GAO 

United States Government Accountability Office

Report to Congressional Requesters

INFORMATION 

TECHNOLOGY 

U.S. Postal Service 

Needs to Strengthen 

System Acquisition 

and Management 

Capabilities to 

Improve Its Intelligent 

Mail® Full Service 

Program 

October 2009 

GAO-10-145 
What GAO Found

United States Government Accountability Office

Why GAO Did This Study

Highlights

Accountability Integrity Reliability

October 2009

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 

U.S. Postal Service Needs to Strengthen System 

Acquisition and Management Capabilities to Improve 

Highlights of GAO-10-145, a report to Its Intelligent Mail® Full Service Program 

congressional requesters 

In 2003, the United States Postal 

Service (USPS) initiated the 

Intelligent Mail® program, which is 

intended to use information-rich 

standardized barcodes to track 

mail and thus provide USPS and 

mailers with better and timely 

information. A major component of 

this program is the Full Service 

program, which, among other 

things, is intended to build a 

system that improves the visibility 

into end-to-end mail processing 

operations through the use of new 

barcodes, and create efficiencies 

by streamlining and automating 

certain aspects of the process. GAO 

was asked to determine (1) the 

current status and plans for the 

Intelligent Mail® Full Service 

program and (2) if the Postal 

Service has capabilities in place to 

successfully acquire and manage 

the Intelligent Mail® Full Service 

program. GAO obtained and 

analyzed USPS documentation, 

reviewed previous GAO reports, 

interviewed officials, and 

compared acquisition best 

practices with USPS’s practices. 

What GAO Recommends

GAO is recommending that the 

Postmaster General take several 

actions to improve the 

management of the program, 

including developing a 

comprehensive cost estimate and 

sound acquisition and development 

policies. In written comments on a 

draft of this report, USPS agreed 

with three of GAO’s 

recommendations, disagreed with 

three, and did not comment on one. 

GAO continues to believe that 

adoption of key acquisition 

practices is essential. 

Program officials have completed key activities for implementing the 

Intelligent Mail® Full Service program, such as deploying the first phase of 

the program; however, the current schedule for the program has been delayed 

by almost 10 months. As a result, the second phase of the program is not 

expected to be implemented until the end of November 2009. In addition, key 

functions of the program that were originally intended to be delivered have 

been deferred. Moreover, the life-cycle cost that program officials prepared 

does not capture all the costs associated with the acquisition and 

implementation of the program. As a result, program officials lack an accurate 

total cost estimate. Finally, the first deployed phase is currently experiencing 

operational problems. 

While the Full Service program has taken steps to implement acquisition 

management activities, it does not have the full set of capabilities it needs to 

fully manage the acquisition. 

Summary of the Full Service Program Acquisition Management Capabilities

Capability Status

Project planning Initiated, but key activities remain to be completed, such as 

developing an overall project plan that identifies the full scope of the 

Full Service program and identifying key deliverables beyond the 

second phase. 

Project monitoring and 

control 

Key steps taken, but the prime contractor for the development of 

the Full Service program also manages program management 

office activities, including assessing the quality of deliverables and 

overseeing the program’s schedule, issues, and risks, which 

creates a conflict of interest because of the risk that the contractor 

will not evaluate its own products in a completely objective manner. 

Requirements development 

and management 

Initiated, but USPS has not finalized or validated a core set of 

requirements for the Full Service program. 

Risk management Initiated, but key activities remain to be performed, such as 

establishing a risk management process that ensures a 

comprehensive list of risks is maintained and complete mitigation 

strategies are developed. 

Product integration Initiated, but program officials have not developed a systems 

integration plan regarding the plans for conducting product 

integration for the entire Full Service program, which includes the 

integration of approximately 30 systems. 

Source: GAO analysis of USPS data. 

A key cause of the program’s acquisition management weaknesses in the 

areas of project planning, risk management, and product integration is that 

USPS organizational policies do not set forth sufficient requirements for 

establishing effective practices in these areas. Weaknesses exist in the 

program monitoring and control area because the program management 

contract creates a conflict of interest by requiring that the contractor assess 

the quality of its own deliverables and oversee the program’s schedule, issues, 

and risks. Without these management capabilities in place, USPS increases the 

risk that this program will continue to encounter problems in meeting its 

performance, schedule, and cost objectives. View GAO-10-145 or key components.

For more information, contact David A. 

Powner at (202) 512-9286 or 

pownerd@gao.gov. 
Page i GAO-10-145 

Contents 

Letter 1

Conclusions 3 

Recommendations for Executive Action 4 

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 5 

Appendix I Briefing to the House Oversight and Government 

Reform Subcommittee Staff 9 

Appendix II Comments from the United States Postal Service 74 

Appendix III GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments 77 

Abbreviations 

CMMI-ACQ Capability Maturity Model® Integration for Acquisition 

CMMI-Dev Capability Maturity Model® Integration for Development 

FAR Federal Acquisition Regulation 

IMB/SASP Intelligent Mail® Barcode/Seamless Acceptance and 

 Service Performance 

IT information technology 

SEI Software Engineering Institute 

USPS United States Postal Service 

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 Information Technology Acquisition 
United States Government Accountability Office

Washington, DC 20548 

 

October 29, 2009 

The Honorable Stephen F. Lynch 

Chairman 

Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal 

 Service and the District of Columbia 

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

House of Representatives 

The Honorable Danny K. Davis 

House of Representatives 

In 2003, the United States Postal Service (USPS) initiated the Intelligent 

Mail® program, which is intended to use information-rich standardized 

barcodes to track mail and thus provide USPS and mailers with better and 

timely information about the mail. As part of this program, USPS has 

initiated the Full Service program, which is intended to (1) build a system 

that improves the visibility into end-to-end mail processing operations 

through the use of new barcodes, (2) gather more comprehensive and 

detailed service performance information and measure it against 

established performance standards, and (3) create efficiencies by 

streamlining and automating certain aspects of the process USPS uses to 

verify mail from commercial mailers. In May 2009, we issued a report that 

described the Intelligent Mail® program and stated that key management 

actions were not taken, such as developing a comprehensive strategic 

plan; preparing information about the program’s costs, including its 

anticipated savings or cost reductions; and establishing a risk mitigation 

plan. In addition, we highlighted commercial mailers’ concerns about the 

implementation of the program.1

At your request, we conducted a follow-up review on this program to 

determine (1) the current status and plans for the Intelligent Mail® Full 

Service program and (2) if the Postal Service has capabilities in place to 

successfully acquire and manage the Intelligent Mail® Full Service 

program. 

Information Technology Acquisition

 

1

GAO, U.S. Postal Service: Intelligent Mail Benefits May Not Be Achieved if Key Risks Are 

Not Addressed, GAO-09-599 (Washington, D.C.: May 2009). 

Page 1 GAO-10-145 
 

This report summarizes the information we provided to your staff during 

our September 9, 2009, briefing, which was updated to indicate that the 

agency’s position on our findings and recommendations were revised by 

written comments provided October 15, 2009. The full briefing materials, 

including our scope and methodology, are included as appendix I. 

We conducted this performance audit from February 2009 to October 

2009, in accordance with generally accepted government auditing 

standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to 

obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for 

our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe 

that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings 

and conclusions based on our audit objectives. 

In summary, we made the following major points: 

• Program officials have completed key activities for implementing the Full 

Service program, including the first phase being deployed in May 2009 and 

activities beginning for the second phase. However, USPS officials 

currently plan to deliver the program in multiple phases in lieu of the 

original plan, which was to deliver the entire Full Service program by 

January 2009. As a result, the first of two planned phases of the program 

was deployed in May 2009, and the second phase is expected to be 

implemented by the end of November 2009. In addition, key functionality 

(including automating aspects of the mail acceptance process) that was 

originally intended to be delivered in these two planned phases has been 

deferred. Program officials have recently stated that they plan to have 

future phases to incorporate the deferred functionality; however, they 

have not made any commitments to do so. In addition, the life-cycle cost 

that program officials prepared does not capture all the costs associated 

with the acquisition and implementation of the program, such as costs to 

integrate several USPS systems. Finally, the first deployed phase is 

currently experiencing operational problems, thus requiring program 

officials to develop patches to resolve the issues. 

• While the Intelligent Mail® Full Service program has implemented initial 

acquisition management activities, it does not have the full set of 

capabilities it needs to fully manage the acquisition. For example, the Full 

Service program has established a program office and assigned a USPS 

project manager, but the program has not developed an overall project 

plan that identifies the full scope of the Full Service program or identified 

key deliverables beyond release 2. Also, the program office tracks the 

milestones and dependencies of the program; however, a conflict of 

interest exists because the prime contractor for the development of the 

Page 2 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
 

Full Service program also manages program management office activities. 

