United States General Accounting Office

GAO Office of Information Management and

Communications

August 1994 Information

Resources

Management

Strategic Plan

1994-1998

GAO/OIMC-94-12

Message From the Comptroller General

GAO is facing a very challenging and exciting future. To better fulfill its

mission, the agency is reshaping its internal processes to reduce staff time

now spent on low-level tasks, improve teamwork, increase access to

information and people, improve decision-making, and avoid rework. Our

goal is to better meet the needs of our customers—the Congress and the

American taxpayer—by increasing the quality of our products and

reducing the time required to produce them. That is no small task.

Critical to this transformation is the creative use of information

technology. By applying electronic communication tools, such as

videoconferencing, voice messaging, and computer networks to its

internal processes, line and staff units will gain better access to one

another as well as a wide variety of information sources. They will

discover new ways of working that will achieve the improvements in

quality and timeliness that the agency and the Congress require. The Data

Collection and Analysis application now being piloted for eventual roll-out

to all of GAO is an example of that new capability.

Our customers will also benefit from our efforts to promote the electronic

distribution of our products in a cost-effective way. In doing so, they will

be able to request the output of our efforts in electronic as well as printed

form and have access to a rich and flexible source of information.

This document spells out what we need to do over the next few years to

fully realize this vision. Much has already been accomplished. These

efforts will take time and significant resources, both human and financial.

More importantly, they will require each staff member to accept the

challenge that these new information tools offer and to apply them

creatively on the job.

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Message From the Assistant Comptroller

General for Information Management and

Communications

Defining the combination of tools and services that will address GAO’s

diverse information resource requirements is a significant challenge. The

information architecture that we are developing must be flexible enough

to both grow with GAO’s evolving requirements and also accommodate

future technologies. At the same time, it must be stable enough to provide

a long-term platform for which applications can be developed. To guide

this development, the Office of Information Management and

Communications (OIMC) has created this strategic plan.

The plan’s strategy and various initiatives incorporate insights and issues

that have been raised by divisions and offices across GAO. The information

architecture addressed in this plan has been designed to meet known

agency business needs, and we hope that we have built in the flexibility to

address those still to be identified. It will require years of effort and

substantial human and financial resources. Further, it will require a strong

working partnership between OIMC, the Training Institute, the Office of

Policy, and particularly GAO’s operational units.

We will update this document as necessary to recognize changes in the

agency’s requirements and priorities. Please let us know how we can help

you. We welcome your ideas and assistance at any time.

Page 2 GAO/OIMC-94-12
Information Resources Management (IRM)

Strategic Plan

To guide the development of its information resources (IRM)1 and have

them serve as a catalyst for creative change, GAO’s Office of Information

Management and Communications has produced this strategic plan. It

shows how GAO’s mission is supported by its IRM vision and then analyzes

its existing combination of information tools and systems to determine

their current and long-term adequacy. Based on this analysis, it determines

the new mixture of information resources that will be required to support

the agency’s transformation. Finally, it identifies the specific initiatives

required to give staff these new capabilities.

GAO’s Mission and

IRM Vision

GAO’s mission is to “serve the public interest by providing members of

Congress and others who make policy with accurate information,

unbiased analysis, and objective recommendations on how best to utilize

public resources in support of the security and well-being of the American

people.”2

 To accomplish this mission, GAO depends on its IRM resources

and requires the support of a sophisticated mixture of information tools

and systems to collect, analyze, and disseminate complex information on a

wide range of subjects, doing so within time frames that meet the needs of

the Congress and the public. Furthermore, since its staff are dispersed

around the world, the agency requires information technologies to link

them efficiently, allowing them to work as teams of highly skilled

professionals despite their physical locations.

To develop these technological resources, GAO follows its IRM vision, which

describes a future in which GAO’s teams are empowered by their

information tools. The vision highlights the relationships among three

elements of GAO’s operations: the IRM technologies, the work processes,

and the staff. When these elements work in harmony, team members can

make their maximum contribution to one another and the agency as a

whole.

GAO’s IRM vision is to create an organization in which work groups can be

more self-sufficient in meeting the information requirements of their jobs.

