ASPIN CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81-00261R000300130004-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 11, 2000
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: August 24, 1970
• Content Type: REPORT

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24 August 1970
II - Computer Applications in Support of Intelligence Production
57. The Agency establish as standard procedure in the develop-
ment of new collection systems the coordination of the data collection
and data forwarding formats with the individuals who must perform the
data reduction and analysis of the data should the collection system
become operational.
58. The Informationi Processing Board assure the acquisition,
development and use of one or more general data management systems
which are sufficiently close to the general design requirements for
Agency data processing applications to permit their adaptation and
use for a wide range .of data processing applications and data process-
ing centers. We believe that general systems to incorporate, such appli-
cations may best be acquired from commercial vendors in the interest
of economy of maintenance, and simplicity and generality of system
operation. Experience with indigenous development of such systems
seems to indicate that we tend to build overly elaborate systetts which
provide better for certain internal requirements but tend to violate'
the other canons outlined above.
59. The Information Processing Board assure that the present
capability for development of a unique program to process an applica-
tion is maintained, so that any application whose objective is clearly
unobtainable by incorporation into a general data management system
may continue to be developed. We would make it clear that increased
use of general data management systems should not displace other
applications programming activity except where its speed, economy
and prospects' for ease of data exchange make it more attractive. It
seems ideal, however, for small, infrequently used programs which
are subject to change over time.
60. The Information Processing Board and its Technical Panel
be charged with creating the means for the development of meaningful
communications between the systems analyst-programmer and the
substantive analyst who may be engaged in the common development
of a computer application. Have them assure that the requisite train-
ing is given to accelerate the reduction of communications barriers
wrier. still exist.
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provide time and professional and clerical
01 ..L;:tanco to a few talented individuals each year to explore,
develop, and test essentially new techniques or new concepts in
the use of ADP to support intelli~cnce analysis and production.
These -applications may be developed under the leadership of either
the substantive component, or OCS, depending upon the nature of
the application and the resources to do the job.
/.62. The L for:inat:ion Processing Board assure that the present
effort to provide a general time-sharing capability in OCS to serve
the interest of the Agency as a whole be strengthened to provide not
only on-line but also remote batch processing and remote job entry
via terminals distributed so as to make them convenient to users
throughout the intelligence production components.
63. The Information Processing Board, in consultation with the
interested parties, assure that the OCS Interactive Services System
provides a general. data management system capable of providing an
on-line, quick response capability for large information storage and
. ~~ e TTr_TC
l of h
i
y r -
eva
rel.r
data bases. We believe that the present and foreseeable rates of use
for these files in an on-line environment are not high enough to warrant
economic use of individual processors to support them. .
/64. The Agency seek to secure an evaluation of the present
COINS experiment at the earliest possible moment in an effort to
provide clearer guidance for future Agency planning for participation
in Intelligence Community ADP activities.
65. The Information Processing Board define minimum standards
for control over data entry, data box documentation and file manage-
ment for any ADP.'application serving more than one component
(defined.as a unit under, the first line supervisor).
III. Office of Computer Services (OCS) Activities
.Pgs III. 12-13
30. We. recommend that: OCS develop in consultation with the
Information Processing Board a mechanism for communicating plans
for major computes systems changes to user components and of
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 eliciting and,review,ving user input to these plans before they are
ready for submiss:on to the Information Processing Board for
review antecedent to approval by the Executive Director-Comptroller,
31, ' A comple-~e set of procedures be published and maintained
which provides enough information to assure that a job can be
written (including J'CC) and run without intervention from OCS
programmers,
32. Applications programmers (this would presumably include
a major share of the applications division's personnel) from OCS
should be assigned to and, where feasible, colocated with analysts
in the production organization for whom they are designing and pro-
gramming. Their work during their period of assignment should be
controlled by the host production organization except that their rotation
.back to internal OCS assignment should be negotiated with OCS.
33. Increased attention should be given by OCS, in close coopera-
tion with NPIC/AID'and ORD/Au, to the development of a strong computer
graphics capability for support of analyst use of the time-sharing system.
The AU'TOMAP data base should be developed toward an on-line utility
which can be. sunmmoned as an outline map or chart for superimposing
other data for analyzing spatial relationships. These data in"combina-
rion with the map should be susceptible to linkages to computational
routines to further tcst intuitive visual observations.
34. Present planning for OCS to acquire and test a proprietary
general data management system should be encouraged. Plans for
this acquisition should be moved forward as rapidly as a careful
coordination of the proposal can be concluded. We believe that this
movement should be coordinated with the major users of OCS and with
each of the intelligence production components who have their own data
processing center, i. e. , NPIC and CRS. The objectives in acquiring
general data management software ought to be (1) to move toward as
wide a coverage of our major processing activities within any given
system as is intellectually and operationally acceptable, (2) to establish
each system selected as an Agency standard for the type(s) of applica-
tion identified, and (3) to recognize that there will still exist computer
applications which will require unique programs.