Although USPS officials have told us they use strategies to avoid potential 

conflicts, such as utilizing a separate program management team from the 

system development team, they have not provided us with evidence that 

they have a formal mitigation plan in place to address the conflict that 

exists. In addition, the program office has defined initial business 

requirements for releases 1 and 2, but USPS has not finalized or validated a 

complete set of requirements for the Full Service program, which would 

include high-level requirements that USPS plans to deliver in future 

releases. Also, although the program office has assigned responsibility for 

managing the risks, it has not established a risk management process that 

ensures a comprehensive list of risks is maintained and complete 

mitigation strategies are developed. Additionally, while the program office 

has identified approximately 30 systems that will need to be integrated in 

the Full Service program, it has not developed a Systems Integration Plan 

describing the plan for conducting product integration for the entire Full 

Service program. Until USPS fully implements key acquisition 

management processes, the Intelligent Mail® Full Service program is at 

risk of continuing to encounter problems in meeting its performance, 

schedule, and cost objectives. 

The current schedule for the full implementation of the Full Service 

program has been delayed by almost 10 months, and key functionality that 

was originally intended to be delivered in the program has been deferred 

indefinitely. In addition, the life-cycle cost estimate that program officials 

prepared does not capture all the costs associated with the acquisition and 

implementation of the program. As a result, program officials lack an 

accurate total cost estimate. Moreover, the first deployed release is 

experiencing performance issues. 

Conclusions 

While the Full Service program has implemented initial acquisition 

management activities, it does not have the full set of capabilities needed 

to fully manage the acquisition. A key cause of the program’s acquisition 

management weaknesses in the areas of project planning, risk 

management, and product integration is that USPS organizational policies 

do not set forth sufficient requirements for establishing effective practices 

in these areas. Weaknesses exist in the program monitoring and control 

area because the program management contract creates a conflict of 

interest by requiring that the contractor assess the quality of its own 

deliverables and oversee the program’s schedule, issues, and risks. 

While organizational policies exist for requirements development and 

management, weaknesses exist in this area, in part, because USPS decided 

Page 3 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
 

not to follow USPS’s organizational policies for system acquisition and 

instead followed a truncated program management approach in an effort 

to deliver the system in a compressed time frame. Without these processes 

in place, USPS increases the risk that this project will continue to 

encounter problems in meeting its performance, schedule, and cost 

objectives. 

Given that release 2 is expected to be implemented by the end of 

November 2009 and decisions about future releases need to be made, 

having the key elements of a sound acquisition management capability in 

place will be crucial to the program’s success in meeting its goal. 

To ensure that USPS adequately manages the acquisition of the Intelligent 

Mail® Full Service program, we recommend that the Postmaster General 

take seven actions. Specifically, we recommend that the Postmaster 

General direct the Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of 

Intelligent Mail and Address Quality to: 

Recommendations for 

Executive Action 

• Develop a comprehensive cost estimate to include both government and 

contractor costs over the program’s full life cycle, from the inception of 

the program through design, development, deployment, and operation and 

maintenance to retirement. 

• Complete an overall program plan for the entire Full Service program, 

including an overview of the program’s scope of all releases, deliverables 

and functionality within these releases, plans to phase out the 

approximately 30 barcodes currently being utilized, assumptions and 

constraints, roles and responsibilities, staffing and training plans, and the 

strategy for maintaining the plan. 

• Reconsider the current contract arrangement to avoid having the 

contractor evaluate its own performance. 

• Define the core set of requirements for the entire program and use them as 

a basis for developing a reliable cost estimate. 

• Develop a risk management process that enables the program officials to 

develop an adequate risk management plan that fully addresses the scope 

of their risk management efforts; ensures that a comprehensive list of risks 

and complete mitigation plans are identified and tracked; and includes 

milestones, mitigating actions, thresholds, and resources for significant 

risks. 

Page 4 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
 

• Develop and maintain a systems integration plan for release 2 and beyond. 

We are also recommending that the Postmaster General direct USPS’s 

Chief Information Officer to include in USPS’s Technical Solution Life 

Cycle policy guidance for programs to develop (1) complete program 

plans that define overall budget and schedule, key deliverables and 

milestones, assumptions and constraints, description and assignment of 

roles and responsibilities, staffing and training plans, and an approach for 

maintaining these plans; (2) specific requirements for programs to 

establish a robust risk management process that identifies potential 

problems before they occur, such as requiring programs to develop a risk 

management plan; and (3) system integration plan that include all systems 

to be integrated with the system, roles and responsibilities for all relevant 

participants, the sequence and schedule for every integration step, and 

how integration problems are to be documented and resolved. 

We obtained written comments on a draft of this report from the USPS 

Senior Vice President of Intelligent Mail and Address Quality, which are 

reprinted in appendix II. USPS agreed with three of our recommendations, 

disagreed with three, and did not comment on one. 

Agency Comments 

and Our Evaluation 

Specifically, USPS agreed that (1) the current contract arrangement 

should be reconsidered to avoid having the contractor evaluate its own 

performance, (2) a comprehensive risk management process should be 

developed, and (3) a system integration plan for release 2 and beyond 

should be developed and maintained. The agency further stated that it has 

and will continue to enable these capabilities. In previously commenting 

on our briefing slides, USPS disagreed with aspects of our findings on 

these issues or provided additional information that we incorporated as 

appropriate. USPS’s subsequent written comments on this draft report, 

which recognize the need to implement these recommendations, provide 

greater assurance of program success. 

The Senior Vice President stated that the disagreement with three of our 

recommendations may be the result of our use of the 2003 Intelligent 

Mail® strategy document to measure the program’s performance. 

However, we reviewed and analyzed many documents to form the basis of 

our findings and conclusions on the program’s performance. The 2003 

strategy was just one of the many documents we used, as it represented 

the original baseline and justification for the program. To report on the 

progress of the program since its inception, we measured the program 

Page 5 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
 

against original plans, while acknowledging that USPS has made multiple 

modifications to the implementation dates. 

USPS also stated that we relied on the 2003 strategy to determine delays to 

the program. This comment is inaccurate. As we stated in this report, we 

relied on the January 2008 Intelligent Mail® Advance Notice of Proposed 

Rulemaking in the Federal Register to identify the originally proposed 

implementation time frame. We also reported the subsequent revisions 

that USPS made to the program’s implementation schedule. 

The Senior Vice President disagreed with our recommendation to develop 

a comprehensive cost estimate. He stated such an activity would consume 

a significant amount of funding, time, and resources, while providing little 

or no value. However, as stated in our GAO Cost Estimating and 

Assessment Guide,

2

 developing a realistic cost estimate is essential 

because it enables program officials to evaluate resource requirements at 

key decision points, develop performance measurement baselines, and 

establish effective resource allocations. Additionally, cost estimates 

should be comprehensive and should include both government and 

contractor costs throughout the program’s full life cycle, from the 

inception of the program through design, development, deployment, and 

operation and maintenance to retirement. While we acknowledge that 

preparing a realistic cost estimate may require some amount of effort, we 

believe the benefits of having an accurate total cost estimate for the entire 

program to make better informed resource allocation decisions, clearly 

merit its completion. 

With regard to our recommendation to complete an overall program plan 

for the entire Full Service program, the Senior Vice President stated that, 

while USPS plans to start updating the Intelligent Mail® strategy on an 

annual basis, it plans to remain focused on its clearly defined actions for 

the current releases, rather than planning for future releases. However, 

industry best practices specifically state that a project plan is the essential 

document used to manage and control the execution of a project. In order 

for the project plan to be an effective and useful document, it should 

consider all phases of the project’s life cycle. Program officials should also 

ensure that all plans affecting the project are consistent with the overall 

project plan to ensure that all releases and associated functionality 

 

2

GAO, GAO Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide: Best Practices for Developing and 

Managing Capital Program Costs, GAO-09-3SP (Washington, D.C.: March 2009). 

Page 6 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
 

seamlessly fit together. As we state in our report, without such a plan that 

describes the full scope of the program, including how many releases are 

envisioned, USPS lacks an overarching approach for incorporating future 

releases into the program. Additionally, without this information, USPS 

may not be able to ensure the program is accomplishing its complete set of 

goals within the specified cost and schedule objectives. 

Regarding our recommendation to define a core set of requirements for 

the entire program and use them to develop reliable cost estimates, the 

Senior Vice President stated that the program must remain dynamic and 

that any attempt to define the entire program and its associated cost is a 

waste of funding and resources. We are not recommending that USPS 

define all detailed system-level requirements at the outset of the program; 

rather, we are recommending that USPS develop a roadmap of the 

program’s high-level requirements. As we state in this report, without a 

core set of high-level requirements, it will be difficult for USPS to focus 

appropriately on the next release and to hold itself accountable for 

delivering a system that meets USPS’s and mailers’ needs. Defining these 

requirements is especially important given the functionality that is being 

deferred in the first two releases. 

USPS program officials did not state whether they agreed or disagreed 

with our recommendation that USPS include in its Technical Solution Life 

Cycle policy guidance for programs to develop (1) complete program 

plans, (2) specific requirements for programs to establish a robust risk 

management process, and (3) a system integration plan. 

As agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce its contents 

earlier, we plan no further distribution of this report until 30 days from its 

issue date. At that time, we will send copies of this report to interested 

congressional committees and other interested parties. In addition, the 

report will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site at 

http://www.gao.gov. 

Page 7 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
 

Should you or your offices have questions on matters discussed in this 

report, please contact me at (202) 512-9286 or at pownerd@gao.gov. 