Such an organization would be characterized by (1) information

technology that is so readily available and easy to use that work groups

can better create, access, process, and share the information required to

complete their tasks; (2) staff who have been prepared to use technology

1

GAO’s IRM resources cover a wide range of activities: office automation; end-user and administrative

computing; library and data access services; local and long-distance voice services; publishing,

distribution, and mail; video production and teleconferencing; and retention of records and databases.

2

Quality Improvement Plan for GAO: Early Implementation (GAO/QMG-92-1, November 1991), p. 4.

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Information Resources Management (IRM)

Strategic Plan

effectively; and (3) improved work processes, which yield higher quality

products and which are more efficient as a result of this technology.

The IRM Vision

Self Sufficiency

New Work Processes

• Highest Quality

• Greater Efficiency

New Tools

Well-Trained Staff

IRM Strategy To help attain this vision, GAO has adopted a strategic IRM planning model.

This model begins with a recognition of GAO’s mission and IRM vision and

then develops a strategy that will help achieve them. It then proceeds to

identify the specific IRM initiatives required to carry out that strategy.

The central step of this model, the development of the IRM strategy,

analyzes the three variables upon which the strategy will depend:

• business needs: the requirements of its line and staff units, especially as

they are shaped by the agency’s Total Quality Management (TQM) initiative;

• strategic information environment: (1) GAO’s IRM existing condition,

including its base of hardware and software, its mission and administrative

systems, and the IRM services provided to its staff, and (2) its future

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Information Resources Management (IRM)

Strategic Plan

condition, i.e., the technical environment that will be required to satisfy its

business needs; and

• resources: the cultural, human, and financial resources that will influence

and/or support the new technological environment.

The model then identifies the individual initiatives that GAO must complete

to establish the future technical environment and achieve its IRM vision.

Business Needs While defining GAO’s business needs is the first step in determining its

strategic IRM requirements, doing so now is especially difficult because

GAO’s needs are changing. Driven by its ongoing TQM improvement

initiative, GAO is examining its current business practices to find ways to

improve the quality of both its work processes and products.

In this change process, information technology can enable new ways of

working, for example, speeding up report development and review by

making an assignment’s workpapers easily available on a network server.

GAO has recognized this relationship between technology and

organizational change by establishing both the creative use and the

effective deployment of technology as key outcomes supporting the TQM

priority to “Improve the Quality of Work and Processes.”

However, because many of its business needs in the late 1990s are

unknown now, GAO has had to implement a flexible information-planning

process. This process emphasizes the establishment of a basic information

infrastructure, founded on industry standards, that can evolve along with

its changing requirements and can support the developments in its work

processes.

Strategic Information

Environment: Existing

Condition

GAO has come a long way in developing the flexible mixture of hardware,

software, and services needed to meet its evolving business requirements.

It has carefully balanced meeting short-term requirements with pursuing

long-range strategic issues. Its resulting program has moved incrementally,

first establishing a basic infrastructure and acquiring the tools to operate

there and then integrating these into its work processes. While much

remains to be done, the interim accomplishments of this program can now

be seen throughout the agency.

End-User Computing GAO has begun to give its staff the workstations that they will use for the

next 5 years and has begun linking them through a network. Before 1991,

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almost all the staff used standalone 16-bit microcomputers (i.e., “ATclass”) as their workstations. While these machines were adequate as

personal productivity tools, they could neither operate efficiently on a

network nor support the complex operating systems, software, and

graphical user interfaces dominant in today’s marketplace. Therefore, the

IRM program adopted a 32-bit workstation (i.e., “386” and above) as its

standard in late 1991. Since that time, GAO has procured over 3,100 of these

units, both desktops and notebooks. In addition, its goal for fiscal year

1996 is to have a full 32-bit inventory.

In addition to moving its hardware toward its standard, GAO has

strengthened its software inventory. Because GAO has procured its

standard software in different years, members of work groups frequently

have found that they were using incompatible versions of a software

application. As a result, the agency has begun to systematically upgrade its

inventory to eliminate these disparate versions. It has now established and

implemented a standard according to which each software package in use

must be either the current release of that application or the release

preceding the current one. This “current release minus 1” standard will

remove an obstacle that has hampered work team effectiveness.

