VA halts 15 technology projects

A review of 45 suspended information technology projects at the Veterans Affairs Department has caused 15 projects to be stopped or have funding cut, according to W. Scott Gould, deputy secretary of the VA.

Leaders of another 17 projects have committed to meeting milestones to deliver new functionality to customers, Gould said Oct. 26 at the Executive Leadership Conference in Williamsburg, Va. The remaining 13 projects have been re-planned or restarted, Gould said.

The leaders of those 17 projects have been told “basically you’ve got 60 days. You tell us what that new schedule is and if you don’t make it we’re going to shut you down,” Gould said at the conference sponsored by the American Council for Technology and the Industry Advisory Council. “Many projects, frankly, are challenged by the inability to meet basic cost and schedule performance measures,” Gould added.

In July, the VA announced it would temporarily suspend the 45 information technology projects that were either behind schedule or over budget. Project managers were ordered to develop new project plans with milestones that meet the requirements of the Program Management Accountability System.

If three customer-delivery milestones are missed the project can be halted and re-planned, according to Gould, who added that 13 projects have been re-planned or restarted.

“To move ahead on the remaining projects, we need to have staff,” Gould said. “We are currently working to fill vacancies at all levels in the organizations. We also need upgraded skills from our present IT workforce.”

Several efforts are under way to train and recruit employees, Gould said. For example, the VA Acquisition Academy was started in 2008 to train the next generation of acquisition and business leaders, he said.

Gould declined to reveal what will happen to individual projects, saying the agency will make an announcement in the near future.