> **Minutes**
>
> **DOC eTravel Migration Team Meeting**
>
> **Monday, April 12, 2004**

# HCHB 6029, 1:15 pm

> **Attendees:**
>
> Denise Wells, OAS, Chair Chiara Alsop, OS/OAM
>
> Maxine Anderson-Brown, Census Richard Bittner, Census
>
> Jennifer Bonaguide, OAS Edna Campbell, OAS
>
> Brenda Davidson, EDA Lou Deutsch, NOAA
>
> Wesley Dias, ESA R. J. Dominic, NOAA
>
> Stephen Elko, NOAA Sheila Fleishell, OS/OHRM
>
> Ja'Nelle Hickman, OS/OCIO Tiffany Hixson, OS/OAM
>
> Lucia Homick, OFM Amy Hsu, NIST
>
> Hamilton Humes, ITA Rhonda Jackson, OAS
>
> Deborah Locke, OS/OAM Rich McKay, NIST
>
> John Sansing, OFM/CSC Cynthia Shugars, NIST
>
> Kathy Simpson, PTO Eileen Stammler, NIST
>
> Sandra Tull, Census Rachael Wivell, NOAA
>
> Jim Woods, OAS Stephen Wurth, NIST

#### Welcoming Remarks

Denise Wells, DOC eTravel Executive Sponsor and Director of the Office
of Administrative Services (OAS) welcomed members to the eTravel
Migration Meeting.

Ms Wells outlined actions to develop new travel staff in the Office of
Administrative Operations (OAO). A job announcement is currently posted
for a Payband 4 position, Senior Travel Expert and Travel Division
Chief. An announcement for two Payband 3 positions to handle daily
operations, including eTravel, recently closed.

Ms. Wells announced that Jim Woods, Acting Deputy Director of the Office
of Administrative Services (OAS), has been named as the new eTravel
Migration Manager and presented the proposed eTravel Acquisition team
structure. Ms. Wells announced the consolidation of the SATO re-compete
with the eTravel Services (eTS) task order, with DOC transitioning to
the selected vendor's Travel Management Center (TMC).

**Acquisition Plan**

Chiara Alsop (OS/OAM)

Chiara Alsop was introduced from Office of Acquisition Management (OAM)
to review the draft acquisition plan, provided as part of the handout
folder. OAM reviewed the Task Order from GSA from which the final three
vendors were selected. The winning companies are Northrop Grumman
Mission Systems (NGMS), Carlson-Wagonlit Government Travel (CWGT), and
Electronic Data Systems (EDS). The following major milestones are part
of the Draft Acquisition Plan:

June 27, 2004 Presentation of Acquisition Plan to Acquisition Team

June 30, 2004 Draft Statement of Work (SOW)

August 4, 2004 Request for Quotes (RFQ)

August 25, 2004 Receive Quotes from Contractors

November 15, 2004 Award Task Order and Announce Award Decision

December 8, 2004 Phase in Period Begins

March 1, 2005 Performance of Task Order Begins

OAM noted that the Acquisitions Team will be an "empowered" team,
responsible for making a final decision on the best vendor to supply DOC
with eTravel Services. The technical team is comprised of subject matter
experts from a number of. Requests for changes to the team should be
made to OAM as soon as possible.

R. J. Dominic from NOAA recommended that end users be included on the
evaluation team, specifically accounting/finance functionals. End users
are not represented on the Migration Team, and including them in the
Acquisition team would promote user buy-in is promoted. ITA recommended
that the end user group include managers (approving officials), as well
as preparers and travelers.

OAM and OAS concurred and will recommend that a "super user" group be
added as acquisition advisors and/or as a new subgroup to the Migration
Team. This super user group may assist with hands-on vendor evaluations.
OAM and OAS will make a final determination of the best approach for
including end users in the evaluation process.

Mr. Dominic also suggested the evaluation team should adopt a ground
rule that the members must participate in every meeting, stay engaged in
the process, and provide feedback to Jim Woods, the Migration Team
Leader.

Comments on the acquisition schedule should be forwarded to OAS Program
Office by May 1, 2004.

**Program Update**

Jim Woods

Mr. Woods announced that the Migration Plan was submitted to the GSA
Program Management Office (PMO) on March 31, 2004, as required by the
Federal Travel Regulations (FTR). Time limitations precluded
coordination with all the bureaus and subgroups before submission, but
the Plan is a living document and will be updated as needed. The
Director of OAS recommended that the Plan be reviewed and revised, if
necessary, on a bi-monthly basis.