Contact points for our Offices on Congressional Relations and Public 

Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. GAO staff who made 

David A. Powner 

key contributions to this report are listed in appendix III. 

Director, Information Technology 

 Management Issues 

Page 8 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
Appendix I: Briefing to the 

and 

House Oversight 

Government Reform Subcommittee Staff 

Page 9 GAO-10-145 

Appendix I: Briefing to the House Oversight 

and Government Reform Subcommittee Staff 

Information Technology: U.S. Postal Service Needs to 

Strengthen System Acquisition and Management Capabilities 

to Improve Its Intelligent Mail® Full Service Program 

Briefing for staff members of the 

Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia, 

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

House of Representatives

September 9, 2009 

 Information Technology Acquisition 
Appendix I: Briefing to the House Oversight 

and Government Reform Subcommittee Staff 

 2 

Table of Contents 

x Introduction 

x Objectives, Scope, and Methodology 

x Results in Brief 

x Background 

x Results

o Objective 1: Full Service Program Status and Plans

o Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

x Conclusions

x Recommendations for Executive Action 

x Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 

Page 10 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
Appendix I: Briefing to the House Oversight 

and Government Reform Subcommittee Staff 

 3 

Introduction 

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) relies heavily on information technology (IT) to support 

its mission of providing prompt, reliable, and efficient mail service to all areas of the 

country. Starting in May 2009, as part of a program referred to as the Intelligent Mail® 

program, USPS began to encourage commercial mailers1

 to use new standardized 

barcodes which are intended to make it easier to track and provide information about the 

mail’s progress as it flows through the mail stream. According to USPS officials, this

information is important to their efforts to improve efficiency and reduce costs. 

The Intelligent Mail® program encompasses numerous programs, including a major 

initiative known as the Full Service program. This initiative is intended to 

x build a system that improves the visibility into end-to-end mail processing operations

through the use of new barcodes, 

x gather more comprehensive and detailed service performance information and 

measure it against established performance standards, and 

x create efficiencies by streamlining and automating certain aspects of the process

USPS uses to verify mail from commercial mailers. 

 

1

Commercial mailers include businesses, organizations, and other parties that send and rely on mail to maintain contact with their 

customers. The commercial mailers also encompass mail preparers, including printers and businesses that send or receive mail on 

behalf of a third party. As of 2008, these mailers accounted for 86 percent of all mail processed by USPS. 

Page 11 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
Appendix I: Briefing to the House Oversight 

and Government Reform Subcommittee Staff 

 4 

Introduction 

USPS is planning to implement the program in multiple software releases—thus far it has

committed to implementing two releases: the first one was deployed in May 2009 and the 

other is planned to be implemented by November 2009. Program officials have recently 

stated that they also plan to have future releases; however, they have not made any 

commitments to do so or obtained funding approval. 

USPS says the Full Service program is one of the most complex programs it has

undertaken—it will involve the integration of approximately 30 different systems and is

intended to benefit both commercial mailers and USPS. 

Page 12 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
Appendix I: Briefing to the House Oversight 

and Government Reform Subcommittee Staff 

 5 

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology 

As agreed, our objectives were to determine 

x the current status and plans for the Intelligent Mail® Full Service program and 

x if the Postal Service has capabilities in place to successfully acquire and manage the 

Intelligent Mail® Full Service program. 

For our first objective, we analyzed system documentation, including plans, status

reports, meeting minutes, cost estimates, schedule estimates, reports on program 

management reviews, test plans, and other acquisition-related documents. We also 

compared the cost and schedule estimates to actual cost and schedule information. In 

addition, we compared contract deliverables to the actual milestones and deliverables

achieved. Finally, we interviewed Postal Service officials and reviewed our previous

reports and Inspector General reports to determine the program’s status and plans. 

Page 13 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
Appendix I: Briefing to the House Oversight 

and Government Reform Subcommittee Staff 

 6 

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology 

For our second objective, we identified widely recognized industry standards for good 

acquisition and development practices, including processes defined in the Software 

Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model® Integration for Acquisition (CMMIACQ) and for Development (CMMI-DEV).2

 From this guidance we identified the following 

process areas as being the most relevant to our review: (1) project planning, (2) project 

monitoring and control, (3) requirements development and management, (4) risk 

management, and (5) product integration. We compared USPS documentation, such as

organizational policies, contract information, status reports, meeting minutes, 

requirements for the program, process documentation, and risk information to SEI’s

guidance on sound IT systems acquisition and management practices in the five process

areas. We also interviewed Postal Service officials about these key process areas to help 

us understand whether the agency has the capabilities in place to successfully acquire 

and manage the program. 

 

2

Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, Capability Maturity Model® Integration for Acquisition (CMMI-ACQ), Version 1.2 

(November 2007) and Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, Capability Maturity Model® Integration for Development 

(CMMI-DEV) Version 1.2 (August 2006). 

Page 14 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
Appendix I: Briefing to the House Oversight 

and Government Reform Subcommittee Staff 

 7 

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology 

We conducted this performance audit from February 2009 to August 2009 at United 

States Postal Service headquarters in Washington, D.C., in accordance with generally 

accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and 

perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis

for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the 

evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on 

our audit objectives. 

Page 15 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
Appendix I: Briefing to the House Oversight 

and Government Reform Subcommittee Staff 

 8 

Results in Brief 

Although USPS officials originally intended to deliver the entire Full Service program by 

January 2009, they currently plan to deliver the program in multiple releases—the first of 

two planned releases of the Full Service program was deployed on May 18, 2009. The 

second release is expected to be implemented by the end of November 2009. 

Additionally, key functionality that was originally intended to be delivered in these two 

planned releases has been deferred, including automating aspects of the mail acceptance 

process. Program officials have recently stated that they plan to have future releases to 

incorporate the deferred functionality; however, they have not made any commitments to 

do so or obtained funding approval. Program officials estimate that the life cycle cost of 

the program is $116.4 million, of which $65.9 million has been spent as of June 3, 2009. 

However, the life cycle cost estimate that program officials prepared does not capture all 

the costs associated with the acquisition and implementation of the program, such as

costs to integrate approximately 30 systems with the Full Service program. Moreover, the 

first deployed release is currently experiencing operational problems (e.g., applying 

inconsistent charges for certain mail pieces). Therefore, program officials are developing 

patches to resolve these issues and to implement system enhancements. 

Page 16 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
Appendix I: Briefing to the House Oversight 

and Government Reform Subcommittee Staff 

 9 

Results in Brief 

While the Full Service program has implemented initial acquisition management activities, 

it does not have the full set of capabilities it needs to fully manage the acquisition. 

Table 1: Summary of the Full Service Program Acquisition Management Capabilities

Capability Status 

Project planning Initiated, but key activities remain to be completed, such as developing an overall 

project plan that identifies the full scope of the Full Service program and identifying 

key deliverables beyond release 2. 

Project monitoring and control Key steps taken, but the prime contractor for the development of the Full Service 

program also manages program management office activities including assessing 

the quality of deliverables and overseeing the program’s schedule, issues, and 

risks, which creates a conflict of interest because of the risk that the contractor will 

not evaluate its own products in a completely objective manner. 

Requirements development 

and management 

Initiated, but USPS has not finalized or validated a core set of requirements for the 

Full Service program. 

Risk management Initiated, but key activities remain to be performed, such as establishing a risk 

management process that ensures a comprehensive list of risks is maintained and 

complete mitigation strategies are developed. 

Product integration Initiated, but program officials have not developed a systems integration plan 

regarding the plans for conducting product integration for the entire Full Service 

program, which includes the integration of approximately 30 systems. Source: GAO analysis of USPS data. 

Page 17 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
Appendix I: Briefing to the House Oversight 

and Government Reform Subcommittee Staff 

 10 

Results in Brief 

A key cause of the program’s immature management approach in the areas of project 

planning, risk management, and product integration is that USPS organizational policies

do not set forth sufficient requirements for establishing effective practices in these areas. 

Weaknesses exist in the program monitoring and control area because the program 

management contract itself creates a conflict of interest by requiring the contractor to 

assess the quality of its own deliverables, and oversee the program’s schedule, issues, 

and risks. Although USPS officials have told us they use strategies to avoid potential 

conflicts, such as developing a separate program management team from the system 

development team, they have not provided us with evidence that they have a formal 

mitigation plan in place to address the conflict that exists. While organizational policies

exist for requirements development and management, weaknesses exist in this area, in 

part, because USPS decided not to follow its organizational policies for system acquisition 

and instead followed a truncated program management approach in an effort to deliver 

the system in a compressed timeframe. 

Until USPS fully implements these key acquisition management processes, the Intelligent 

Mail® Full Service program is at risk of continuing to encounter problems in meeting its

performance, schedule, and cost objectives. 

