Digital Transformation at NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

IT Talk

January - June 2019 Volume 9 • Issues 1-2
IT Talk

Jan - Jun 2019 Volume 9 • Issues 1-2

Office of the CIO

NASA Headquarters

300 E Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20546

Chief Information Officer

Renee Wynn

Editor & Publication Manager

Eldora Valentine

Graphic & Web Designer

Michael Porterfield

Copy Editor

Meredith Isaacs

IT Talk is an official publication of the 

Office of the Chief Information Officer 

of the National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration, Headquarters, 

Washington, D.C. It is published 

by the OCIO office for all NASA 

employees and external audiences.

For distribution questions or to 

suggest a story idea, email:

eldora.valentine-1@nasa.gov

To read IT Talk online visit:

www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio/ittalk

For more info on the OCIO:

v www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio

v inside.nasa.gov/ocio

 (Internal NASA network only)

v www.nasa.gov/open/

www.facebook.com/NASAcio

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Message

from the CIO

Digital

Transformation

at NASA

NSSC—Pioneers Robotics 

Process Automation for 

Federal Agencies

Supply Chain

Risk Management

(SCRM)

NASA CIO Named

to Federal 100

In this Issue
The Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) continues to look for ways 

to improve IT services and better safeguard NASA’s data. NASA is continually 

looking for modern, innovative, and collaborative technologies with embedded cybersecurity protections to help us accomplish our important work while 

balancing costs and benefits. One way to help us do that is through digital 

transformation. OCIO is co-leading NASA’s digital transformation with the Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT). Digital transformation represents rethinking how NASA does business, and in OCIO this is an opportunity to radically 

change our services and deliver value to customers in other ways. This effort 

involves change in leadership and continuous learning. In this issue, we’ll take 

a closer look at NASA’s digital transformation path and why you should care. 

Some of the key areas of focus include the following:

1. Implement O365 across NASA

2. Improve and strengthen the IT workforce strategy

3. Enhance and improve customer satisfaction

4. Share data and secure collaboration with external entities

5. Transition NASA to a more efficient and effective operating model for end-user capabilities

6. Improve NASA’s resilience and cybersecurity posture by strengthening 

the ability to protect NASA’s people, systems, and data

I truly appreciate everyone’s hard work and dedication over the past year. You are 

the reason we’ve achieved success thus far. Keep up the good work!

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Jun 2019 3

Message from the NASA CIO 
Goddard Preparing for the Emerging 

Artificial Intelligence Revolution

By Michelle Birdsall, Communications Specialist, Goddard Space Flight Center

While not new, the latest advances in artificial 

intelligence (AI), machine learning, and data 

science signal a coming revolution that will 

figure prominently in the digital transformation era. Efforts to develop AI—technologies 

that allow machines to think and act through 

sensing, comprehending, acting, and learning—have ebbed and flowed since the field 

first emerged in the 1950s. Recent increases 

in the availability, volume, and complexity 

of data and improved computing power and 

storage, combined with advanced and mature 

algorithms, are enabling AI’s latest comeback.

To reinvigorate AI efforts, NASA's Goddard 

Space Flight Center recently held its first major 

AI workshop in almost 25 years. Goddard 

brought together more than 300 attendees (both 

onsite and online) with 50 presenters to share 

advances, challenges, success stories, and 

perspectives on a wide range of AI applications and tools. Actively engaged attendees 

networked, posed questions, and provided 

feedback during breakout sessions, panels, 

poster sessions, and a machine learning tutorial.

Goddard Chief Technologist Peter Hughes, sponsor of the event, stated, “I came to Goddard 30 

years ago to work on AI, where it has been done 

in pockets, but now applications are exploding. 

This workshop is just the start of Goddard’s 

renewed efforts to partner and collaborate on AI 

projects supported by Data Science advances 

that will yield profound opportunities and results 

through interdisciplinary science, engineering, 

and exploration.” He cited the Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory’s AI Pilot Program, with its 25 projects to demonstrate how AI can be transformative, as a leading source for inspiration. 

AI enablers and capabilities intersect with 

several disciplines at Goddard: mathematics, science, engineering, computer science, 

data science, information technology, and 

human factors. AI applications, which include 

big-data analytics, computer vision, robotics, intelligent sensing, assisted decision 

making, and speech recognition, have broad 

applications across industries, from space 

exploration and Earth science to transportation and medicine. Societal benefits discussed 

include wildfire and hurricane detection, better 

cancer imaging, and autonomous vehicles. 

Workshop organizer and chair Jacqueline Le 

Moigne, Goddard Senior Fellow and Assistant 

Chief for Technology, expressed the importance 

of showing the breadth of AI technologies 

being pursued. She issued a call to action, 

stating, “The real revolution of AI is coming, 

and NASA should embrace these technologies.” 

From MIT’s need for partners to test opensource AI programs in 2019 to Amazon’s 

and Microsoft’s cloud storage solutions and 

applications that make big data—the fuel 

for AI—more accessible to more people, 

opportunities to get involved abound. 

Look to Goddard to lead followups, with 

current plans to host a follow-on workshop 

at another center. Whether you identify 

as an early adopter or fast follower, or 

are merely curious about AI, Goddard’s 

Office of the Chief Technologist can help 

you identify and build interdisciplinary 

partnering opportunities both within and 

beyond NASA to develop AI technologies 

that are quickly gaining traction as viable 

solutions to solving complex problems.