A copy of the Migration Plan is on the CD in the handout package. Major
revisions to the November 2003 draft include Roles and Responsibilities,
Migration Approach, and Project Schedule. Forward your comments to the
Migration Manager by May 1, 2004.

In roles and responsibilities, the Migration Team definition was
expanded to include all bureau travel points of contact. DOC eTravel
Subgroups were identified and established, with roles and
responsibilities detailed in the Migration Plan. Current subgroups are
Interface Specifications, Help Desk and Training, Travel Functions,
Reporting, and Security. Subgroups will be disbanded and new teams
formed as the migration progresses. Subgroup leaders provide feedback to
OAS.

The Migration Plan outlines the duties of the OAS eTravel Program
Office, including leading activities such as change management, business
process reengineering, and testing. The Migration Manager is responsible
for program oversight and for keeping the project on schedule,
interfaces with subgroups and bureaus to identify issues, and addresses
the issues with the GSA PMO and the DOC Executive Sponsor.

Mr. Woods reiterated the migration approach DOC is using is to replace
the SATO task order with the travel management center (TMC) portion of
eTravel Services. By consolidating the two travel-related acquisition
efforts, DOC will move to a new TMC in December 2004, meeting the
FTR-mandate to "begin migration" into eTS by of December 31, 2004. The
Phase I migration to the TMC will be completed before the end of the
SATO master contract.

The DOC project is currently in the Planning Phase. DOC has completed a
gap analysis (included on the CD), a change management plan is in
preparation, policy is being updated, and input from the subgroups is
being incorporated into the SOW and Tailored Task Order. Training needs
are also being evaluated.

Next is the preparation phase with a vendor kickoff meeting, training to
use the TMC, re-evaluating security requirements, and developing
roles/permission levels for online booking . Bureaus will be encouraged
to utilize online booking as much as possible the first year so the
Department can realize maximum cost benefits. The bureaus will
transition by the end of the SATO master contract The travel
authorization and voucher system portion of the service will be
configured (user roles, tables, routing chains, permissions, etc.)
during this period as much of this work can be completed independent of
a financial interface.

Funding the interfaces is the major hurdle to implementing eTS. OAS is
diligently working to secure resources. To fully deploy by September 30,
2006, travel authorization and financial interfaces are mandated, but
meeting this deadline is partially dependent on finding resources.

**Interface/Integration Subgroup Status**

John Sansing (OFM/CSC)

The Interface/Integration team includes members from OFM, CIO, NOAA,
NIST, Census, PTO, ITA, OAS, OAM with expertise in functional
requirements and technical attributes. Team goals and objectives are to
provide input to the SOW; develop requirements for data content, format
and flow; establish strategy for data flow (web, direct lines, connect
to central location); and examine the XML data format, security and
authentication required by a financial interface. Feedback from the
Migration Team is requested on two documents included on the meeting
compact disc.

To date the team has drafted business rules, assumptions and
architecture diagram; interface process description including all points
of contact/data exchange; and interface definition for transactions and
data requirements. The team has also provided suggestions for DOC policy
revisions. The Subgroup expects to complete the draft interface
requirements document by June and is currently on schedule.

The team has requested the OAS program office set up discussion sessions
with vendors on interface capacity and Service Level Agreement
(recovery, handling errors, routing). The team would benefit from having
telecommunications and security members attend these discussions. The
team is developing questions for the vendors.

The Subgroup has also recommended that the user ID be originated in the
financial system, and that DOC work with GSA on the XML standard that
will be used.

In order for the Subgroup to complete its tasks, it needs to receive the
requirements from functions group, gain agreement on interface technical
approach, coordinate with GSA on record layouts and XML. The Subgroup
needs responses to questions on travel policy including group travel and
blanket travel, handling receipts, obligating travel orders, pre- or
post- payment audits, and standardizing object class codes. The Subgroup
also seeks guidance on assessing the interface infrastructure
(telecommunications) requirements.

OAS noted that Karen Hogan, the Deputy Chief Information Officer, may be
able to provide guidance on the issue of potential telecommunications
impact. OAS will ensure that this topic is placed on the monthly OS/ITRB
meeting agenda.

**Travel Functions Subgroup Status**

Hamilton Humes, (ITA)

Team members represent NOAA, NIST, ITA, PTO, Census, and OS with a wide
range of functional and technical backgrounds. One of the Subgroup's
goals was to review the GSA list of functions and add descriptors that
fit DOC needs. The team developed a list of 9 major categories of
functional requirements.