 

Page 18 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
Appendix I: Briefing to the House Oversight 

and Government Reform Subcommittee Staff 

 11 

Results in Brief 

We are recommending that the Postmaster General direct USPS’s Chief Information 

Officer and Senior Vice President of Intelligent Mail and Address Quality to take the 

following actions to improve the management of its acquisition capabilities: (1) develop a

comprehensive cost estimate; (2) complete a program plan for the entire Full Service 

program; (3) reconsider the current contract arrangement to avoid having the contractor 

review its own performance; (4) define requirements for the entire program and use them 

as a basis for developing a reliable cost estimate; (5) develop a robust risk management 

process; and (6) develop and maintain a systems integration plan for release 2 and 

beyond. 

We are also recommending that the Postmaster General direct USPS’s Chief Information 

Officer to include in USPS’s Technical Solution Life Cycle policy guidance for programs to 

develop (1) complete program plans; (2) specific requirements for programs to establish a

robust risk management process; and (3) system integration plan. 

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Results in Brief 

In e-mail comments on a draft of these briefing slides, the Senior Vice President of 

Intelligent Mail and Address Quality did not state whether he agreed or disagreed with our 

recommendation to develop a comprehensive cost estimate for the program. He 

disagreed with our findings and conclusions regarding the program’s acquisition 

management capabilities. Specifically, 

x With regard to project planning, the Senior Vice President stated that federal best 

practices do not reflect the dynamic environment that drives the scope, requirements, 

and schedule of future releases of the Full Service program. We disagree, as

industry best practices call for an overarching plan that describes a program’s full 

scope in order to ensure that it is accomplishing its goals. 

x Regarding the current contract arrangement, he did not acknowledge that a conflict 

of interest exists. Although the contracting officer has identified this arrangement as a

concern, program officials have not acknowledged this risk nor have they established 

formal mitigation plans to address it. 

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Results in Brief 

x He further disagreed with our findings on requirements development and 

management, stating that there is not enough funding to define requirements for the 

full program. Without a core set of high-level requirements, however, USPS will face 

challenges in focusing on the next release and holding itself accountable to users’ 

needs. 

x Regarding risk management, the Senior Vice President noted that the program has a

risk manager and a risk management process in place. However, we found that 

several key risks were not included in risk reports, complete mitigation plans were not 

developed, and they did not have a comprehensive risk management plan. 

x Regarding product integration, the Senior Vice President stated that the program 

provided us with a systems integration plan. However, these documents defined 

testing strategies, not a comprehensive system integration plan. 

Finally, USPS’s program officials did not state whether they agreed or disagreed with our 

recommendations that USPS modify its current policy to provide guidance for USPS

programs to, among other things, develop complete program plans. 

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Background 

Intelligent Mail® Program 

Since the 1970s, the use of barcodes and automation has improved efficiency in USPS

mail processing operations. Commercial mailers have been encouraged to use barcodes

through pricing incentives, allowing USPS to cut costs and increase efficiency in its mail 

processing operations. In particular, automated mail processing machines can sort mail 

with barcodes containing delivery information faster than manual sorting. Over the past 

three decades, the number and type of barcodes increased along with technology 

changes, and in 2003 USPS estimated that there were more than 30 different barcodes in 

use. Two of the most commonly used barcodes are the following: 

x POSTNET, which contains delivery information that enables automated sorting of the 

mail to the carrier’s route level. Mailers receive a postage discount when they print 

POSTNET barcodes on their mail. 

x PLANET, which is a barcode that contains identification numbers to enable tracking 

mail in USPS’s mail processing system but contains less information than the new 

Intelligent Mail® barcode. 

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Background 

Intelligent Mail® Program 

According to USPS, the use and maintenance of numerous barcodes have become 

increasingly burdensome. For example, whenever USPS adds or upgrades its mail 

processing equipment, it has to ensure that the equipment remains compatible with each 

of the relevant barcodes. Additionally, printing numerous barcodes on mail pieces clutters

the pieces, thus reducing the “real estate” that mailers have to advertise or print other 

information on their envelopes (see fig. 1). 

Figure 1: Example of Different Barcodes on a Letter 

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Background 

Intelligent Mail® Program 

In 2003, USPS initiated the Intelligent Mail® program, which is intended to use 

information-rich standardized barcodes to track mail and thus provide USPS and mailers

with better and timelier information about the mail. Figure 2 illustrates the components of 

the Intelligent Mail® barcode. 

Figure 2: Example of an Intelligent Mail® Barcode, Including its Information Fields 

a

The unique number is either six digits (as shown in the shaded area) or nine digits, depending on the mail volume of the mailer. 

 

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Background 

Intelligent Mail® Program 

USPS has identified several ways it expects the implementation of Intelligent Mail® to 

benefit USPS and mailers: 

x Improve efficiency, reduce costs, and improve timeliness of delivery. USPS says it 

will be able to use information from Intelligent Mail® to improve its processing 

system. Also, USPS plans to use Intelligent Mail® to create efficiencies by 

streamlining and automating the process it uses to accept mail from commercial 

mailers, which is currently time- and labor-intensive. 

x Reduce the amount of mail that must be forwarded, which can involve extra handling 

by USPS and delays in delivery. USPS will provide free notification when intended 

recipients have moved and filed a change of address with USPS. Mailers previously 

had to pay for this service. This feature, known as the Address Correction Service, 

could help USPS meet its goal of reducing the amount of mail that cannot be 

delivered. 

x Provide better service to mailers. Through Intelligent Mail®, USPS plans to provide 

better service to mailers through real-time feedback. Also, since mail will be uniquely 

identified, USPS anticipates having the ability to isolate and give special handling to 

a specific mail piece, which creates an opportunity for USPS to offer mailers new 

products and services. 

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Background 

Intelligent Mail® Program 

x Financial incentives. USPS is also offering a financial incentive to mailers. 

Specifically, those who adopt Full Service Intelligent Mail® will receive a postage 

discount, in addition to other worksharing discounts.

3

 

x Service performance measurement capability. Intelligent Mail® is expected to allow 

USPS to gather more comprehensive and detailed service performance information 

and measure it against established performance standards, which is intended to help 

keep USPS accountable to its stakeholders. This feature was also intended to enable 

USPS to meet requirements in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 

2006. 

 

3

 This concept, known as worksharing, generally involves mailers qualifying for reduced postage rates by performing certain activities

such as preparing and barcoding mail so it can be sorted by USPS automated equipment. 

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Background 

Intelligent Mail’s® Full Service Program 

Intelligent Mail’s® Full Service program is intended to include custom software 

capabilities and supporting hardware that will enable mailers and the Postal Service to 

gain visibility into the mail stream and achieve the benefits of the Intelligent Mail® 

program. 

The Full Service program consists of developing new systems and integrating 

approximately 30 systems. The largest system development project within the Full 

Service program is the development of the Intelligent Mail® Barcode/ Seamless

Acceptance and Service Performance (IMB/SASP) system. It is intended to deploy an 

infrastructure that includes hardware and software capabilities needed to capture and 

store large volumes of mailing data and to acquire and implement a system that supports

better service performance measurement as mandated by the Postal Accountability and 

Enhancement Act of 2006. It is also intended to automate several business mail 

verification activities. 

The 29 other systems are a combination of existing and new systems that need to 

integrate with the IMB/SASP system in order to share data. An example of one of the 

existing USPS systems that must be integrated with the IMB/SASP is Postal One—the 

main communications interface between USPS and mailers. Upgrades to PostalOne 

include designing a better external user interface, adding electronic documentation 

acceptance capabilities, and providing more options for mailers to access mail tracking 

information. 

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Background 

Intelligent Mail’s® Full Service Program 

The Facilities Database—a repository of all USPS facilities data, including facility names, 

addresses, physical characteristics, and services provided, is another system that USPS

plans to integrate with IMB/SASP in order to attribute mail pieces to the appropriate 

locations. 

Table 2 provides a summary of the key functionality of the program. 

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Background 

Intelligent Mail’s® Full Service Program 

Table 2: Summary of Key Functionality Intended for the Full Service Program 

Functionality Description 

Enable the 

Intelligent Mail® 

Barcode 

Implementation 

This system will support USPS's vision of replacing multiple existing barcodes and labels

with one standardized, information-rich code for letters, postcards, and flats (e.g. larger 

envelopes, catalogs, circulars, newspapers, and magazines) and submitting electronic 

documentation. Starting in May 2009, mailers have two options that offer different incentives

based on the level of effort required for mailers to comply: 

Basic Service: Requires mailers to apply an Intelligent Mail® barcode and populate the 

relevant fields within the barcode, but does not require mailers to include unique numbers in 

the barcode. Mailers who implement the Basic Service option will receive a postage discount 

for using a barcode, but will not receive other benefits associated with Full Service option. 

Full Service: Requires mailers to populate and apply a barcode, but unlike the Basic 

Service option, the barcode must contain a number that is unique to the particular mail 

piece. Full Service mailers must also apply a unique barcode to any trays or containers they 

use to package mail and submit electronic documentation of their mailings. USPS provides

pricing discounts and other incentives for mailers implementing Full Service option. 

Support for Service 

Performance 

Measurement 

This functionality will support Service Performance reporting by collecting data when mail 

enters the mail stream, scanning customer mailings prepared with the Intelligent Mail® 

barcodes, and collecting the information associated with when a mail piece reaches its

destination. 