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Network and Application

Development

In addition, GAO has expanded its network pilot, both in headquarters and

in the field. Before 1990, GAO had used standalone microcomputers

exclusively, an inefficient response to its team-oriented work processes. In

that year, the agency began its Mission Support Project in two divisions

and one field location to establish a local area network (LAN) and the

applications to run there. This network was subsequently broadened to

include the Office of the General Counsel and 5 small-scale administrative

LANs, and, by the end of fiscal year 1994, it will include about 2,000 users.

In addition, the Mission Support Project began developing and testing a

Data Collection and Analysis (DCA) application for use on the network,

which will enable work groups to complete their assignments more

efficiently and to improve their work processes.

Picture of DCA Screen

Time-Sharing To perform the statistical analysis of large files required by some

assignments, GAO has purchased computing time and associated technical

support from government computing centers. Because this cost has

increased steadily over the years, GAO now has a pilot project under way to

investigate cost-effective alternatives to time-sharing while maintaining

technical support for its users.

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Information Resources Management (IRM)

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Access to Information To meet the needs of both line and staff offices, GAO draws on an extensive

collection of information sources. Among others, these include

• GAO’s historic data on the agency and program to be reviewed,

• congressional data on requests and on committee hearings and pending

legislation,

• the audited agency’s historic and operational data,

• analytic databases developed by government and private organizations,

• legal services,

• analyses of outside experts, and

• administrative information.

To access these sources, GAO uses various tools, including library

collections, the subscription to multiple databases, and the availability of

trained researchers. In addition, it has begun to provide staff with direct

access to these data sources through, for example, a compact

disk-read-only memory (CD-ROM) network and an on-line library catalogue

system.

While these approaches provide staff with a broad range of both

information sources and methods of access, they do not meet the needs of

all users. Some staff are skilled technically and want the autonomy gained

by direct access to data. In addition, if it can be done cost-effectively, GAO

would like to shift some processes done by professional researchers to the

staff, freeing up the researchers’ time for more complex or specialized

tasks. As a result, GAO has begun providing some evaluators and attorneys

with on-line access to a restricted number of databases through the agency

network and, eventually, will extend it to include the library’s holdings and

the CD-ROM systems. As it tests these access modes, the agency will

determine what research is best done centrally and what is best

distributed to line staff themselves.

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Information Resources Management (IRM)

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Technical Library CD-ROM

However, enhancing access to data is valuable only if the data are

accurately and consistently labeled. Currently, GAO has systems that hold

similar data but refer to them under different names. To resolve this

problem, GAO is developing naming standards and a data dictionary to

ensure uniformity of data labeling and will implement them across GAO’s

systems.

Electronic Communications In the area of enhanced electronic communications, GAO has recognized

that effective teamwork requires members of work groups to have ready

access to one another and the ability to share information. It has

responded to this need by providing new tools and services, in particular,

• multipoint videoconferencing in headquarters and field locations, capable

of linking all sites, and

• modern voice-processing (i.e., voice mail) service capable of sending and

responding to messages and forwarding them to anyone in GAO.

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These services are beginning to be integrated into GAO’s work processes.

Videoconferencing has allowed units to make staff more productive by

decreasing travel time, improving teamwork and decision-making, and

helping teams avoid rework. In addition, it has helped with human

resource management tasks, especially by increasing training options.

Voice processing has also improved the flow of information, provided new

tools to staff who wish to reengineer their work processes, and has the

potential to enable groups to work more productively.

Videoconferencing Facility

Publishing and Distributing

Products

Throughout the 1980s, GAO followed traditional publishing approaches:

typesetting documents, printing a small portion of them in-house3

 and the

majority through contractors, and distributing them by mail or messenger

3

In compliance with directives from the Joint Committee on Printing, the in-house print portion is

designed only to satisfy unusually short turnaround requirements and to secure sensitive material.

