This Gulliver Is No Fiction!

The article focuses on the need for the United States government to improve computer software procurement since the enactment of the Brooks Bill in 1965. The relevant part of the Brooks Bill sets up computer-buying powers under the General Services Administration and gives strong guidance on the need to save the taxpayer's money in such procurements. For its time, the Brooks Bill performed an outstanding service. Through the years, however, the procurement process has woven a web that threatens to immobilize the people who are responsible for effective and innovative applications. The bureaucratic implementation of the Brooks Bill has been exquisitely precise--and completely blind to the changing economics of computer applications. The General Accounting Office has issued a report that indicates a desire to place software procurement by the government on a commodity basis. The only way that hardware and/or software procurement for the government can be improved is by thorough attention to the skills of the information systems staff, to the total costs of the whole information system and to the performance of the resulting systems when compared to management's requirements.