Automated Aspects

of Mail Verification 

This functionality is intended to obtain scan data received from mail processing equipment 

and compare it to mailing data received electronically from the mailer, to verify that the mail 

is prepared according to the prices claimed by the mailer. 

Source: GAO analysis of USPS data. 

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Background 

Intelligent Mail’s® Full Service Program 

Table 2: Summary of Key Functionality Intended for the Full Service Program (cont.) 

Functionality Description 

Upgrade Processing 

Network and IT 

infrastructure 

This functionality is intended to integrate existing and new systems in order to share data

and store large volumes of mailing information. 

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Background 

Intelligent Mail® Full Service Program 

Several USPS groups support the execution of the Full Service program: 

x The Full Service Program Directors—the Senior Vice President of Intelligent Mail and 

Address Quality and the Chief Information Officer—head the program. Their 

responsibilities include reviewing deliverables and conducting governance meetings

that focus on the status of the program, issues, and risks. 

x The Program Management Office activities are performed by a contractor, Accenture, 

who reports directly to the Program Directors. The responsibilities for the contractor 

include program status reporting, communications management, scope and release 

management, issue and risk management, and selective quality deliverable audits. 

x The Marketing Technology and Channel Management group is the business

organization responsible for business mail acceptance process re-engineering and 

field deployment activities, including field preparedness, developing test plans, 

newsletters, and training and awareness. 

x The Sales and Marketing Portfolio is the IT organization responsible for development, 

integration, and systems deployment activities. 

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Background

Intelligent Mail’s® Full Service Program 

Figure 3 graphically depicts the organizational structure for the Full Service Program. 

Figure 3: Simplified Full Service Organizational Structure 

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Background

Intelligent Mail’s® Full Service Program 

The program’s estimated life cycle cost is $116.4 million. In November 2007, USPS

awarded its first contract in a series of contracts for the Full Service program to the prime 

contractor, Accenture. As of June 3, 2009, USPS has awarded $65.9 million in contracts

for the Full Service program. The contracts for the requirements development, designing, 

building, and testing are firm fixed price.4

 

4

Under firm fixed price contracts, the agency and the contractor agree on a price and the contractor assumes full responsibility for all 

costs and the resulting profit or loss. 

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Background 

Prior GAO Review 

In May 2009, we issued a report that described the Intelligent Mail® program and stated 

that key management actions were not taken, such as developing a comprehensive 

strategic plan; preparing information about the program’s costs, including its anticipated 

savings or cost reductions; and establishing a risk mitigation plan. In addition, we 

highlighted commercial mailers’ concerns about the implementation of the program.5

Specifically, the mailers stated that USPS communication efforts were insufficient; USPS

and mailers may not be ready for implementation given USPS’s short time frame to 

simultaneously design, develop, test, and implement the Intelligent Mail® program; and 

the program’s pricing and benefits may not be sufficient to encourage mailers to 

participate. 

As such, we recommended that USPS develop a comprehensive Intelligent Mail® 

strategic plan, as well as develop a plan that addresses how USPS will mitigate programlevel risks. In its response to our recommendations, USPS agreed to develop a

comprehensive Intelligent Mail® strategy, including all planned phases and the 

associated functions and systems, program goals, and measures of success; and a plan 

that addresses how it will mitigate risks. 

 

5

GAO, U.S. Postal Service: Intelligent Mail Benefits May Not Be Achieved if Key Risks Are Not Addressed, GAO-09-599 (Washington, 

D.C.: May 2009). 

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Objective 1: Full Service Program Status and Plans 

 

Program officials have completed key activities for implementing the Full Service 

program, including deploying the first release on May 18, 2009, and beginning activities

for release 2. However, while USPS officials originally intended to deliver the entire Full 

Service program by January 2009, they currently plan to deliver the program in multiple 

releases—the first of two planned releases of the program was deployed on May 18, 

2009. The second release is expected to be implemented by the end of November 2009. 

Therefore, full implementation of the program has been delayed by almost 10 months. 

Additionally, key functionality that was originally intended to be delivered in these two 

planned releases has been deferred, including automating aspects of the mail acceptance 

process. Program officials have recently stated that they plan to have future releases to 

incorporate the deferred functionality; however, they have not made any commitments to 

do so. In addition, the life cycle cost that program officials prepared does not capture all 

the costs associated with the acquisition and implementation of the program, such as

costs to integrate several USPS systems. Moreover, the first deployed release is currently 

experiencing operational problems, thus requiring program officials to develop patches to 

resolve the issues. 

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 Objective 1: Full Service Program Status and Plans 

Current Implementation Status

Although USPS officials originally intended to deliver the entire Full Service program by 

January 2009, they currently plan to deliver the program in multiple releases. The current 

implementation schedule for the Full Service program is as follows: 

Release 1: 

x May 11, 2009. USPS internally implemented the first release which enables certain 

functions, such as the Address Correction Service and electronic documentation. 

x May 18, 2009 and beyond. Mailers began testing their systems’ ability to access and 

electronically transmit documentation to USPS’s system. 

Release 2: 

x November 29, 2009. USPS plans to deploy the second release of the Full Service 

program and expects to begin offering price incentives to mailers that utilized the Full 

Service program. 

Future Releases: 

x No commitments have been made by program officials for future releases.

6

 

 

6

 While program officials announced on August 12, 2009, that they are aiming to develop a third release by March 12, 2010, program 

officials indicated that they have not obtained funding to implement this release or future releases. 

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Objective 1: Full Service Program Status and Plans 

Current Implementation Status

By May 2011, the use of POSTNET and PLANET barcodes will be phased out and 

mailers seeking reduced automation-postage rates will be required to use Intelligent 

Mail® barcodes. Based on the current revised schedule, table 3 summarizes the key 

functionality by releases. 

Table 3: Summary of Key Functionality by Releases 

Release 1 (May 2009) Release 2 (Nov. 09) 

• Support the communication protocols used 

by mailers to electronically submit mailing 

information to USPS. 

• Support Customer Supplier Agreements

• Enable the service that identifies exactly 

when the mail enters the mail stream for 

mailers using the existing communication 

protocols. 

• Enable address correction for mailers

using the existing communication 

protocols. 

• Support mailers’ appointment scheduling, 

data distribution, and miscellaneous

messages. 

• Support the Intelligent Mail® Barcode discount pricing for Full 

Service option. 

• Support the improved protocol for communicating with USPS. 

• Enable the service that identifies exactly when the mail enters

the mail stream versus an estimate for mailers using a new 

communications protocol. 

• Enable address correction for mailers using a new 

communications protocol. 

• Support miscellaneous data messages for the new 

communication protocol. 

• Support the process of combining trays from multiple letter-size 

mailers together in order to qualify for postal discounts. 

• Support the printing of one or more pages that are not bound 

into a publication. 

• Support additional enhancements that were not provided in 

release 1. 

Source: GAO analysis of USPS data. 

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Objective 1: Full Service Program Status and Plans 

Current Implementation Status

As of June 3, 2009, $65.9 million had been spent on the acquisition and implementation 

of the first release and the development of requirements for the second release. 

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Objective 1: Full Service Program Status and Plans 

Implementation Has Been Delayed 

The current implementation schedule represents a significant delay from its original and 

revised implementation dates. Specifically, 

x In January 2008, USPS published the Intelligent Mail® Advance Notice of Proposed 

Rulemaking in the Federal Register, which originally proposed implementing all 

functionality of the program by January 2009.7

 

x In April 2008, USPS issued a revised Intelligent Mail® Federal Register notice which 

pushed back the implementation date to May 2009.8

 This was due to several 

concerns by the mailers, such as the compressed time period in which USPS

planned to simultaneously design, test, and implement the program. Mailers were 

also concerned that they had not been provided with finalized IT requirements. 

 

7

73 Fed. Reg. 1158 (Jan. 7, 2008). 8

73 Fed. Reg. 23393 (April 30, 2008). 

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Objective 1: Full Service Program Status and Plans 

Implementation Has Been Delayed 

x Subsequently, in November 2008, program officials planned to incrementally deliver 

functionality in multiple releases and delay full implementation further. Specially, they 

committed to delivering three releases—the first in May 2009, a second in September 

2009, and a third in November 2009. According to USPS officials, the schedule was

revised to accommodate the implementation of the Intelligent Mail® barcode and to 

allow mailers more time to make appropriate modifications to their systems and 

processes. 

x However, in January 2009, program officials again revised its schedule: they planned 

to deliver select functionality in a release in May 2009 and additional functionality in 

another release in November 2009. According to program officials, they decided that 

delivering three releases in such a short time frame was too ambitious. 

See figure 4 for a summary of the Full Service program’s original and revised 

implementation schedule as of June 2009. 

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Objective 1: Full Service Program Status and Plans 

Implementation Has Been Delayed 

Figure 4: Full Service Program Original and Revised Implementation Schedule, as of June 2009. 

Note: While program officials have recently stated they also plan to have future releases to incorporate the deferred functionality, they 

have not made any commitments to do so or obtained funding approval. 