Page 10 GAO/OIMC-94-12
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to individual recipients. While this approach met GAO’s operational needs,

it

• was relatively expensive;

• did not produce data easily used as a research database;

• did not permit publishing or distributing documents in anything other than

a paper format; and

• did not meet the information requirements of the full range of GAO’s

customers, especially those who wanted an electronic file.

To determine how to overcome these limitations, GAO began an electronic

publishing program by taking four coordinated actions. First, it established

the capacity to typeset electronic files in-house. Second, it replaced some

of its aging in-house lithographic presses with state-of-the-art equipment

capable of printing directly from these files. Third, it began to investigate

electronic distribution by providing customers some products on floppy

disks; electronic bulletin boards; government CD-ROMs; and major

information networks, like Internet. Fourth, it used its electronic files to

develop two research databases as part of the mission support tools

provided users of the pilot network: report abstracts from fiscal year 1988

to the present and full text from November 1992.

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Electronic Publishing System

As GAO has created, managed, and begun publishing electronic documents,

it has also realized that a wide range of issues are raised by the long-term

production, distribution, and retention of electronic files, for example

• ensuring that appropriate software and related documentation are

retained, so that a file can be accessed and read properly;

• determining the appropriate period for retaining a file;

• determining appropriate storage media; and

• protecting the integrity of files.

GAO has begun a systematic process to identify these issues and develop

strategies for dealing with them.

Corporate Systems GAO’s administrative systems, which execute the agency’s administrative

transactions (e.g., payroll activities) and track assignments, are in

transition. While these systems maintain the integrity of corporate data,

many units have tried to use them as management systems, even though

they were not designed to give managers the ability to manipulate their

units’ data. Some managers have responded to this situation by developing

their own customized systems, which, while timely, often are not

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consistent with GAO’s official data. In addition, their systems have been

limited by the standalone technology upon which they are based.

To deal with managers’ needs, GAO will link its network with its corporate

systems. The network will use its graphical user interface to give the

current corporate systems4

 the same look and method of operation as

other network applications and over time will give managers greater

flexibility in adding their local data to the agency’s standard database. In

addition, GAO will use the network to support any new systems and to

integrate selected local systems into its corporate systems, starting with

the Human Resources Information System (HRIS).

The network has raised some security issues. In particular, GAO is sensitive

to the need to protect against unauthorized users accessing network

servers and it recognizes the increased points for system failure inherent

in any network. To deal with the former, GAO draws on the security

designed into the network operating system and the applications

themselves5

 and user training. To deal with the latter, it has implemented

physical security for its servers, security standards and procedures, and a

process for backing up network data. GAO has also begun a security

program that will lead to certifying its sensitive systems.

Strategic Information

Environment: Future

Condition

Defining the combination of information tools and services that will satisfy

agency requirements — i.e., its information architecture — is a challenge

for GAO. Such an architecture must be flexible enough both to grow along

with GAO’s evolving requirements and to accommodate future

technologies. At the same time, it must be stable enough to provide a

long-term platform for which applications can be developed.

These seemingly contradictory requirements can be resolved only if GAO

bases its new IRM architecture on well-defined technical and marketplace

standards. This will guarantee that the hardware and software (1) are in

the mainstream of technical developments and (2) provide the longevity

needed for stability. Recognizing these requirements, GAO has selected the

combination of hardware and software used in its pilot data network as its

long-term architecture because it is founded on widely accepted technical

and marketplace standards and has been proven to meet GAO’s operational

needs.

4

For example, Payroll/Personnel, Financial Management, and Mission Assignment Tracking System.

5

For example, password protection and the assignment of application and data access rights to

individual users.

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To extend the network throughout the agency, GAO must take five

coordinated actions. First, it must continue to upgrade its workstations

and transform its standalone operations into an agencywide network with

a common, easy-to-use interface. The network will allow staff to use their

workstations to draw on sophisticated applications, access a wide range of

data sources, and be in immediate contact with any individual or group in

the agency. In addition, it will give managers more-responsive

administrative systems by being the platform for downloading a unit’s

administrative data and then manipulating them in customized local

management systems. Finally, it will give GAO the data required to better

track the progress of its TQM program.

