Summary: In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Social Security Administration's (SSA) actions to refocus its computer systems modernization efforts to determine the: (1) status of the software design and database integration; (2) relationship between the Systems Modernization Plan's (SMP) projects and key areas; (3) impact that new projects included in the plan may have on SSA computer systems; and (4) adequacy of the legislatively mandated comprehensive automatic data processing (ADP) plan.
GAO found that SSA: (1) scaled back its efforts in software redesign and database integration in order to complete projects it believed would achieve the greatest benefits; (2) concentrated on redesigning software for part of the insurance program benefits project and planned to complete the majority of the projects by late 1990 and the remainder by late 1992; (3) will address the remainder of the program benefits project and three of eight other software projects under its new strategic planning process; (4) developed a long-range strategic planning process consisting of three parallel efforts to guide its future operations, but had not reached the level where the ADP portion of the process could determine the relationship between the new projects and key SMP projects; (5) would not know the total impact of new strategic projects on its computer systems until it completed the projects' detailed planning; (6) planned to use an interim operational ADP plan to guide its computer efforts until it completed new operational plans; and (7) needed to define and implement strategic, tactical, and operational plans and control processes to improve the interim operational ADP plan.
