# eRA Project Team Meeting

**Date:** March 12, 2002

**Time:** 9:00 am

**Location:** 6700 B Rockledge, Room 1205

**Chair:** John McGowan

[**Next Meeting:** March 26, 2002]{.mark}

## Agenda Items

1.  **Update on System Problems**

Ali Ghassemzadeh defended his team's methodical and conservative
approach to identifying and resolving the problems, which have plagued
IMPAC II since January. Working together with CIT, Operations has
determined that slow response and system lockups represent two distinct
issues requiring separate remedies. Solutions are being tested one by
one in accordance with the scientific method. Ali did concede that
Operations waited too long to seek input and technical assistance from
outside DEIS.

Ali reported that even after successfully applying Compaq patch kit 7,
the system continued to lock up. This outcome seems to negate the theory
that contention for Network File Server (NFS) mount access to scanned
images is hanging the system. Another theory is that the Java servlets
used to power ICSTORe, summary statements and grant folder functions are
the source of the lockups. These servlets were disabled last week, and
the system has been stable since then. As a result, DEIS has engaged the
developers in reengineering the grant image servlets. Jim Cain indicated
that minor changes had already been made.

To increase system resources, eRA has decided to transition to the new
server environment this weekend, one week ahead of schedule. The IMPAC
II application deployment has been postponed until the weekend of March
22 or until the new environment is stable.

The server migration is expected to take three full days. IMPAC II will
be shut down at 6:00 pm on Thursday, March 14 until approximately 8:00
am on Monday, March 18. First the OLTP and IRDB databases will be copied
to the new Storage Area Network (SAN); then, the system will be brought
up on two Compaq GS160 AlphaServers. Brad Sachar assured the Project
team that Operations was planning to do extensive testing. Tim Twomey is
coordinating user stress tests, and CIT will turn on diagnostic tools.

Following Ali's report, there was an opportunity to ask questions.
Stephen Hughes inquired if the servlets had been tested prior to their
deployment in January. Ali responded that eRA did not have a test
environment that simulated the full production environment. Brad added
that we do not have automated tools to perform load testing.

Stephen then asked if disabling the servlets had any impact on the
system slowdown. Ali replied no; performance has not improved. A newly
formed, high-priority "Response Team" that includes Amir Venegas, Dan
Hall and a representative from CIT will investigate network bottlenecks.
Tim said that six ICs would run performance tests today. The team will
collect response time data and logs from various NIH buildings for CIT
analysis.

Jim Cain pointed out that CIT subnets for eRA are several years old.
We've grown since then with increased usage and more complex
applications. Pete Morton believes that eRA, CIT and DNST need to work
cooperatively to assess the entire end-to-end network environment and to
address long-term requirements for scanned images, firewalls, etc.

John McGowan (JJ) asked about the availability of scanned images after
the system migration next weekend. Sherry Zucker reminded the group that
summary statements also have been impacted. Ali responded that Brad is
working on rearchitecting the servlets and creating a series of tests.
Although the new functionality is needed, we don't want to risk crashing
the entire system.

After the problems have been resolved, Ali suggests a post-mortem
meeting to review lessons learned.

2.  **SBIR Orientation on March 4**

Jerry Stuck reported that 50 attendees, representing 27 companies,
attended the 3-hour SBIR orientation on March 4. Six ICs are sponsoring
a research grant opportunity for small businesses to develop products
and services to assist grantee institutions with datastream submissions
to the NIH. The RFA was issued in late January; applications are due on
April 17.

The following presentations are available on the eRA website: [Overview
of SBIR Opportunity by Jerry
Stuck](http://era.nih.gov/Docs/WelcomeRevised.ppt), [NIH Commons
Interface to the Grantee Community by George
Stone](http://era.nih.gov/Docs/NIH_CommonsRevised.ppt), and
[Introduction to Data Standards by Paul
Markovitz.](http://era.nih.gov/Docs/Data_Standards.ppt) The [Q&A
session](http://era.nih.gov/Docs/SBIR_QA_03-04-02.doc) is also available
online. The Webcast for the public briefing has been archived at the
following site: <http://videocast.nih.gov/>. Look in the Special
Lectures/Press Conferences category under Past Events.

