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February 2006
CMM Project begins SIT Testing
The start of the IEMP Contract Management Module’s (CMM) System Integration Test (SIT) Plan is underway this February. SIT Pass 1, which was scheduled to begin February 13th will run until early March. All of NASA’s ten centers have been included in the testing, and entrance and exit criteria have been established for each test pass. Testing includes a good examination of all CMM functionality excluding: information delivery, simultaneous actions against a contract line item, performance testing, full security testing, and Single Sign On (SSO.) SIT Pass 2 is scheduled to begin in early March.
The first wave of the CMM rollout is fast approaching this spring in May 2006. The new application will provide a comprehensive tool to support contract/grant writing, contract/grant administration, procurement workload management, and data reporting/management for NASA. The functionality provided by CMM will provide added efficiency to procurement processes, and will be integrated with existing IEMP components.
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eTravel team ready to streamline NASA travel processes
The eTravel team has a Blueprint Kickoff Workshop and Business Process Reengineering Workshop (BPR) on their calendar this February. The goal of this month’s BPR is to develop a single, unified process for domestic and local travel. All NASA Centers are represented within the BPR workshop. The team also plans to concentrate on major travel decisions and determine how eTravel can best meet the needs of the Agency.
eTravel is one of the original 24 eGovernment initiatives outlined by President Bush in July of 2001. The effort was designed to make better use of information technology and to eliminate billions of dollars in federal spending, reduce paperwork and improve government response time to citizens. As a result, FedTraveler.com, an integrated application, will be implemented to give NASA online booking, travel authorization, and travel vouchering capabilities. NASA’s scheduled migration is March 2007.
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SVU Kicks off the New Year by Kicking off their project
The SAP Version Upgrade (SVU) Core and Extended Process teams got their 2006 workload rolling in early January with a kickoff meeting. The Center Implementation Project Managers held their own kickoff the same day, and followed their progress with the start of weekly telecons, now well underway. During February, the SVU team will continue their push forward by holding Process Design Workshops.
The SVU Project has been established to update SAP’s Core Financial software, which NASA implemented in 2002, to mySAP ERP 2005. The SVU project will contribute to improvements in NASA’s financial recording and reporting, support the goal of achieving financial management integrity, and expand Core Financial functionality to better meet the needs of the project management community.
Specifically, SVU will enhance capabilities with a new Budgetary Ledger, new Budget Control System, new Payment Update, and new Year End processing. Targeted process reengineering will incorporate recommendations from both the Financial Integration Team (FIT) Program/Project Management Information Task Team and the FIT/One NASA Funds Distribution Transfer Task Team, and will include improving program/project management information (without compromising sound financial management principles), as well as re-designing funds control and funds distribution processes.
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MdM Continuing to make Improvements
The Metadata Manager (MdM) team is celebrating the successful launch of the first maintenance release on January 13, 2006. The upgrade contained a few minor enhancements, defect fixes and one piece of exciting new functionality – the Excel Import feature for NSM code requests. Now, MdM allows users to populate their NSM code requests for new Execution work breakdown structure (WBS)2 through WBS7 in an offline spreadsheet template so that Code Requestors can quickly import the requests into MdM.
Currently, the team is attempting to develop requirements for a future release of MdM. For those who can’t wait much longer for another MdM enhancement, there is good news. The synchronous interface between SAP and MdM is in its final stages of testing and should be ready to go live very soon.
MdM is the new web-based tool which contains NASA’s official financial data elements and associated codes. Lead by the OCFO, the MdM project consisted of establishing a methodology and workflow for aligning the Agency’s technical WBS with the finance coding structure. Additionally, the MdM project consists of the design, development, implementation, training, and operation of the MdM tool. Currently, representatives from all of NASA’s ten Centers and Mission Directorates, totaling more than 300 users, are accessing MdM in order to request new NSM codes.
MdM is the only tool on which NASA relies for identifying, creating, tracking, organizing and archiving of Appropriation, Mission, Theme, Program, Project and WBS 2 through WBS 7 NSM structural elements. MdM feeds NSM codes to budget formulation (N2), core financial (SAP), and project management systems that require coding structure data.
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i-View team delivers small but significant changes to portal
The i-View team has made some small, but significant changes to the Program’s (IEMP) portal, called i-View, in the past month. Answering to user feedback from a series of user workshops, the team has implemented a number of enhancements to improve the tool’s usability.
The i-View team continued to support others within the IEMP community by providing a centralized tool to support Program and project communications. In this spirit, the team implemented a new eTravel page, updated the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) i-View page, and conducted user workshops at Glenn Research Center (GRC) as well as Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
i-View allows the ease of single sign on (SSO) access to all IEM applications and many other applications employees need to use, such as Employee Express, WebTads, USA Jobs, and the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP.) SSO will simplify and reduce, but not totally eliminate, user ID and password management requirements. i-View also provides the means for the IEM Program Office to communicate effectively to all IEM users without relying on email. In the coming months, the i-View team will continue to focus on adding new users and additional functionality. Looking ahead, the team will lend added support to the Contract Management Module Project (CMM), and i-View plans to play host to the Agency standard financial reports.
Recently, the i-View team launched a collaboration area for the Staffing and Recruitment System at Marshall Space Flight Center to further support of collaboration, information sharing, and improved IEMP communications. This month, the i-View team plans to continue their support for the Contract Management Module (CMM) Project and continue planning a much anticipated upgrade in April 2006. Currently, more than 4,000 users are accessing i-View on a regular basis and the site is accessible at all ten NASA Centers.
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