GAO Wide Area Network

Dallas

Denver Kansas


City

Chicago

San


Francisco

Los


Angeles

Atlanta

Norfolk

Boston

Europe

Detroit

Far East

GAO

Cincinnati

New York

Seattle

Page 14 GAO/OIMC-94-12
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Second, as it has done during the Mission Support Project, GAO must

continue to use information technology to improve its work processes.

Using business process reengineering and other methods, it must develop

new ways of executing current processes and also create new processes,

dependent on the information technology for their very existence.

Third, in addition to developing its network capacity, GAO must complete

development of its fully digital communications capability and enable

members of geographically dispersed work groups to better support one

another.

Fourth, even as it enhances its ability to print and distribute products in a

paper format, the agency must continue to develop its electronic printing

and distributing capability. It must continue to extend its in-house capacity

and, by moving to on-demand printing, reduce its warehousing expenses.

In addition, it must expand its research database of GAO products by

adding past documents. Finally, it must promote the electronic

distribution of documents to reduce costs and to provide GAO’s customers

with as rich and flexible a source of information as possible.

Finally, GAO must ensure the long-term viability of this architecture. To do

so, the agency must continue to use well-established technological and

marketplace standards and establish sound policies to guide the

architecture’s development and implementation. These actions will enable

GAO to integrate other technologies, such as multimedia, into the

architecture when the products are sufficiently mature and the agency has

demonstrated a need for them.

Resources: Cultural Moving to this new architecture will be a difficult challenge for GAO. The

agency has always provided great freedom to its staff in determining if and

how to use information technology in pursuing their job objectives. In the

past, for example, GAO did not direct the pace of technological

development centrally. Rather, it established a standalone environment,

provided training in the software operating there, and allowed individual

units to determine the degree to which they would use the information

technology.

The network will cause a cultural shift in GAO. Rather than leaving

individuals free to choose how to use technology, the network will be at

the heart of GAO’s operations. No longer will the agency’s workstations be

operated as standalone tools. Although they will still be intelligent

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microcomputers capable of processing information locally, the

workstations will also be part of the agencywide network and will be

subject to its requirements. In addition, the corporate culture will now

require individuals to learn network applications, and those applications

will influence the standards for performing assignments and developing

systems.

Resources: Human As GAO undergoes this cultural shift, it will naturally experience some

resistance. People do not easily make major changes in their work

processes, and GAO must expand the support provided to its staff, notably

in the areas of training and technical services, to minimize the disruption

to ongoing work and make the change successfully. Staff will need to

master the new operating systems, application packages, and graphical

user interfaces and learn to apply the new software to their assignments.

This will require GAO to expand its user training curriculum and methods

of training delivery. It also will, in turn, call for a new partnership among

OIMC, the Training Institute, the Office of Policy, and particularly GAO’s

operational units.

Although training will improve the staff’s technical proficiency, it alone

will not be sufficient. Distributing information resources to the units will

increase the complexity of their support requirements. Units will require

access to both skilled network management staff, help desk personnel,

and on-site troubleshooting. These support elements will help overcome

the resistance and allow staff to benefit from the technologies.

Resources: Financial Over the last few years the agency has faced constrained budgets. To

operate with these reduced funds, GAO began scaling back capital

expenditures and services, as well as reducing staff. In its IRM area, part of

the funding necessary for development came from new efficiencies in

ongoing operations and by redirecting funds for some services into capital

investment.

Additionally, increased funding has been provided in FY95 to complete the

computer network and much of the DCA application roll-out. The

remainder of the DCA application will be completed in FY96. Furthermore,

technological expansion will require the continued support of the

Congress as equipment, operating systems, and software applications age

and require maintenance and upgrading.

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IRM Initiatives While developing this architecture fully will require years of effort, as well

as significant human and financial resources, doing so requires the

execution of only five interrelated initiatives:

• complete network development,

• increase access to information,

• enhance electronic communications,

• publish and distribute information and products electronically, and

• support administrative and mission applications.