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Objective 1: Full Service Program Status and Plans 

Steps Have Been Taken to Implement Key Program Activities 

To meet the current implementation schedule, USPS has been engaged in design and 

build activities for release 2. For example, program officials stated that they completed the 

requirements definition phase for the second release. Figure 5 shows the schedule for 

key activities for release 2 as of June 4, 2009. 

Figure 5: Schedule of Key Activities for Release 2, as of June 4, 2009 

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Objective 1: Full Service Program Status and Plans 

Functionality Has Been Deferred 

In addition to implementation delays, key functionality that was originally intended to be 

delivered in the two planned releases of the Full Service program has been deferred. 

Specifically, despite the fact that automating several aspects of the business mail 

verification process was one of the key justifications for the Full Service program, this

function is not going to be delivered in the two releases. Additionally, USPS recently 

announced, in August 2009, that enabling the ability to better measure and report USPS’s

service performance is no longer going to be delivered in the second release, as planned. 

According to USPS officials, service performance measurement functionality has been 

deferred because it was taking longer than planned to implement, and they wanted to be 

able to deliver other promised functionality in release 2 by November 29, 2009. This is

especially problematic since USPS is legislatively required to develop a system to better 

measure and report its service performance to the Postal Regulatory Commission, and 

the Full Service program was the vehicle USPS planned to use to meet that mandate.9

 

 

9

 The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act required USPS to develop a system to measure and report service 

performance to the Postal Regulatory Commission. 

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Objective 1: Full Service Program Status and Plans 

Functionality Has Been Deferred 

While program officials announced on August 12, 2009, that they are aiming to develop a

third release by March 12, 2010, program officials indicated that they have not obtained 

funding to implement this release or future releases. According to program officials, one 

of the primary reasons for not moving forward with such decisions is that funding for 

future releases may not be available as a result of USPS’s current financial situation.10

We recently reported that amid challenging economic conditions and a changing business

environment, USPS is facing a deteriorating financial situation in which it does not expect 

to cover its expenses and financial obligations in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. 11 As a

result, we added the financial condition of USPS to our high-risk list of federal areas in 

need of transformation. 

 

10The Postmaster General testified in January 2009 that USPS was facing a potential net loss of $6 billion or more for fiscal year 2009. 

He noted that USPS anticipated continued deterioration due to the economic slowdown, as the financial, credit, and housing sectors

are among its key business drivers. 11GAO, Restructuring the U.S. Postal Service to Achieve Sustainable Financial Viability (New), GAO-09-937SP (Washington, D.C.: July 

2009). 

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Objective 1: Full Service Program Status and Plans 

Program Life Cycle Cost Was Not Completely Defined 

According to industry best practices, programs must maintain current and welldocumented cost estimates, and these estimates must encompass the full life cycle of the 

program. Specifically, as stated in the GAO Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide,12

cost estimates should be comprehensive in that they should include both government and 

contractor costs throughout the program’s full life cycle, from the inception of the program 

through design, development, deployment, and operation and maintenance to retirement. 

According to the business case, the life cycle cost estimate of the Full Service program is

$116.4 million. This includes the costs to develop the custom software capabilities, 

necessary hardware to support the software capabilities, and operating and maintenance 

cost. 

However, the life cycle cost estimate excludes key costs associated with the acquisition 

and implementation of the Full Service program. For example, the estimate does not 

include 

x costs related to the integration of the systems or 

x the cost of future releases beyond release 2. 

 

12GAO, GAO Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide: Best Practices for Developing and Managing Capital Program Costs, GAO-09-

3SP (Washington, D.C.: March 2009). 

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Objective 1: Full Service Program Status and Plans 

Program Life Cycle Cost Was Not Completely Defined 

Additionally, the life cycle cost has not been updated to reflect the significant changes that 

have been made to the program. While a revised business case to reflect the modified 

schedule and scope for the program was approved in June 2009, program officials did not 

update the life cycle cost of the program. 

According to program officials, they did not include all of the costs associated with 

integrating the system because they did not regard the costs to be significant enough to 

include. Additionally, officials stated that they did not include the costs of the future 

releases because they are uncertain if they are going to be able to deliver those releases. 

As a result, program officials lack an accurate total cost estimate for the entire Full 

Service program. 

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 Objective 1: Full Service Program Status and Plans 

Operational Problems and System Enhancements Have Been Identified in First Release 

In addition to implementation delays, deferred requirements, and an unreliable cost 

estimate, USPS is experiencing operational problems and has identified the need for 

system enhancements with the first release of the Full Service system. Program officials

are working to address these problems and enhancements by implementing three 

patches. As of June 18, 2009, according to USPS officials, USPS and mailers had 

identified 73 issues. A portion of the issues were reportedly resolved in a patch that was

deployed on June 7, 2009. Subsequently, another patch was deployed on July 19, 2009. 

Examples of issues reportedly resolved in these two patches include: 

x certain mailers and mail pieces were being incorrectly charged, 

x the system was not recognizing certain zone values, 

x the system was preventing mailers from putting Intelligent Mail® barcodes on certain 

mail pieces, 

x reporting functions were not working as intended, 

x system was not allowing mailers to enter certain information on individual mail 

pieces, and 

x after logging into account and clicking through the available links, mailers were 

receiving an error message when they tried to return to the homepage. 

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Objective 1: Full Service Program Status and Plans 

Operational Problems and System Enhancements Have Been Identified in First Release 

A third patch is scheduled to be deployed on August 16, 2009. Examples of operational 

problems and system enhancements intended to be addressed include: 

x system is incorrectly creating a finalized postage statement for mailers who canceled 

or updated a job, 

x system does not accept certain updates after postage statements are final and ready 

to accept payment, 

x inconsistent charges are being applied to a secured group of mail pieces, and 

x certain electronic documentation is not being transmitted through the system. 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

USPS Lacks Key Management Capabilities Essential to Effectively Acquire and 

Manage the Full Service Program 

USPS is in the process of implementing key acquisition management controls, but it has

yet to implement the full set of controls essential for acquiring and managing the Full 

Service program in a disciplined and rigorous manner. Specifically, it has not 

implemented certain process controls in the areas of 

x project planning, 

x project monitoring and control, 

x requirements development and management, 

x risk management, and 

x product integration. 

The primary cause of the program’s immature management approach in the areas of 

project planning, risk management, and product integration is that USPS organizational 

policies do not set forth sufficient requirements for establishing effective practices in these 

areas. While organizational policies exist for requirements development and 

management, weaknesses exist in this area in part because USPS decided not to follow 

its organizational policies for system acquisition and instead took a 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

truncated program management approach in an effort to deliver the system in a

compressed timeframe. 

Until USPS implements the full set of controls essential to effectively managing the 

program, it increases the risk that the Full Service program will continue to encounter 

problems in meeting its performance, schedule, and cost objectives. 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

As we have previously reported,13 to effectively manage major IT programs, organizations

must use sound acquisition and management processes to minimize risks and thereby 

maximize chances for success. Such processes have been identified by leading 

organizations such as the Software Engineering Institute, the Chief Information Officer’s

Council, and in our prior work analyzing best practices in industry and government. In 

particular, the CMMI-ACQ14 and CMMI-DEV15 have defined a suite of key acquisition 

process control areas that are necessary to manage system acquisitions in a rigorous and 

disciplined fashion. These process areas include 

x project planning, 

x project monitoring and control, 

x requirements development and management, 

x risk management, and 

x product integration. 

 

13For example, GAO, Information Technology: Management Improvements Needed on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 

Infrastructure Modernization Program, GAO-05-805 (Washington, D.C.: September 7, 2005) and Census Bureau: Important Activities 

for Improving Management of Key 2010 Decennial Acquisitions Remain to be Done, GAO-06-444T (Washington, D.C.: March 1, 

2006). 

14Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, Capability Maturity Model® Integration for Acquisition (CMMI-ACQ), Version 1.2 

(November 2007). 15Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, Capability Maturity Model® Integration for Development (CMMI-DEV), Version 1.2 

(August 2006). 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

Project Planning 

Effective project planning involves establishing and maintaining plans that define project scope and 

activities, including overall budget and schedule, key deliverables and milestones for key 

deliverables, assumptions and constraints, description and assignment of roles and responsibilities, 

staffing and training plans, and an approach for maintaining these plans. It also involves obtaining 

stakeholder commitment to the project plan.16

The Full Service program officials have 

x established a program office for the Full Service program and assigned a USPS

project manager; 

x hired a contractor to carry out program management activities including tracking 

schedule, issues, and risks for the program; 

x identified the tasks and organizational roles and responsibilities for release 1; 

x developed a program plan for release 2 that identifies key deliverables and 

milestones for these deliverables; and 

x developed a business case for the Full Service program. 

 

16CMMI-ACQ, Version 1.2 (November 2007) and The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE Standard for Software Life 

Cycle Processes—Project Management Plans, IEEE Standard 1058-1998 (December 8, 1998). 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

Project Planning (continued) 

While officials have developed a business case for the Full Service program and a

program plan for release 2, there still is no comprehensive program plan that includes the 

full scope of the program, including how many releases are planned and the specific 

functions and systems to be implemented in each release; its plans to standardize and 

consolidate the over 30 barcodes currently being used; assumptions and constraints

about the program; a description and assignment of roles and responsibilities; staffing 

and training plans; and the strategy for maintaining the program plan. In addition, program 

officials have not yet obtained commitment from internal and external stakeholders on the 

program plan for release 2. Such a plan is often used to form a baseline for the program 

and to obtain buy-in from stakeholders. 

