## CSTARS User Group

**July 8, 2004**

**Meeting Minutes**

**ATTENDEES:** Mike Sade, OAM

> Crystal Davis, OAM
>
> Kevin Crowley, OAM
>
> Tom Cochran, OAM
>
> Debra Young, OAM
>
> Dan Alexander, OAM
>
> Lorenzo Ariyo-Lewis, OAM
>
> Dao Vissering, OAM
>
> Chris Nolte, OAM
>
> John Abbott
>
> Chuck Hughes, NOAA
>
> Jan Dodi, NOAA
>
> Jacob M. Nyguist, NOAA
>
> Marjie Dones, NOAA
>
> Brenda Summer, NOAA
>
> Randall Brown, NOAA
>
> Lynne Phipps, NOAA
>
> Willette Hamilton, OSDBU
>
> Pam Harper, OCS
>
> Jacqueline Wilson, Census
>
> Suja Madhavan, Census
>
> Clark Terrell, Census
>
> Ken Pooton, CAMS
>
> Jerry Rhorstrom-Lee
>
> Pat Grimes, NIST
>
> Sandy Feebach, NIST
>
> Gary Hill, CACI
>
> Tara Kerns, CACI

## Administrative

-   The next CSTARS Users Group Meeting will be held August 5, 2004 at
    NIST.

-   Review of Open Action Items

    -   Refer to Action Item Chart for Status

## Case for Change

-   Presentation of "Case for Change" by Mr. Mike Sade.

-   As you all know, workload is increasing but resources are not.
    Additional resources are hard to find and not readily available.
    There are 5 elements for the Case for Change.

    -   Ensure Acquisition Community is focused on the vision and the
        outcome.

    -   For everyone at the Bureau's to continue to look for ways to
        streamline and refine your current internal processes as well as
        making suggestions on DOC wide processes.

    -   Partnering of the Acquisition Group with the customer base and
        stakeholders is pivotal in our success. Getting involved early
        in the Acquisition Process and working with the customer base to
        produce accurate documents will prevent many mistakes and reduce
        rework significantly. Studies have shown in the commercial
        markets that this method will free up 20/30 percent of our
        current resources.

    -   Becoming a performance focused organization. Monitoring the
        Balanced Scorecard and establishing benchmarks to meet. With the
        Balanced Scorecard we can determine which of our processes are
        working and which need to be improved. This by locating
        bottlenecks and gathering true performance metrics which we can
        act upon.

    -   Effectively leverage our current technology base and make sure
        we are using them to their fullest capacity. In other words
        "make these machines work for us".

        -   Financial Interface -- It is imperative that we are
            integrated to have a view of the full-life cycle and reduce
            the resources needed to push the data between systems

        -   NOAA Databases - Figure out what it takes to improve the
            dissemination. We are wasting technical resources and it
            will only get worse at integration to other systems
            increase.

        -   Data Elements Standardization - True re-engineering of our
            data-handling process. Why one group is collecting
            particular data elements and another group is not? When you
            standardize elements you it is much easier to understand the
            flow of data as in comes from different Bureaus. When data
            means the same thing across Bureau's it becomes a source of
            meaningful "information".

        -   EARS- Enterprise Acquisition Reporting System - Ability to
            collect and analyze information who is buying and how much
            it cost and what is being bought. Are we spending money in
            the right place?

-   Data Standardization will assist in collecting all the data and turn
    it into information. Training should be an opportunity to learn to
    make the best use of the system and make better decisions on where
    to change the system or product. If there is standardization then
    the resources are more easily portable.

-   Census has declared that they need refresher training and J. Wilson
    has received an offer from CACI and also an offer from other Bureaus
    who have used CSTARS. This will be discussed off line.

-   Debra Young advises all of the HCO's to plan on training and put
    dollars aside for updates to training etc. There is always going to
    be new personnel and new/refined processes.

## IT Security

-   Review by CIO's Office of the security plan and accreditation
    office. Issues are more procedural and need to incorporate them into
    the plan. On right track for IT security.

-   Working on remote access and Rules of Behavior. Still communicating
    with consultant to have official distribution.

## Financial Interface

-   Began detail level design phase.

-   Kickoff meeting will be in the next week.

-   Draft design document will be available approx. August 27^th^.

-   The finance team will walk through the document with each bureau and
    then they will take comments and determine if they will/can be
    incorporated.

-   Kick-off Audience will be Finance and Acquisition.

-   The ITBP process will be included but they will need more detail.
    Census will provide more information.

-   **ACTION ITEM: Draft design document will be posted approx August 27
    and there will be a kickoff meeting in the next 2 weeks.**

> **CSTARS 5.8C Review**

-   This release will have more changes for FPDS-NG.

    -   Single sign-on capability

    -   Derived PIID lookup

    -   Delivery will by approx August.

## Disaster Recovery

-   Disaster Recovery will begin December 6-8.

## CSTARS DATA elements

-   Kick-off meeting on July 7^th^ was a success in keeping bureaus
    informed on the process of determining data elements for
    standardization.

-   An initial suggestion to bring the finance community to these
    discussions was reconsidered by C. Davis. The data elements being
    determined initially are procurement related, hence only procurement
    personnel are required. Once the Financial Interface Detailed Design
    becomes available we will look at the Financial aspect more closely.

**E-GOV INITIATIVES**

**FPDS-NG**

-   Reduction in the number of problems. Web server at OCS is staying
    up. Many still looking for answers from GCE.

-   **ACTION ITEM: Yancy to follow up with GCE and the outstanding
    problems**

**BPN/CCR-Data Update-To-Date**

-   Being updated everyday and running well.

> **FEDBIZOPS**

-   Gary is looking at CSTARS and if it can have separate user names
    instead of have a site name and ID.

-   OS+ is the pilot program.

-   **ACTION ITEM: Crystal will find out information on when Fed Biz Ops
    will expire and when the new contract will begin.**

**COMPRIZON™SUITE**

-   No one has tried out the system yet. Bureaus have been asked again
    to login and give it a spin, then provide feedback to CACI.

-   **ACTION ITEM: Tara will resend the user names to John Abbott.**

**PM SURVEY**

-   **ACTION ITEM: Crystal to provide Team Leads with survey after the
    user's group meeting.**

-   If Bureau has had no interaction with Gary then Mark the N/A
    capability without associated a number.

**COMMENTS**

**NIST:** Issues with FPDS-NG and they all need to be addressed

**ACTION ITEM: Schedule a meeting prior to Yancy going to GCE and he
will have all the information to take to the GCE meeting.**

**ACTION ITEM: Yancy to provide information on the 281 issue.**