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Nov. 18, 2009--VA VistA Could Considerably Exceed Initial Budget Projections
Posted on:
November 18, 2009
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The Veterans Affairs modernization of its VistA clinical record system may end up costing up to $350 million more than its original budget, the Government Accountability Office reported recently.
The VA did not fully establish earned value management, a project management tool that tracks and reports project status and produces early warning signs of probable schedule delays and cost overruns. It also estimates anticipated completion costs.
"Without meaningful and coherent cost and schedule information, program managers can have a distorted view of a program's status and risks," said David Powner, director of GAO information technology issues.
VA is overhauling the VistA system because it is costly and difficult to maintain in its current implementation and does not integrate well with new software. The VistA modernization will include more standardization and common services and will support interoperability among the applications.
The VA originally estimated it would spend around $1.9 billion on the VistA modernization in the next several years. The project has only just begun--current estimates indicate it is about 10 percent complete.
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