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Audit Reports

Jun
12
2015
Report Number:
MI-AR-15-004
Report Type:
Audit Reports
Category: Delivery / Mail Processing

U.S. Postal Service's Delivering Results, Innovation, Value and Efficiency Initiative 30-Achieve 100 Percent Customer and Revenue Visibility

Background

In fiscal year (FY) 2011, the U.S. Postal Service established 36 Delivering Results, Innovation, Value, and Efficiency (DRIVE) initiatives to improve its business strategy. DRIVE aims to reduce the reported $20 billion gap between revenue and expenses by FY 2016 through bold, aggressive initiatives with measurable outcomes.

DRIVE 30 – Achieve 100 Percent Customer and Revenue Visibility has six projects designed to increase customer visibility to 95 percent and product visibility to 76 percent for meter revenue by FY 2017. The Postal Service uses customer visibility to improve its sales and marketing efforts by identifying the owner of a mailpiece. Through product visibility, it obtains mail class revenue information about metered mail, which identifies products customers are using.

Our objective was to determine whether DRIVE 30 used established DRIVE project management processes.

What The OIG Found

DRIVE 30 managers did not follow established project management processes. Specifically, two roadmaps had gaps of more than 2 to 3 months between milestone dates. Based on the DRIVE Governance Guide, milestone dates should be no more than 6 weeks apart. When milestones are too far apart, it is difficult to effectively monitor and detect risks to the schedule and to demonstrate progress. In addition, 83 changes, additions, or removals to project milestones were made in the Technology Management Office System without completing the required change request form. The Meter Product Visibility goal of a 2 percent improvement per year is not bold and aggressive, as it is not based on any activities that would improve the project goal beyond past performance.

These issues occurred because the Strategic Management Office did not ensure DRIVE governance requirements for DRIVE 30 were followed. As a result, executive-level managers could make less informed decisions because they cannot accurately evaluate project goals. There is no guarantee that key planning considerations have been taken into account before the change occurs.

Additionally, the initiative lead and roadmap owner did not identify new activities to improve meter product visibility. Instead, DRIVE 30 managers used this roadmap as a placeholder for monitoring, which is contrary to the purpose of DRIVE. As a result, visibility may not improve beyond what would occur through normal business activity.

What The OIG Recommended

We recommended management require initiative leads and roadmap owners to implement milestones at 4- to 6-week intervals and complete all appropriate forms when making changes to project goals. We also recommended management ensure that DRIVE goals are bold and aggressive. 

Report Recommendations

# Recommendation Status Value Initial Management Response USPS Proposed Resolution OIG Response Final Resolution
1

R - 1 -- Implement milestones at 4- to 6-week intervals for DRIVE 30.

Closed $0 Agree
2

R - 2 -- Complete all appropriate change requests before making any additional changes to initiative and project goals.

Closed $0 Agree
3

R - 3 -- Ensure that DRIVE 30 goals are bold and have significant and measurable outcomes.

Closed $0 Disagree