The critical path for the requirements document is the end of May. The
team will also provide analysis and feedback to the Interface Subgroup.

Issues of concern to the Function Subgroup issues are standardized DOC
policies for leisure travel; standardized definition and rules for
planning and authorization; updating the object class codes; and how the
data will be gathered for the traveler profiles. The Subgroup needs
input from other groups on security issues, access and reporting. The
Subgroup will provide requirements to the Interface Subgroup by May 15,
2004, which will allow the Interface Subgroup to complete its
requirements by May 31, 2004.

**Security Subgroup Status**

Ja'nelle Hickman (OS/OCIO)

The Security Subgroup is comprised of representatives from NIST, NOAA,
and OS. The team's goals and objectives are to draft security guidance,
provide risk assessment, identify and recommend digital signatures, and
provide detailed security requirements for dataflow and interfaces.

Members of the security team would like to attend the vendor meetings
being scheduled with the interface team. The team lead will provide
vendor questions to OAM.

**Training/Help Features/Forms Conversion Subgroup Status**

R. J. Dominic (NOAA)

Subgroup composition includes NOAA, USPTO, and ITA. Its goal is to
review forms and eliminate unnecessary data, identify training for super
users/system administrators, users and approving officials, and identify
required help support. The team is looking at upgrade and gift and
bequest forms at this time. Much of the information required in current
travel processes is duplicative. The subgroup will standardize the
required data and begin the training review to determine training
requirements. The subgroup plans to have its requirements completed by
mid-May.

Subgroup concerns include: Some of the data elements identified on
current forms may not on the list of fields from the selected vendor;
i.e., Fly America Act Justification statements, Gift and Bequests
information, upgrade information and travel card administration.

After the vendor selection is made, the subgroup will review the
training available from the vendor and recommend a training plan. In
addition, the Subgroup requests any travel forms used in the bureaus not
yet supplied for review.

NOAA noted a point of concern with the eTS is the operations and
maintenance of routing (workflow) lists as personnel move in, around,
and transfer out of DOC. NOAA expects that the maintenance of these
lists will require a high level of effort.

**Project Communications Strategy**

Ms. Wells announced the communications strategy is under development and
that Edna Campbell (OAO) will be addressing communications issues.

**General Discussion**

Ms. Wells will discuss policy issues with OFM and OAM. During the next
Subgroup Leader's meeting, the team leads will discuss potential policy
topics with OAS. The CFO Council will be briefed and asked to vet policy
issues and recommendations before changes are finalized. OAS will employ
an issue tracking system to assure issues identified by the migration
team members are documented and addressed.

Access to the eTravel website will provide a venue to release
information to the public, and plans are to make the site available in
April.

Ms. Wells briefs the CFO Council monthly on the status of the eTravel
program, and is addressing the financial issues.

As part of the DOC eTravel communications strategy, OAS will provide the
right information to the right people at the right time, throughout the
travel community.

NOAA commented that during the CAMS rollout, a quarterly newsletter was
produced and copies will be provided to OAS.

**Open discussion**

OFM/CSC inquired what the template is for the SOW document. OAS will
provide a sample SOW to the subgroup leaders.

Mr. Dominic discussed the lack of funding FY 05 to build interfaces. Ms.
Wells said that in order to keep up the program momentum there may be an
interface testing pilot, with major interface development scheduled in
FY 06 when funding has been budgeted. Implementation is scheduled for FY
07. OAS is considering alternate methods for building financial
interfaces and migrating approaches such as ITA's suggestion that the
bureaus could use the functionality of online booking and provide paper
to the financial process.

**Action Items**

  ------------------------------------ ----------- ----------------------
  **Action Item**                      **Due       **Responsible Party**
                                       Date**      

  Contact OCIO; add agenda item to                 OAS
  monthly OS/ITRB regarding eTravel                
  Interface Infrastructure                         

  Feedback on Migration Plan and       May 1, 2004 Members
  Project Schedule due to Jim Woods,               
  OAS                                              

  Functions Requirements List          May 15,     Travel Functions
                                       2004        Subgroup

  Feedback on Acquisition Plan /       May 15,     Members
  Technical Team members due to OAM    2004        

  Provide Subgroup Leads with SOW      April 23,   OAS
  structure                            2004        

  Discuss recommended policy changes   April 19,   Subgroup Leads, OAS
  at Subgroup Leaders Meeting          2004        

  Supply sample CAMS implementation                NOAA
  newsletter to OAS.                               
  ------------------------------------ ----------- ----------------------

#### Next Meeting

The next migration meeting will be held the end of May.