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~:~. ? A. sin,, le, iii1:e ratcud, i.nt:c.rnnctivc services systern to provide
0 n - li i ' sor vic.c io.r :into .l.l.i.~ culcc prcxliict:ion c01n1 1ponc,nts at headquarters
should be the :~~`~:I ev n~;:tr-1:11.?1.11 clI>~c'et:].vc
lV Collirad.16?1'oC0I.c ;it.t(,n1
l';s 1:V 11-12
:35. 1Vc reconur:;1e'nd that: The Central .Refer. en.ce Service be
.~atullli.shed as the point of contact for any general request for ;once information from outside the Agency or from within where; there
is no immediate known point where the information needed is available.
3b. Only those data which are generated and accessioned by the
reference center be provided as a direct response by the center and
that all other data are sought first from another center in the Agency
which may have resources to respond.
V'/37. Work underway on an automated dissemination system should
be maintained and each distribution point to be employed in the initial
system: test should be directed to cooperate with CRS in providing
carefully constructed "dictionary" terms to try to guide this system.
The work should be recognized as experimental at this stage,' but it
should.be widely encouraged for' its long-term prospects.
/38. Planning fcr undertaking an extension of the automated
dissemination system from SI input to all State, Defense and Agency
positive intelligence information received in machine language should
be undertaken coincident with the beginning of feasibility testing.
39. The present concept of CRS indexing should be continued, and
a systematic effort undertaken to facilitate indexing input from the sub-
stantive analyst and to encourage such input to the system.
. 40.. The Central Reference Service should seek as a general
objective a standardized document reference number which can be put
on the intelligence information document before it is disseminated.
This reference number. should be capable of being generated and
included in the.format.of any automated dissemination system, and
should become a part of that system as quickly as possible. It should
be made an Agency standard immediately and expanded into a Community
standard eventually. .
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41, The concept and scope of document indexing by a reference
center should be devcloped-by a top management decision. Established
at a lower level, it results either in extensive duplication of effort or
in abandonment of control over the use of intelligence documentation.
Document index processing has, however, been customized by each
processing organization which supports an individual or organization
reference activity.
42. The Central Reference Service should create a personnel-
area-subject index to other organized collections of information in the
Agency. This index should include, both personal and organizational
collections of information and authorization points for control of access
to the respective collections. This index is an important and complex
system which must be carefully defined, coordinated and implemented.
CRS should be assigned responsibility for design and development of
the system but they must have the full cooperation of all other offices
and Directorates.. Development of such a system.would pose an
excellent test of the Information Processing Board.
43. The present method of document storage and retrieval is
acceptable and should be maintained. It provides speed when it is
genuinely needed and is far more economical than any system of
electronic storage or video storage that we have encountered.~ We
believe that the Agency should continue to experiment with a limited
number of applications in which documents are created, stored, and
searched retrospectively in an electronic format, because develop-
ment of an on-line document index will almost certainly require a
simultaneous improvement in the speed of delivery of documents.
14. An extensive interactive (man-machine-data base) capability
with the Central Reference Service intelligence document index should
be developed and tested as quickly as feasible. This is one of the few
large data bases in which we think there is both wide interest and
frequent use. Indeed we are told by analysts that the principal limita-
tion on their use of the system is its slow response time.
V - Research and Development (R&D) in Information Processing
Pys V 5-6
13. Both ORD and OCS have long experience in general contact and
service throughout the Agency. Beyond that point most of the activities
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]ich seenh critical taus for information processing research and
development have always been performed in OCS. A genuine effort
was made early in the development of ORD/A.u to coordinate its
activity with OCS, but this effort disintegrated from a halting start
to ;1 general awareness of each other's existence although some
ofiort to restore an interaction has begun this year. Individuals
located in OCS have both the, technical expertise and the awareness of
pr~~c'esiil"~tctiNrity throughout the Agency required to provide an
optimum service to, the user. What must be created in OCS is confi-
dence that Agency ma.nagem.ent will support the separation of general
development activity from the press of production activity. Having
soon the Agency willing to support development work with money and
positions elsewhere and having seen the diseconomics of the present
system, we believe that OCS would be willing as well as able to under-
take control over this activity.
14. We recommend that the DD/S&T review the division of effort
between ORD and OCS in, the area of information processing research
and development against, an alternative allocation of function and effort
which would:
a. Provide' for the subsequent problem definition and
computer application design and development effort to be moved
from OR]) to OCS.
/b. Provide for the transfer of essentially standard computer
processing equipment from ORD to OCS and for OCS to provide a
level of experimental or developmental computer processing
time necessary to support the expanded experimental function
outlined .above. We would for example urge that processing time
might be made available on machines appropriate to the work
involved rather than on a single machine which is used only for
experimental work.
c. Provide for the transfer of other equipment from the
IPRD laboratory to those surviving or anticipated development
programs which may use it most effectively, the rest to be
transferred to surplus.
d. Provide for a review of existing ORD contracts through
the information Processing Board and selected prospective users
to determine which of those contracts should be continued and
under whose leadership they should proceed.
