The Coast Guard has established a Software Acquisitions for Mission Support and Operations (SAMSO) program management office (PMO) to oversee multiple Coast Guard non-major information technology (IT) acquisition programs that deliver improved software solutions tailored to meet the needs of shore, cutter and aviation users.
Building on lessons learned from other Coast Guard PMOs that oversee a portfolio of multiple established programs, such as the Boat Acquisition and In-Service Vessel Sustainment PMOs, the SAMSO PMO will provide comprehensive and consistent guidance over a broad portfolio of software-related efforts.
SAMSO aligns with the Coast Guard’s technology revolution to deliver software for operations, information and mission support systems, while also supporting intelligence and command and control acquisition as needed. SAMSO improves business relations, management and resource planning for software products from procurement through sustainment and future replacement.
The SAMSO PMO incorporates Agile business methodologies with the ability to vary resources and staffing as requirements and program lines of effort change, providing the PMO the flexibility to align acquisition personnel in the most efficient and effective manner and deploy specific experience and expertise across the full spectrum of program efforts.
Why these activities?
More advanced and targeted software solutions are necessary to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated assets and mission requirements dispersed throughout the Coast Guard. Those solutions also have to be continually renewed and replaced to maintain and enhance mission capabilities.
SAMSO provides the Coast Guard community with the acquisition program management to deliver robust software solutions capable of performing on a common IT platform while handling expansive scope and volume previously accomplished in disparate solutions.
Rather than creating a program and staffing for each software acquisition, the SAMSO PMO approach will provide standardized, consistent program management for each non-major IT software acquisition and ensure efficient resource management across each effort and an efficient approach for review and ongoing purchase processes.
How are these activities implemented?
Software solutions planned for implementation or renewal are reviewed by a quorum of end users and IT and acquisition professionals. Determination is based on a cumulative – not any individual – factor and assessment of these boundary conditions:
• Level of change
• Organizational visibility
• Internal/external impact
• Cost and schedule complexity
• Management complexity
• Technical complexity.
Those projects assigned to the SAMSO PMO are subject to governance, management and execution processes and procedures that apply to non-major information technology acquisition programs.
Coordination by the SAMSO PMO ensures shared ownership of the process and continued collaboration with respective Coast Guard stakeholders, ensuring alignment across the acquisition, implementation and sustainment phases for each software solution