGNS OF REBOUND

Schaefer is more upbeat."There are not going to be any surprises," in the report, he says. In fact, he says, as part of the review, an independent company assessed the software development processes and said they're "some of the best they've seen."

Schaefer and Northrop Grumman's DTS program manager, Rich Fabbre, are touting their next software release, called Jefferson (DTS' software versions are named after presidents). Earlier software wasn't user-friendly or intuitive, but Schaefer and Fabbre say Jefferson, which is due out in February, solves those problems.

Jefferson will be "much, much, much easier to use," says Fabbre. Older versions of DTS software had to function in three environments. Now it is based on the Web, simplifying the project's technical task. DTS will look "more like you're used to seeing on Travelocity or Orbitz," says Fabbre, adding that it will be so easy to use that travelers may not even need training.

DTS officials say many of the inspector general's findings were moot before the report was released. In particular, DTS already had been reclassified as an acquisition project and as a result is now required to play by different rules and meet performance milestones. Furthermore, the program office said in its response to the IG's report, if the project were terminated, "Thousands of existing DTS users would be forced to revert to the old, inefficient travel processes."

Schaefer boasts that the 18 sites now using DTS include all four service branches and three Defense agencies. The number of users, he says, doubles each month. Some 260 locations account for 80 percent of the department's travel, and the plan is to get those sites on board by 2006.

The program is on schedule to release Jefferson, Schaefer says. "We know what we're doing. . . . It wasn't always this way, but we've got it under control now," he says. "Jefferson will meet the users' expectations. The Defense Travel System is on the right track. We are uncovering problems, but it is not out of control."

A LONG WAY TO GO

That doesn't help the millions of Defense travelers who still haven't seen even a hint of change in their travel management processes. At many sites and installations, travelers are still filling out vouchers by hand and waiting weeks for reimbursement.

In fact, as they wait for DTS, things have gotten worse, not better. Accounting positions have been cut. Software acquisitions have been delayed. Sites that have travel software have been discouraged from linking it to their finance and accounting departments or integrating it with their travel offices, because DTS program officials don't want to have to undo multitudes of customized solutions in order to plug in the departmentwide system.

To keep some of the masses happy, two years ago the project team made available DTS Limited, which is basically Gelco's Travel Manager software right out of the box. It automates expense management and vouchering, but isn't hooked up to reservations or other travel functions.

No one knows how this all will turn out. At press time, the comptroller's evaluation was expected to be made public within weeks. Acquisition rules require milestone measures-the next one due in the spring-that could kill the program or keep it alive. This year, the Defense Department must decide whether to renew its contract with Northrop Grumman. Some observers suggest that Defense has been biding its time so it can get out of the contract without enormous costs and legal hassles.

Many observers say the E-travel Initiative, an effort led by the General Services Administration to improve and standardize travel processing, may overtake DTS and become the governmentwide solution of choice.

"It's not over till the fat lady sings," says one federal travel expert. "She's been muttering for years, but no real coherent songs have been happening yet." Only time will tell whether she can carry a tune.