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1.'.t )~ icac., t:.lut{: :::u!)::c1c(tlc?n{: A i).f) c?ciui Oirac;u(; or ;oftwai?(;
t.: ::t and an;tl.y:.,i; 1): onciuc:.t~ ct i)y OG- c~tiz.uOt where f.l)e itc.:i n41
arc ;i diroct aci,iuact of a ,;1)( .aL 1)rcaccss:inj center such at
N1 'I(,,. 1'he special unit would procure and test tlic;' latter product,,
C. "n:;?. 0(:ti it.) :ir ,;;ae ;;. cui r~;nt :cw;crca)c;:;:, pu..1 J.ication
sizliilctz to ii: ; proselit: TocO Nitus to ar,riouncc; new acti'vitics,
nc%v products, and new developments which its research and
development component cons;clersof general interest for Agency
c 5i ipoiiezitS7 ongag d in iii'Oormat ozi peocctb ng,
/ 15. in addition we recommend that the DD/S&T and the Information
Processing Boar.d re;cct the proposal of the R&D Subcommittee of the
USIB Information Handling Committee which proposes a community-wide
R&D center on the basis of the recent experience with COINS and the
IPRD which we believe demonstrate both the difficulty of an integrated
community activity and the impracticality of performing research and
development on non-existent or badly defined requirements.
10". Finally we recommend that research and development projects
or programs in the area of information processing be submitted to the
same scrutiny as that proposed for ADP projects in the section below
dealing with management.
VI - Organizational and Management Elements. of Automatic Data
Processing
Pos Vi I0-1l
20. ?e recommend that: The Agency reassert a policy of providing
a high degree of. centralization in data processing activity in the Office of
Corr_p uter Services,.. that this policy be tempered by permitting the
accuisition of small or medium computer processors by functional
organizations where -there is a demonstrable technical-computational
economy in using a stand-alone computer system, and that this policy
continue the present emphasis on the functional component (user)
responsibility for problem definition and problem solution. In short,
we recommend that computer organizations develop the systems necessary
to run the computers and run them, and that functional production people
prepare the data and the processing steps required for-its transformation.
by, computer.
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2r.. A cen ral technical management review of major ADP project:,
be created under the present umbrella of Executive Director-Comptroller
responsibility for. Agency ADP management, that a full-t*
rnc position of
ADP Advisor to the Executive Director- Comptroller be crci.ated for an
experienced ADP professional whose responsibility it would be to:
a. advise the Executive Director-Comptroller on all
professional/technical matters relating to ADP;
b. be chairman of the IP Board and the director of its
permanent staff;
C. revic W I:lic various local. plans, provide teci~.nic ~l. input
to IPB and, periodically, develop a statement of long-term ADP
objectives for the Agency;
d.' assign computer application design proposals to the,
suitable functional/technical review components
e. prepare Agency-wide ADP technical standards;
f. serve as chairman of the Agency-wide ADP Career
Service Board; and
g. serve as focal point for internal leadership and for
external, relations in ADP technical/professional matters.
28. Existing central ADP planning be strengthened to provide:
a. for a more definitive outline of Agency objectives to be
ach.:cved in related or overlapping office plans and for regular
revision and publication of the Agency ADP Plan;
b. for the definition and publication of Agency-wide ADP
technical standards beyond the present work on nationwide
(USASI) 'standards ; and
c. for a.standard format and procedure for the proposal
and review of major requests for the acquisition of computer
systems' or of computer processing applications.
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29. A means of pricing data processing services-performed by
computer centers be developed, and that each user component be
required to budget for its' data processing services and transfer the
funds to pay for these services in essentially the same Way that property
funds are handled.
.,/30. An Agency ADP Career Service be created.
31. Existing ADP training programs introduce additional emphasis
on the changing responsibility or role of the user in an on-line and/or
real-time computer environment, and that functional organizations review
the necd.for unit training of personnel in the use of quantitative and/or
logical techniques' in indigenous analytical problems.
32. The Director/OCS be an ex officio participant on the Information
Processing Board and that the DD/S&T should be represented on the Board
by an individual who reflects the computer user population of the whole
Directorate. The presence of the Director/OCS on the Board is
imperative, but we believe he should participate in his capacity as
director of computer processing rather than as the representative of a
Directorate with largo processing requirements.
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TRANSMITTAL SLIP
DATE
4 September 1970
TO:
Mr. Coffe
ROOM NO. BUILDING
REMARKS:
Attached is an extract with all of
the recommendations from the ASPIN
Report.
cc: D/L (per his request)
O/C , TFC rep)
O/S TFC rep)
O/L FC rep)
FROM:
ROOM NO. BUILDING
EXTENSION
1 FFES ORM 55 241 REPLACES FORM 36-6
WHICH MAY BE USED.
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