Tracking Number: 2010-03-21 (TIC-03) 

Identifying Productivity and Initiative Killers 

(starting with FedTraveler) 

NASA Advisory Council Recommendation: 

The Council recommends that a small ad-hoc NASA Advisory Council (NAC) group work with 

NASA to identify the top three most egregious productivity and individual initiative killers 

(starting with FedTraveler), and determine their costs not just in money but also in employee 

time. This group should then make recommendations for either eliminating/replacing the 

offending policy and procedure or software, or replacing it with a small pilot program to 

establish a best-practice benchmark that might let NASA break out of(sometimes governmentwide) solutions that fail to meet the interests ofthe agency and its people - and provide a 

positive example to other government agencies. 

NASA Response: 

NASA concurs with the recommendation that the NAC should seek to identify egregious 

productivity and individual initiative killers as part ofits NASA advisory efforts. However, 

NASA prefers that this new area of emphasis be adopted by all ofthe NAC committees as part of 

their normal business in lieu of the establishment of a new ad hoc NAC group. The NASA 

Administrator intends to highlight and discuss this new area ofinterest as part of his remarks at 

the next planned meeting of the NAC in May 2011. 

Additionally, with regard to the specific recommendation to address FedTraveler as an 

"egregious productivity and individual initiative killer," NASA is continuing its consideration of 

this recommendation as new system updates are implemented, which are intended to address 

some ofthe concerns raised by the NAC. As background, FedTraveler.com is an e-Government 

initiative which was mandated by the Office of Management Budget and is managed by the 

General Services Administration (GSA). Cost savings are realized on a government-wide scale 

through standardization ofthe application and lower travel rates derived through economies of 

scale. GSA and several Federal agencies have conducted multiple E-gov Travel Service (ETS) 2 

requirements gathering sessions, and have met with prospective contractors to discuss means to 

improve upon the current travel application and to simplify development efforts for interfaces 

with agency core financial systems. The Request for Proposal (RFP) for ETS2 was released to 

the public and proposals were due on November 15, 2010. The RFP greatly emphasizes the 

requirements for ease of navigation and intuitive screens for infrequent travelers. Federal 

agencies must migrate to ETS2 by October 2012. 

Also ofsignificant note is that while ETS corrective action code releases and minor system 

changes continue to be deployed on an on-going basis, the application will be phased out of use 

as Federal agencies transition to ETS2 by October 2012. Within months, NASA will begin to 

shift its focus from ETS management to developing the groundwork for a smooth transition to 

ETS2. In the interim, until the transition to ETS2 begins in earnest, NASA plans to focus 

priorities on internal process improvements and NASA policy updates, as exemplified by the 

Foreign Travel Process Improvement Team being led by the Office ofthe Chief Financial 

Officer and Office ofInternational and Interagency Relations to streamline NASA's foreign 

travel approval processes.