JJ thanked Jerry, George and Paul for a job well done. He then notified
eRA contractors that they are not eligible to compete and cannot charge
time for attending the briefing. He also said that HHS now has the
authority to classify documents and that IMPAC II code may be classified
in the future.

3.  **eRA Symposium on May 10**

Steve Hausman updated the Project Team on progress in planning for the
eRA symposium on May 10 at the Natcher Center. The theme will be "eRA:
What in it for me?" The purpose of the workshop is to acquaint NIH
extramural staff with new eRA capabilities and their potential for
reducing paper, improving access to information, facilitating
communications, and increasing overall efficiency.

The symposium will begin at 9:00 am with opening greetings from Wendy
Baldwin and JJ. Steve then will give a one-hour plenary address covering
what eRA has to offer now in the context of the end-to-end grant
process. Steve also will provide a vision of the future.

Beginning at 10:45, there will be 25-minute breakout sessions on the
following topics: ECB/QVR, ICSTORe, Grant Folder, Program Portal, the
Review Module (including summary statements and Internet-assisted
review), Closeout, Population Tracking and possibly eSNAP. Each session
will be repeated three times. The symposium will conclude with a plenary
Q&A session from 12:15-1:00 pm.

The planners currently are finalizing the design for a poster. In
response to Pete's question, Steve said that we will publicize the event
with tent cards, email messages, newsletter articles and presentations
to RPC, GMAC and EPMC. Attendees will be eligible for ESA and GM
certification credit. Steve welcomes other suggestions.

JJ said that there would be a follow-on workshop for Program and Budget
later in the year. Carlos Caban will talk about the planned new modules
during the Program Portal breakout session.

4.  **Project Central Update**

Donna Frahm announced that Project Central would be deployed to the eRA
Project Team in late March. eRA has grown from a "development-centric"
project led by a single developer to a large, complex "operational"
project involving many contractors and driven by customer requirements
and decisions. Project Central, a collaborative planning, scheduling and
cost-tracking tool, will improve communications and oversight by
centralizing project files and making them accessible to managers,
contractors and customer groups. Furthermore, the format (or Work
Breakdown Structure (WBS)) for project plans will be standardized across
all initiatives based on the IMPAC II Software Development Lifecycle
(SDLC) and the Rational Unified Process (RUP).

Donna used screen shots to demonstrate the product's functionality from
the Adovcate's perspective. (See
[presentation](http://era.nih.gov/Docs/Project_Central_Update_3-12-02.ppt).).
After logging on to the system, the Advocate will arrive at the home
page, where there are four main actions: Messages, Tasks, Views and
Status Reports. Messages will inform the user of new assignments or
updates concerning the project and display a collapsed version of the
project file. The Advocate will be notified when a milestone has been
reached. At that point, he/she will indicate approval by selecting the
Tasks function and entering 100% under Work Completed. Without the
Advocate's validation, the project cannot move forward. By selecting
Views, the user can display timelines for all projects and summary or
detail information for a particular project. Status reports will not be
part of the initial deployment.

Donna and Steve Patton will provide individualized training for
Advocates. There also will be instructional sessions for tasks leads,
analysts, developers and other team members. In response to Paul
Markovitz's question, Donna responded that a Project Central message is
generated automatically when the team lead makes an assignment. There
are plans to send an Outlook message as well.

5.  **Implementiation of Single Point of Ownership**

Sara Silver gave a
[presentation](http://era.nih.gov/Docs/Single_Point_of_Ownership_3-12-02.ppt)
on the implementation of single point of ownership of profile data. She
will repeat her presentation to EPMC on March 20. Following is an
outline of the plan:

[March Release]{.underline} -- The bridging of people data from IMPAC I
to IMPAC II will be turned off to prevent the corruption of IMPAC II
data. Profiles associated with validated Commons Version 1 accounts will
be locked between March and May.

