COMPUTER PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT IN CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84B00890R000500030055-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 27, 2006
• Sequence Number: 55
• Publication Date: May 7, 1981
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 2006/05/01: CIA-RDP84B00890R000500030055-2
ODP-81-473
7 May 1981
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Administration /_,('
VIA Information Handling Systems ArchitectoZ
FROM Bruce T. Johnson
Director of Data Processing
SUBJECT Computer Program Development in CIA
SECRET
1. This memorandum reports the results of our survey of
computer software development resources and discusses
decentralized versus centralized approaches as to the development
of computer programs in CIA. Development of computer programs,
as used in this paper, incl maintenance and enhancement
(value added) of programs.
2. In April 1981, in response to your inquiry, ODP and the
Information Handling Systems Architect conducted a survey of
Agency resources devoted to computer program development. The
survey included a) the number of staff employees whose primary
duties relate to computer program development in FY 1981, b) the
number of contractor personnel with the same function in FY 1981,
and c) the FY 1981 funds allocated for software development,
maintenance, and enhancement (value added programming). The
following table summarizes the data gathered during the survey.
81 Funds ($K)
*Excludes Special Projects Staff/ODP, and Consolidated SAFE
Project Office. Includes MERCURY and 4C funds.
SEC RL I
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% Staff % Contractor % 81 Funds
3. The ODP number -- included in DD umbers for the
three columns above are espectively. These
numbers do not include e ODP personne w o are on rotational
assignment to other components of the Agency or Intelligence
Community and are occupying positions on their Position Control
Registers ch persons are included in the component's
numbers. I
4. If we assume that ODP computer program development is
the Agency's centralized service and the remainder is
decentralized computer program development, then the percentages
of centralized versus decentralized resources are reflected in
the following table.
Centralized Computer Program Development
SEGII
Decentralized Computer Program Development
% Staff
% 81 Funds
If averaging the percentages in the three columns makes sense,
then 36% of the program development resources are centralized
( (31+37+41)/3) and 64% of the resources are decentralized.
5. Information about the degree to which the Agency's
computer program development resources are decentralized leads
inevitably to questions about whether a greater degree of
efficiency could be obtained if they were centralized under a
single management. This question has come up periodically ever
since the Agency began using computers, and it was one of the
questions which the Information Handling Task Force was expected
to address.
SECRET
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SECRET '"
6. The most dramatic of the options developed by the Task
Force would have created a Directorate of Information Services,
encompassing all information handling activities, including all
planning, career management, budgeting, and operational control,
including tasking. The Executive Committee debate about this
option and variations of it was vigorous and the result was a
complete rejection of any proposals which would reduce the
responsiveness of the information handling resources available to
the line manager. Instead, the EXCOM elected to establish a new
mechanism, the Information Handling Systems Architect, to
coordinate the decentralized work to the extent necessary to
ensure that someone would be in a position to channel component
efforts away from purely local considerations and into paths
consistent with larger, systems architectural concerns. In this
manner the senior managers specifically protected the control of
component managers over their information handling activities,
including software develooment, and did so in the interest of
greater responsiveness. lI I
7. Proposals to reopen the question of centralized versus
decentralized ADP development at this time would almost certainly
be challenged on the grounds that we have not given the new
Architect and his staff the opportunity to function as monitors
and coordinators of decentralized activities. Until we have some
experience under this new coordinating mechanism, it does not
seem advisable to raise anew the thorny question of increased
centralization.
SECRET
Approved For Release 2006/05/01: CIA-RDP84B00890R000500030055-2
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