PHASE IV PLANNING ACTION ITEMS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85B01152R000901240026-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 13, 2008
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: July 11, 1983
• Content Type: MEMO

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HL1V111V 1 ~ 11.'ft~l 1 dIJ- llv 1 r,niVt~L U~7i'. IAVLS
ODP-83-1008
11 July 1983
Chief, Management Staff, ODP
SUBJECT: Phase IV Planning Action Items
Attached is the preliminary response to the Phase IV
Planning action items of ODP. As promised to
former DDA Plans Officer, the discussion of ODP performance in
response to customer requests will be delivered to you by
31 August. Please call me
if you have any questions.
STAT
STAT
STAT
STAT
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ENHANCE TIIE I NTEftOPER,AB I L I TY OF ADMI N I STftAT I VE SYSTEAZS
This report should review all current and proposed administrative
ADP systems and report on what degree of interoperability will be
needed and suggest an appropriate strategy to attain this goal.
The ultimate Directorate goal is to achieve maximum common use of
data bases and systems.
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ENHANCEMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEMS INTEROPERABILITY
1dlore than a decade ago, the Support Information Processing System
(SIPS) project was initiated with the very best intentions of
developing a pool of data common to different elements of the
Support Directorate. The pool was to be accessible from a number
of different information processing systems (information handling
systems. data base management systems? information management
systems? management information systems? data retrieval systems?
etc?) which were also to be developed under the SIPS charter.
The SIPS project was the granddaddy of DDA (then DDS) efforts to
"achieve maximum common use of data bases and systems."
The goals of the SIPS project were found to be too ambitious
given the state of data processing technology of the time, and
SIPS gave way to a more modest set of project developments
loosely congregated under the heading of Management Application
Projects (MAP). The system development efforts initiated under
the NiAP banner included GAS, FRS, CONIF, PERSIGN (the Office of
Personnel was a DDA (DD1Y1&S) component at the time), ICS and
payroll along with a number of smaller projects. These systems,
which are operational today, do have some specific instances of
commonality of data (interoperability?). For example, GAS and
CONIF are interdependent and pairings exist between GAS and FRS,
GAS and payroll, and PERSIGN and payroll.
In some instances, data is passed from one system to another by
creating a data set or file of data as one of the outputs of one
system to be subsequently (and sequentially) used as input by
another system. Such processing may continue to be appropriate,
i.e., there will quite likely never be a justifiable need for all
administrative data to be completely accessible from all
administrative systems. But increasingly, as administrative
systems are modified or are entirely rewritten, increasing kinds
and varieties of data are made common between systems. For
example, GAS has been modified to incorporate new linkage between
GAS and CONIF, GAS and ICS, and GAS and PDMIS. The development
of a new Integrated Financial 14Tanagement System (IFMS) has been
proposed and is being considered. IFMS will combine all of the
currently operational Agency financial systems into one
integrated system with a common data base which will also be
accessible, as appropriate, from LIMS and ACIS.
LIMS is interesting in itself in a discussion of interoperability
of administrative systems. LINTS can be viewed as a major effort
to maximize the interoperability of logistics systems. The same
can be said of IFMS for financial systems. Such efforts are not
revolutionary, but rather are evolutionary outgrowths which are
enabled by experience and accumulated knowledge and by improved
data processing technology.
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The evolution continues. Preference for evolutionary development
of increased capability continues. Remembering the SIPS
experience, such preference represents a good strategy for
achieving a goal of maximum cotr~non use of data bases and systems.
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IMPROVE THE CAPABILITY TO SUPPORT USER APPLICATIONS SOFTWARE
DEVELOPMENT: Recognizing the scarcity of funding and personnel,
we explore ways to use imagination and creativity to improve our
performance in this area. Current backlogs must be drastically
reduced and more timely support must be given to customer
reguirements. Your report should explore methods to attain these
goals, including the feasibility of contracting for software
services which are currently being provided by ODP staff. Also,
discuss the timeliness, quality, and responsiveness of your
support in terms of on-going projects and new systems.