[May Release]{.underline} -- Name typeovers will be disallowed. Profile
collapses and profile updates will be severely restricted. One
designated user in each IC will have profile update authority. Only Data
Quality staff will have profile collapse ability. Data Quality staff
will use a new profile validation interface to reconcile new Commons
Version 2 accounts with IMPAC II profiles.

[July Release]{.underline} -- A standalone Persons module will be
deployed. Single point of ownership will be implemented for federal
staff, who will have a new interface to maintain their own profiles.

Carol Martin asked if there were safeguards to prevent a grantee from
updating the profile of an NIH staff person with the same name. Sara
responded yes; the name and institution are both checked.

6.  **Status on IRDB Redesign Activities**

Johnnie Pearson began his
[presentation](http://era.nih.gov/Docs/IRDB_Status_Update_3-12-02.ppt)
with accomplishments since the last briefing. At the end of December,
all OLTP persons data was made available in the IRDB. Also, there was a
cleanup of many unneeded snapshots, tables, views and synonyms and
resolution of a few IRDB data quality issues.

Over the past few months, Johnnie and Carol Martin have been meeting
with the user community to gather requirements for power views. The
logical design has been completed for six views, two are pending
approval; PV_GRANT_PI_MV, the most complex, is about a month behind
schedule. The principal reason for the delay is the length of time (90
minutes) needed to accomplish the nightly refresh. Kalpesh Patel is
working with Johnnie to rethink the architecture so that the refresh
will run faster. Given current system performance problems, it is not
prudent to deploy PV_GRANT_PI_MV at this time. After the system
migration this weekend, it will be possible to set up an IRDBTST
instance to do comprehensive testing and resolve performance issues.

Johnnie is working with Amir Venegas on automating the refresh process
and coordinating it with the nightly bridge runs. Other items to do
include completing technical documentation, deploying remaining views,
and integrating additional data (e.g., future years by CAN, award
details by CAN, stem cell lines).

7.  **Status Reports/Announcements**

> *[Bud Erickson]{.underline}* -- Bud is recuperating at home following
> surgery and will be out for an extended period.
>
> *[Knowledge Management]{.underline}* -- JJ introduced Richard Morris
> (NIAID) who will talk about Collexis at a future Project Team meeting.
> JJ said that last week's Granting Agency of the Future discussions
> emphasized the need for knowledge management.
>
> *[Briefing for John Marburger]{.underline}* --Ruth Kirschstein and
> Wendy Baldwin met with John Marburger of the Office of Science and
> Technology Policy. He was pleased to hear that NIH is working with NSF
> and the Federal Commons on web interfaces and datastream capability.
>
> *[IMPAC II Application Deployment]{.underline}* -- Jim Cain announced
> that the March deployment would be delayed until March 22 so that the
> migration to the new server environment could be deployed this
> weekend.
>
> *[Population Tracking]{.underline}* -- Donna said that the Population
> Tracking module would be deployed in May. A user group (PTUG) has been
> formed and is accepting members.

**Attendees**

Lyn Albrecht

Eileen Bradley

Carlos Caban

Jim Cain

Dave Carter

Krishna Collie

Zoe-Ann Copeland

Michael Cox

Michel Desbois

Steve Fitzgerald

Thor Fjellstedt

Carla Flora

Donna Frahm

Stefanie Geaney

Ali Ghassemzadeh

Scarlett Gibb

Andy Greenleaf

Dan Hall

Della Hann

Steve Hausman

Earl Hodgkins

Stephen Hughes

Paul Markovitz

Carol Martin

John McGowan

Madeline Monheit

Bob Moore

Richard Morris

Pete Morton

Richard Panniers

Kalpesh Patel

Steve Patton

Johnnie Pearson

Bob Reifsnider

Patti Rodbell

Christine Rumney

Brad Sachar

Sandy Seppala

Belinda Seto

Mark Siegert

Sara Silver

Jay Silverman

Anna Snouffer

Tracy Soto

Bobbi Spitzberg

George Stone

Jerry Stuck

Jim Tucker

Tim Twomey

Virginia Van Brunt

Amir Venegas

Catherine Walker

Sherry Zucker