Complete Network

Development

Accomplishing this initiative will establish the new architecture by fully

deploying GAO’s network and its accompanying support mechanisms.

Table 1 identifies what the initiative will include.

Description Estimated Date

Deploying the network fully and ensuring that it is

technically sound and reliable

4th quarter, FY 1995

Using the network to apply new or enhanced applications

to assignments

Ongoing

Ensuring that workstations and software conform to

standards

4th quarter, FY 1995,

and ongoing thereafter

Ensuring that the network is appropriately secure Ongoing

Training staff to use the network and applications Ongoing

Providing skilled support to individual units Ongoing

Identifying and testing advanced technology Ongoing

Increase Access to

Information

Accomplishing this initiative will increase the staff’s access to information

and create greater self-sufficiency in meeting their work requirements. The

agency will develop various access options for staff, including specialists.

Wherever possible, it will provide them with greater autonomy by giving

them direct access to GAO, government, and commercial databases through

their networked workstations. In addition, it will use highly skilled

research specialists to perform complex searches beyond the capacity of

general staff. This resource mix will allow staff to be more creative and

will allow their contributions to be more readily recognized. Details of this

initiative are shown in table 2.

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Description Estimated Date

Developing an agency data dictionary to promote

consistency and clarity in data elements

4th quarter, FY 1996,

and ongoing thereafter

Linking the CD-ROM network to GAO’s data network 4th quarter, FY 1995

Providing staff with easy access to the library’s holdings

over the network

4th quarter, FY 1995

Linking GAO to commercial and government image-based

systems

Ongoing

Increasing direct access to the databases of audited

agencies

Ongoing

Expanding use of Internet as a research and information

distribution tool

1st quarter, FY 1995

Developing a comprehensive plan for the long-term

retention of electronic records

2nd quarter, FY 1995

Enhance Electronic

Communications

Accomplishing this initiative will link regional and headquarters units,

provide staff direct access to one another regardless of location, and

enhance teamwork by more easily sharing information within teams.

Table 3 explains this more completely.

Description Estimated Date

Completing the implementation of voice processing in all

audit sites and sublocations

3rd quarter, FY 1996

Linking the local voice-processing systems in a GAO-wide

system

2nd quarter, FY 1995

Enhancing field telephone systems by providing a PBX or

an electronic key system in all locations

4th quarter, FY 1997

Developing applications for the network linking GAO and

the rest of the legislative branch

Ongoing

Applying videoconferencing and voice processing

creatively to GAO’s work and using them as tools to

reengineer its work processes

Ongoing

Expanding videoconferencing and investigating the use of

desktop video

Ongoing

Publish and Distribute

Information and Products

Electronically

Accomplishing this initiative will expand GAO’s capacity to provide its

products and information about its products in electronic as well as paper

formats. This capacity will give staff and external customers a greater

ability to search and review GAO’s past work on an issue. In addition, it will

allow GAO to reach new customers through mass electronic distribution on

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widely used database services. Table 4 explains what this initiative will

include.

Description Estimated Date

Improving customer services and reducing inventories by

reprinting products on demand

1st quarter, FY 1997

Enhancing the full-text database of GAO products and

information about GAO products

4th quarter, FY 1997

Distributing GAO’s products in the electronic formats that

best meet its customers’ needs

4th quarter, FY 1996

Support Administrative

and Mission Applications

Accomplishing this initiative will help staff substantially improve their

work processes by using the network to reengineer their operations. In

addition, when savings can be achieved, GAO will test the feasibility of

moving some smaller administrative applications, as well as essential

standalone systems maintained by individual units, to processors residing

on the network. Finally, the agency is investigating alternative,

cost-effective solutions to time-sharing while maintaining technical

support for its users. This initiative will include the items shown in table 5.

Description Estimated Date

Moving corporate systems’ functions from time-shared

mainframes to in-house servers whenever appropriate

4th quarter, FY 1997

Moving local standalone administrative systems to moreflexible systems with access to official corporate data4th quarter, FY 1995

Completing development of alternative sources of

statistical-processing capacity

4th quarter, FY 1995

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