A key reason that these activities have not been completed is that USPS’s policy that 

outlines the steps that programs should follow when developing, acquiring, enhancing, 

and/or maintaining IT systems—referred to as the Technical Solution Life Cycle policy—

does not require that officials develop a comprehensive plan for their programs. 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

Project Planning (continued) 

Until program officials develop a complete program plan that supports the Intelligent 

Mail® Strategic Plan, which we previously recommended,17 and includes the details on 

the full scope of the Full Service program, USPS may not be able to ensure that the 

program is moving in the right direction. Without this assurance, it is more likely to 

encounter unanticipated changes in direction—which could affect cost, schedule, and 

deliverables. 

 

17GAO-09-599. 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

Project Monitoring and Control 

Project monitoring and control involves providing oversight of the contractor’s and the project office’s

performance, in order to allow appropriate corrective actions if actual performance deviates

significantly from the plan. Key activities in tracking both the contractor’s and the project office’s

performance include communicating status, taking corrective actions, and determining progress.

18 In 

addition, organizations should have IT investment management boards comprised of key executives

to regularly track the progress of major systems acquisitions. These boards should be able to 

adequately oversee the project’s progress toward cost and schedule milestones and its risks. The 

board should also employ early warning systems that enable it to take corrective actions at the first 

sign of cost, schedule, and performance slippages.

19

With regard to project monitoring and control activities, program officials

 

x track the milestones and dependencies of the program; and 

x review the activities, status, and results of the process with higher level program 

management, USPS senior executives representing both IT and business units, and 

the contractor. 

 

18CMMI-ACQ, Version 1.2 (November 2007). 19GAO, Information Technology Investment Management: A Framework for Assessing and Improving Process Maturity, GAO-04-394G

(Washington, D.C.: March 2004). 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

Project Monitoring and Control (continued) 

However, the main contractor performing the development and implementation functions

of the Full Service program is also the contractor carrying out USPS’s program 

management activities. Specifically, according to the Program Management Office 

contract, the contractor is responsible for 

x assessing the quality of program deliverables; 

x overseeing the program’s schedule, issues, and risks; 

x assessing the project plan’s critical path which is necessary for examining the effects

of any activity slipping along this path;20

x developing project status materials for USPS program officials, including bi-weekly 

detailed status reports to the program manager and weekly status reports to IT 

management and project teams; and 

x participating in weekly deliverable reviews from other USPS internal and external 

suppliers, including documenting all meeting minutes, and action items. 

 

20The critical path is the longest duration path through the sequenced list of key program activities. 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

The roles that the contractor plays as both a manager of the Full Service program and as

a supplier of products for the program create a conflict of interest because of the risk that 

the contractor will not evaluate its own products in a completely objective manner. USPS

program officials stated that they do not think that this is an issue because the company’s

program management staff work on a separate team from the system development staff 

and the two teams do not interact; however, this arrangement still requires the contractor 

to assess the quality of its own deliverables, and oversee the program’s schedule, issues, 

and risks. USPS officials have not provided us with evidence that they have a formal 

mitigation plan in place to address the conflict that exists under the contract. 

While we recognize that USPS is not required to comply with the Federal Acquisition 

Regulation (FAR), these regulations can be instructive since they are used by federal 

agencies for acquiring goods and services.

21 According to the FAR, an underlying 

principle is that, in order to avoid a conflict of interest, a contractor should not have 

conflicting roles that might bias a contractor’s judgment.22

 

21 48 C.F.R. 1.101; 1.104; 2.101(b) (“Acquisition” defined). The FAR generally applies to acquisitions made with appropriated funds

used to obtain supplies or services for the federal government. 22 48 C.F.R. 9.505(a). 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

Until program officials reconsider having the same contractor that is developing and 

implementing the system be responsible for helping USPS oversee the program, USPS

will increase its risk of unexpected cost increases, schedule delays, and performance 

shortfalls. 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

Requirements Development and Management 

Requirements development involves eliciting, analyzing, and validating customer and stakeholder 

needs and expectations. Requirements management involves establishing an agreed-upon set of 

requirements, ensuring traceability between operational and product requirements, and managing 

any changes to the requirements in collaboration with stakeholders.

23

With regard to requirements development and management, program officials have 

x defined the initial business requirements dated August 16, 2007, for release 1; 

x defined requirements for release 2; and 

x developed a change control process for managing changes to the requirements. 

 

23CMMI-ACQ, Version 1.2 (November 2007). 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

Requirements Development and Management (continued) 

While USPS has defined the requirements for release 1 and release 2, it has not finalized 

or validated the core set of requirements for the Full Service program, which would 

include high-level requirements that USPS plans to deliver in future releases. These core 

requirements would need to be further defined as the program begins to focus on the next 

release. Program officials stated that they did not fully define the program’s requirements

because the requirements are still evolving. 

Until program officials define the core set of requirements for the program it will be difficult 

for USPS to hold itself accountable to delivering a system that meets USPS’s and mailers’ 

needs. 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

Risk Management 

An effective risk management process identifies potential problems before they occur, so that riskhandling activities may be planned and invoked as needed across the life of the product and project 

in order to mitigate adverse impacts on achieving objectives. Key activities include assigning 

resources, identifying and analyzing risks, and developing risk mitigation plans and milestones for 

key mitigation deliverables. Additionally, a risk management strategy addresses the specific actions

and management approach used to perform and control the risk management program. It also 

includes identifying and involving relevant stakeholders in the risk management process.

 24

With regard to risk management, program officials have 

x assigned responsibility for managing the risks and 

x identified and analyzed selected risks associated with schedule, performance, and 

testing. Examples of the selected program-level risks include 

o limited mailer adaptation and adoption can affect future Full Service releases, 

o program success measurements are not defined, 

o parallel program activities have caused resource constraints, 

o components of scope have not been planned for release 2, and 

o mailers require significantly more support than estimated to assist them with the 

implementation of the Intelligent Mail® barcode. 

 

24CMMI-ACQ, Version 1.2 (November 2007). 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

Risk Management (continued) 

However, they did not adequately identify all risks. For example, 

x While the USPS contracting officer indicated in the program management contract’s

price negotiation memorandum that having the same company perform program 

management activities as well as development and implementation activities for the 

Full Service program is a major concern, program officials have not identified this as

a risk or established a complete mitigation strategy. 

x Program officials stated that they include the list of risks the system development 

contractor identifies as part of the program management office’s risk reports. 

However, as of July 16, 2009, there was no evidence in the reports that contractor 

risks were being identified or mitigated. 

x While program officials are concurrently conducting activities for release 2 and 

unplanned post-deployment efforts for release 1, they have not identified potential 

schedule delays in release 2 as a risk or established a mitigation plan. 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

Risk Management (continued) 

Moreover, as we have previously reported,25 USPS lacks a risk mitigation plan, and 

therefore we recommended that USPS develop a plan that addresses how it will mitigate 

program-level risks. Although USPS agreed with this recommendation, it has not yet 

developed complete risk mitigation plans. During this review we found that while USPS

recently finalized a risk management plan for release 2, it is not comprehensive and does

not fully address the scope of the risk management effort, including discussing techniques

for risk mitigation, defining adequate risk sources and categories, and identifying and 

involving relevant stakeholders to promote commitment and understanding of the 

process. 

The program’s weaknesses in the risk management area are partly due to the fact that 

USPS’s Technical Solution Life Cycle policy does not set forth sufficient requirements

regarding risk management. 

Until program officials fully implement and institutionalize a risk management process that 

ensures the comprehensiveness of the risks identified, there is an increased probability 

that unanticipated risks may occur that could have a critical impact on the Full Service 

program’s cost, schedule, and performance. 

 

25GAO-09-599. 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

Product Integration 

The scope of this process area is to achieve complete product integration through progressive 

assembly of product components. A critical aspect of this area is the management of internal and 

external interfaces of the products and product components to ensure compatibility among the 

interfaces. Attention should be paid to interface management throughout the project.26 In addition, a

systems integration plan should be developed to identify all systems to be integrated, define roles

and responsibilities of all relevant participants, establish the sequence and schedule for every 

integration step, and describe how integration problems are to be documented and resolved.27

With regard to product integration, program officials have identified approximately 30 

systems that will need to be integrated in the Full Service program. However, USPS

officials have stated that the number of systems that need to be integrated could change, 

and they are not yet aware of which specific systems will need to be integrated in release 

2 or in possible future releases. In addition, while program officials stated they have 

several program documents, such as testing strategies, they do not have a system 

integration plan, which is intended to support the deployment strategy and describe to key 

stakeholders in each integration step what needs to be done to effectively integrate the 

various systems. The program office also lacks documentation of the process associated 

with updating and maintaining the integration of the systems.

 

26CMMI-DEV, Version 1.2 (August 2006). 27U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Systems Engineering Guidebook for ITS Version 2, January 2, 

2007. 

