Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory Automated Management System

The Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory Automated Management System (PAMS) is an Air Force-developed computer system that automates the administrative aspects of metrology and calibration. We received a Hotline complaint asserting that the Air Force has wasted resources by continuing to use PAMS when more capable Commercial-Off-The- Shelf products are available at lower costs. The complainant cited three specific deficiencies concerning the development of PAMS to support this conclusion. These deficiencies were: PAMS was not developed in accordance with Air Force directives, the Air Force was planning to reverse-engineer PAMS and convert the software from the Basic computer language to Ada, and an independent validation and verification of PAMS was never completed. The complaitant believed that the PAMS software would be difficult and expensive to maintain and that reverse-engineering and converting the PAMS software to Ada would be very costly. The complainant, therefore, concluded that Air Force could save money by replacing PAMS with a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf product. The objective of our technical assessment was to determine whether the Air Force had wasted resources by using PAMS instead of a Cornmercial-Off-The-Shelf product.