The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency has a plan to get the National Background Investigation Service system back on track.

After a 90-day program pause this summer and several months working through Pentagon approvals, DCSA’s revised NBIS program plan centers on “agile” development methods.

DCSA is moving out on an 18-month roadmap to stabilize the NBIS program by modernizing applications, strengthening cybersecurity protections and migrating systems to the cloud. Additionally, DCSA has a new 36-month NBIS “product roadmap” that details how the agency will roll out new capabilities in the coming years.

“There’s still a lot of work ahead of us, but I’m very confident where we are now in our ability to deliver on NBIS,” DCSA Director David Cattler said during a media roundtable on Wednesday.

DCSA conducts 95% of background investigations across government, including for both federal employees and contractors. Since 2019, the agency has managed the NBIS program.

NBIS is envisioned as an integrated suite of applications intended to replace decades-old systems used to manage background investigations and store data on millions of federal employees and contractors. NBIS is central to the White House-led “Trusted Workforce 2.0” initiative to modernize the federal personnel vetting processes with new processes like “continuous vetting.”

But major challenges with NBIS came to light over the last two years. The program had fallen years behind schedule and gone hundreds of millions of dollars over budget.

Cattler initiated a review of the NBIS program upon becoming DCSA director earlier this year. He said the challenges came down to how DCSA failed to translate the requirements for NBIS into a sound program plan.

“What that then led to was a series of developments that didn’t aggregate into the proper delivery of capabilities on the right timeline,” he said.

The program now has higher level oversight from both Cattler as DCSA director and Pentagon officials. It’s designated by the Defense Department as an Acquisition Category 1 “Major Defense Acquisition Program,” meaning NBIS’ acquisition strategy, milestones and budget are now closely monitored by DoD leadership.

Cattler said a major priority for him is managing requirements and ensuring the program stays on task.

“We’re not going to gild the lily,” he said. “We’re not coming up with our own requirements, and we collectively need an appetite suppressant to be sure we stay on task sometimes. . . .  You can do a program this big if you have that discipline and you execute it that way throughout the program.”

DCSA has also brought onboard “a lot of new people” to lead the NBIS program, Cattler said.

That includes Rob Schadey, who DCSA hired from the Army earlier this year to serve as the new executive program manager for NBIS. Schadey said the program is working with the Defense Digital Service to bring in experts on user experience and product ownership.

“Ensuring timely delivery is number one priority,” Schadey said. “There are also changes within the program and the personnel with respect to training, with respect to alignment on expectations and delivery. And I would say the other component to this is cybersecurity, ensuring that we have the right compliance from a cybersecurity perspective in place, highlighting privacy and [personally identifiable information] as some of those elements in the coming year.”

DCSA plans to communicate with NBIS stakeholders about key priorities and planned updates through quarterly meetings.

The agency earlier this year completed the migration of all customer agencies to the new eApp system for initiating background investigations.

And in the coming year, Schadey said DCSA will provide a “demo” of the new Personnel Vetting Questionnaire as part of the quarterly meetings. The White House approved the PVQ earlier this year. The questionnaire includes key updates to questions around mental health, drug use and other issues posed to security clearance and public trust applicants.

But first DCSA must embed the PVQ into eApp.

“PVQ is one of the priorities in the department for delivery, and that’s a really important component and foundation for the program to leverage moving forward,” Schadey said.

DCSA also wants to quickly migrate off legacy background investigation systems that have cost the agency hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain, detracting from the NBIS modernization project.

Schadey said the new goal is for DCSA to have completed migration off of legacy Office of Personnel Management Systems, including the Personnel Investigations Processing System (PIPS), by the end of fiscal 2027.

“Those are really the key dates, in my mind, for us to reduce the legacy bill of OPM for the agency,” Schadey said.

Meanwhile, lawmakers will be watching DCSA’s progress closely. Earlier this month, leaders on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee asked the Government Accountability Office to review to DCSA’s plans for NBIS.

“While new DCSA leadership has shown commitment to better practices, questions remain about ongoing contractor performance and project management that the Committee seeks to address,” the lawmakers wrote.

Cattler said there is “huge value” in engaging with Congress and GAO. He said GAO’s prior reports on NBIS helped prepare him for the director role. And he added that congressional interest can help lead to a program’s success.

“Over the course of my career, the things that they take deep interest in, they also really want to help solve, because they want to see it done properly, and they want to see the program capability delivered,” Cattler said. “NBIS and personnel security are a couple of those things Congress wants to see done right. And they want to see it done. And so it’s actually a huge lift to have Congress pay interest in these programs from where I sit as the director.”

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.