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Objective 2: Adequacy of Acquisition Management Capabilities 

Acquisition Management Capabilities Are Needed 

Part of the reason that these activities have not been completed is that USPS’s Technical 

Solution Life Cycle policy does not set forth sufficient requirements regarding product 

integration and does not require that programs develop system integration plan and 

associated documentation regarding updating and maintaining the integration of the 

systems. 

Until program officials develop these key product integration documents, USPS will be 

limited in its ability to ensure that the product is integrated, functioning properly, and 

delivered on time and within budget to the users. 

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Conclusions 

The current schedule for the full implementation of the Full Service program has been 

delayed by almost 10 months, and key functionality that was originally intended to be 

delivered in the program has been deferred indefinitely. In addition, the life cycle cost 

estimate that program officials prepared does not capture all the costs associated with the 

acquisition and implementation of the program. As a result, program officials lack an 

accurate total cost estimate. Moreover, the first deployed release is experiencing 

performance issues. 

While the Full Service program has implemented initial acquisition management activities, 

it does not have the full set of capabilities needed to fully manage the acquisition. A key 

cause of the program’s immature management approach in the areas of project planning, 

risk management, and product integration is that USPS organizational policies do not set 

forth sufficient requirements for establishing effective practices in these areas. 

Weaknesses exist in the program monitoring and control area because the program 

management contract itself creates a conflict of interest by requiring the contractor to 

assess the quality of its own deliverables, and oversee the program’s schedule, issues, 

and risks. Although USPS officials have told us they use strategies to avoid potential 

conflicts, such as developing a separate program management team from the system 

development team, they have not provided us with evidence that they have a formal 

mitigation plan in place to address the conflict that exists. 

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Conclusions 

While organizational policies exist for requirements development and management, 

weaknesses exist in this area, in part, because USPS decided not to follow USPS’s

organizational policies for system acquisition and instead followed a truncated program 

management approach in an effort to deliver the system in a compressed timeframe. 

Without these processes in place, USPS increases the risk that this project will continue 

to encounter problems in meeting its performance, schedule, and cost objectives. 

Given that release 2 is expected to be implemented by the end of November 2009 and 

decisions about future releases need to be made, having the key elements of a sound 

acquisition management capability in place will be crucial to the program’s success in 

meeting its goal. 

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Recommendations for Executive Action 

To ensure that USPS adequately manages the acquisition of the Intelligent Mail® Full 

Service program, we recommend that the Postmaster General direct the Chief 

Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Intelligent Mail and Address Quality to 

take the following six actions: 

x Develop a comprehensive cost estimate to include both government and contractor 

costs over the program’s full life cycle, from the inception of the program through 

design, development, deployment, and operation and maintenance to retirement. 

x Complete an overall program plan for the entire Full Service program, including an 

overview of the program’s scope of all releases, deliverables and functionality within 

these releases, plans to phase out the approximately 30 barcodes currently being 

utilized, assumptions and constraints, roles and responsibilities, staffing and training 

plans, and the strategy for maintaining the plan. 

x Reconsider the current contract arrangement to avoid having the contractor evaluate 

its own performance. 

x Define the core set of requirements for the entire program and use them as a basis

for developing a reliable cost estimate. 

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Recommendations for Executive Action 

x Develop a risk management process that enables the program officials to develop an 

adequate risk management plan that fully address the scope of their risk 

management efforts; ensures that a comprehensive list of risks and complete 

mitigation plans are identified and tracked; and includes milestones, mitigating 

actions, thresholds, and resources for significant risks. 

x Develop and maintain a systems integration plan for release 2 and beyond. 

We are also recommending that the Postmaster General direct USPS’s Chief Information 

Officer to include in USPS’s Technical Solution Life Cycle policy, guidance for programs

to develop (1) complete program plans that define overall budget and schedule, key 

deliverables and milestones, assumptions and constraints, description and assignment of 

roles and responsibilities, staffing and training plans, and an approach for maintaining 

these plans; (2) specific requirements for programs to establish a robust risk management 

process that identifies potential problems before they occur, such as requiring programs

to develop a risk management plan; and (3) system integration plan that include all 

systems to be integrated with the system, roles and responsibilities for all relevant 

participants, the sequence and schedule for every integration step, and how integration 

problems are to be documented and resolved. 

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Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 

We received comments via e-mail from the Senior Vice President of Intelligent Mail and 

Address Quality on a draft of these briefing slides.

28 He did not state whether he agreed or 

disagreed with our recommendation to develop a comprehensive cost estimate. The 

Senior Vice President disagreed with our findings and conclusions regarding the 

program’s acquisition management capabilities. 

x With regard to project planning, he stated he disagreed with the static approach 

suggested in our briefing. He stated that the scope, requirements, and schedule of 

future releases are driven by a dynamic environment both internal and external to 

USPS. However, as we state in the briefing, industry best practices show that it is

important to have an overarching program plan that describes the full scope of the 

program, including how many releases are planned, in order to ensure that the 

program is accomplishing its goals within the specified cost and schedule objectives. 

 

28The Senior Vice President revised the agency’s position on GAO’s seven recommendations in written comments dated October 15, 

2009. See appendix II. 

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Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 

x Regarding project monitoring and control activities, the Senior Vice President 

provided additional clarifying information on executive-level oversight, which we have 

incorporated into the briefing as appropriate. He did not acknowledge that a conflict 

of interest exists. While the USPS contracting officer identified that having the same 

company perform program management activities as well as development and 

implementation activities for the Full Service program is a concern, the program 

office has not identified that this arrangement is a conflict of interest. In fact, the 

program office has not even identified this arrangement as a risk that it tracks in its

risk tracking process. Despite this, program officials have explained actions they are 

taking to mitigate the potential risk of a conflict of interest, such as establishing 

separate teams for the program management staff and system development staff. 

However, they have not presented us with any evidence of a formal mitigation plan 

that is in place to address the actual conflict of interest that is introduced by the 

responsibilities that are specified in the program management office contract, which 

states that the contractor must assess the quality of deliverables and oversee the 

program’s schedule, issues, and risks. Unless USPS reconsiders the current contract 

arrangement to avoid having the contractor evaluate its own performance, there is an 

increased risk that the conflict of interest will negatively impact the program. 

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Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 

x Regarding our findings with regard to requirements development and management 

activities, the Senior Vice President stated that he disagreed because there is not 

enough approved funding to define the requirements for the full program—they only 

received funding for a portion of the program. However, as we state in the briefing, 

without a core set of high-level requirements, it will be difficult for USPS to focus

appropriately on the next release and to hold itself accountable to delivering a system 

that meets USPS's and mailers' needs. Defining these requirements is especially 

important given the functionality that is being deferred in the first two releases. 

x Regarding risk management activities, he stated that the program has a defined, 

active, cross-program process and a risk manager who is responsible for managing 

this process. While we acknowledge that the program has developed a tracking 

process, which includes assigning responsibility for managing and identifying risks, 

several key risks, such as the risk for potential schedule delays in release 2 as a

result of conducting concurrent activities for release 2 and release 1, were not 

included by the program office as part of their risk reports and complete mitigation 

plans were not developed. Additionally, the recently finalized risk management plan 

for release 2 is not comprehensive and does not fully address the scope of the risk 

management effort. Until USPS develops a strategy for ensuring a comprehensive 

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Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 

list of risks and that includes mitigation efforts, it increases the probability that 

unanticipated risks may occur that could have a critical impact on the program’s cost, 

schedule, and performance. 

x The Senior Vice President disagreed with our finding on product integration activities. 

He stated that a systems integration plan for conducting product integration was

provided to us. However, the documents provided to us included testing strategies

and not a system integration plan, which is intended to support the deployment 

strategy and to describe to key stakeholders in each integration step what needs to 

be done to effectively integrate the various systems. Until these key product 

integration documents are developed, USPS will be limited in its ability to ensure that 

the product is integrated and functioning properly. 

Additionally, USPS program officials did not state whether they agreed or disagreed with 

our recommendation that USPS include in its Technical Solution Life Cycle policy, 

guidance for programs to develop (1) complete program plans; (2) specific requirements

for programs to establish a robust risk management process; and (3) system integration 

plan. 

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Appendix II: Comments from the United Appendix II: Comments from the United States Postal Service 

States Postal Service 

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Appendix II: Comments from the United 

States Postal Service 

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Appendix II: Comments from the United 

States Postal Service 

Page 76 GAO-10-145 Information Technology Acquisition
Appendix III: GAO

A

 Contact and Staff 

cknowledgments 

Page 77 GAO-10-145 

Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff 

Acknowledgments 

David A. Powner at (202) 512-9286 or pownerd@gao.gov

In addition to the individual named above, Shannin G. O’Neill, Assistant 

Director; Neil Doherty; Rebecca E. Eyler; Mary D. Fike; Franklin Jackson; 

Lee McCracken; Niti Tandon; Christy A. Tyson; and Adam Vodraska made 

key contributions to this report. 

 Information Technology Acquisition 

GAO Contact 

Staff 

Acknowledgments 

(311218) 
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