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IMPROVE THE CAPABILITY TO SUPPORT USER APPLICATION SOFTWARE
It is no secret that there has been an industry-wide growth in
the backlog of requirements for applications software
development. Data processing technical literature has described
the situation in numerous articles. The growth has overwhelmed
the capabilities of programming staffs to respond in any sort of
timely fashion. Meanwhile however, the new applications which
have been developed have increased the~size of the base of
developed software and have generated additional requirements for
software maintenance. So, even though programming shops have
expanded in terms of numbers of programmers, the increases in
personnel have been dwarfed by the accelerated increases in
applications software development requirements. And any growth
in numbers of programmers has been diminished by the drain of
requirements for additional maintenance.
The Office of Data Processing has experienced the above described
phenomena. Requests for applications development have piled
up. Software maintenance requirements have increased. And even
though modest increments of additional programmers have been
obtained for specific projects like ACIS or CAMS, the added
personnel are not nearly enough to cope with the ever increasing
requirements backlog. One more point - as the ODP users become
increasingly sophisticated in their use of data processing
capabilities, the problems they pose for solution by automated
systems call for increasingly complex systems design. System
deliveries thus require more time to accomplish.
In order to "drastically reduce" current backlogs of requests for
application software development, ODP will rely on two
approaches. First, ODP will intensify efforts to help the users
help themselves do their own small systems development. To that
end, ODP has instituted an Information Center where users can
obtain assistance on the use of a variety of personal computers
and personal computer software packages, and where they can seek
help in the use of user friendly software packages available from
the central service (The about to be acquired NOMAD data base
management system is an example of such a capability.). Second,
ODP will increasingly rely on contractor resources (using either
ODP or customer funding) for large systems development. ODP
personnel will perform contract monitoring for this class of
developmental efforts. Finally, after having divided software
development efforts into categories of large and small, a segment
will then be carved out of the middle and designated as medium-
sized projects. This segment will be the focus of ODP staff
development activi~ies.
Of course the universe of software development cannot be neatly
and cleanly and rigidly divided into three parts. But with
careful planning and good judgment, the differences in the kinds
of resources available for system development, as implied in such
compartmentation, can be distributed in such a way so as to
maximize our use of resources and bring the most power to bear on
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the current backlog. This strategy will be formalized in the ODP
Strategic Plan.
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IMPLEMENT CONNECTIVITY BETWEEN WORD PROCESSING AND VM:
This report should include an implementation schedule for an
interface between word processing and VM and also for the
introduction of a single multi-purpose terminal. It should also
give a status of the program to use the Wang as the Agency's
standard word processor.
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IMPLEMENT CONNECTIVITY BETWEEN WORD PROCESSING AND VM
The effort undertaken by System Programming Division to convert
Wang Word Processing System (WPS) documents to VM Script files
has been completed. The capability to convert VM Script files
to Wang WPS files will be available in August, 1983. The
VM-to-Wang conversion capability will initially only support the
conversion of the Script commands which are supported by the
opposite conversion, i.e., the Wang-to-VM conversion. Capability
to convert additional Script commands will be added in subsequent
updates to the software. Additionally, a limited capability to
send a Wang file to an AIM user is under development and is
scheduled for implementation by 15 September 1983. The
VM-to-Wang and Wang-to-VM conversion capabilities will permit the
transferring of files between, for example, a Wang WPS and
ETECS. So even though Wang/VM capability will be very primitive
when compared against the variety of capabilities offered by a
true VM terminal, it will provide a useful service.
Meanwhile, even though the growth of the Wang inventory in the
Agency continues apace, the Agency's standard word processor
(Wang) will never be universally used throughout the Agency.
There are still some 280 NBI and 260 Lanier word processors along
with a small number of miscellaneous other word processors in the
Agency. Some of theses devices will be exchanged for Wang
devices in the future. But the exchange is normally considered
to be of lower priority than is the installation of new Wang
equipment. The pending requirements for new Wang installations
make it certain that even the non-Wang devices which will
eventually be exchanged will be retained for quite some time.
Aside from the word processing capability provided by pure word
processing equipment, other means of delivering word processing
support are being investigated. For example, the Operations
Directorate is looking closely at the host-based word processing
capability offered via the Delta Data terminal. Additionally, a
number of personal computers or professional computers have been
installed in the Agency. It is reasonable to assume that in some
cases, their word processing capabilities will be explored.
Despite the fact that the Agency does not have and probably will
never have a perfectly homogenous word processing world of only
Wang word processors, Wang has become the Agency standard word
processor. That did not happen by fiat. The volumes of Wang
word processing equipment entering this agency (see tables 1 & 2
attached) have made it a reality.
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