The Government Accountability Office has called on five federal agencies to fully implement planning practices to transition to a follow-on program to the Networx telecommunications contract in order to avoid additional costs and schedule delays.GAO said in a report published Thursday the transition planning practices that it wants agencies to adopt include the development of inventories; integration of strategic requirements into transition planning; establishment of a structured transition management approach; identification of resources needed for the transition; and creation of transition processes.
The report showed that the departments of Transportation, Labor and Agriculture and the Social Security Administration partially adopted each of the five transition planning practices.
The Securities and Exchange Commission partially executed three practices and fully implemented one planning practice.
The congressional watchdog also urged the General Services Administration to include all lessons learned from prior telecoms contract transitions in its guidance and plans in order to help agencies avoid repeating previous mistakes.
The report found that GSA determined 35 lessons learned from previous contract transitions and 17 of those were fully addressed in transition guidance issued to agencies.
GSA partially addressed nine lessons learned in its guidance and plans but failed to address seven lessons, GAO noted.