JPL Selects Randi 

Levin as New 

Deputy Chief 

Information Officer

By Whitney Haggins, IT Communication 

Strategist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 

California Institute of Technology

After an extensive executive search, 

Randi Levin was announced in December 2018 as Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s 

(JPL) new Deputy CIO/Deputy Director for Information Technology. She 

officially joined the OCIO in January. 

Randi came to JPL with a résumé that 

reflects her role as an innovative and 

transformational business and technology executive with proven experience in 

entertainment, government, domestic, 

and international operations, along with 

consulting and other industries. Levin 

has 35 years of experience; a strong 

technical background; a reputation as a 

flexible and highly experienced leader; 

and a personality that aligns well with 

the OCIO’s people, goals, and initiatives. 

She recently served as the CIO and 

vice president of technology services 

at Forest Lawn Memorial–Parks and 

Mortuaries, one of the United States’ 

largest privately owned and centrally 

run cemeteries in the Greater Southern 

California area. While at Forest Lawn, 

Levin created a strategic plan for digital 

transformation and implemented many 

corporate initiatives. Her strong technical background enabled her to gain 

experience in all levels of managing IT 

organizations, including prior roles as 

CIO and VP at Cast & Crew Entertainment Services and General Manager 

and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for 

the city of Los Angeles.

Vikash Mansinghka, MIT, gives a presentation titled 

“Probabilistic Programming and Artificial Intelligence” 

at the NASA Goddard Artificial Intelligence Workshop on 

November 29, 2018. MIT seeks collaborators and partners 

for testing in 2019 as it develops open-source programs 

with potential application to data gathered from current 

Goddard and NASA projects.

4 www.nasa.gov
Supply Chain Risk 

Management (SCRM)—

Why It Takes More Than the Procurement 

Organization To Ensure Uncompromised Products

By David Flowers, NASA OCIO SCRM Analyst, Glenn Research Center

“YOU GOT AN F!” No one likes to get an F 

as a rating on any assessment, but that’s 

exactly what happened to NASA in November 

2015 and May 2016. In what area, you ask? 

In the Federal Government Biannual Supply Chain Risk Management assessment. 

Fortunately, in the four semiannual assessments since then, NASA has improved to a 

rating of C+. Then, In May 2018, the NASA 

Inspector General released report IG-18-

019. This report is a call to arms for all the 

stakeholders in the IT and communications technology community, as well as the 

procurers and users of those products to 

improve our SCRM practices agencywide. 

While NASA has improved its supply

risk management efforts since t

was first mandated in 2013, we 

pervasive weaknesses in 

internal controls and ris

practices that lead us to quest

sufficiency of its current eff

NASA IG Report IG-18-019

SCRM seems to be the latest catchphrase 

coming out of Washington, DC, as well as 

seemingly every reputable hardware, software, and firmware manufacturer around the 

globe. The irony of it is that many people do 

not know what SCRM is, and the ones who 

think they do just think it is a problem or 

issues in the supply chain delivery schedule. 

The reality is that IT and communications 

supply chain risk management can save your 

project, program, center, or mission, or it 

can be detrimental to them all with a single 

incident. SCRM is not the future state or a 

future goal for NASA; it is the stark reality of 

the way we need to do business to ensure 

mission success in all domains of our efforts.

SCRM is the process for managing supply 

risk by identifying susceptibilities, vulnerabilities, and threats throughout NASA’s supply 

chain. Additionally, SCRM is the development and enactment of mitigation strategies to combat threats, whether presented 

by the supplier, the supplied product and its 

subcomponents, or the supply chain itself. 

Knowing the risk is not enough to thwart the 

human, intentional, or accidental threats; 

you must also know your risk tolerance.

NASA has had a rocky start to meeting the 

Federally mandated SCRM requirement, but 

there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The 

NASA CIO, Renee P. Wynn, and her team have 

taken an aggressive approach to providing 

SCRM services to the agency, and you will see 

changes in the policies and processes soon. 

The goal is not to grind mission objectives to 

a halt, but to deliver uncompromised products 

across the IT and communications spectrum. 

If everyone does their job and is mindful of 

SCRM practices, then our networks, data centers, and missions will be protected from unwanted breaches and bad-actor manipulation.

NASA Needs One SCRM Program – Establish Continuity

Collaborative 

Editing in 

Office 365

By Luis Barés, Enterprise Collaboration 

Services Lead, Kennedy Space Center

Now that NASA has migrated 

employees to the Office 365 platform, 

users can collaboratively edit Word 

documents, PowerPoint presentations, 

and Excel spreadsheets. Collaborative 

editing is the ability for multiple users 

to work in real time and see each 

other’s edits all within one document, 

presentation, or spreadsheet. Previously, 

this capability was only available 

through NASA’s approved instance of 

Google Apps for Work and available to 

those with paid licenses to the Google 

Suite. Now everyone at NASA can enjoy 

the benefits of coauthoring within the 

Office suite of products!

Currently NASA has implemented 

Outlook, Skype, OneNote, OneDrive, 

and Office Online (Office apps in the 

browser). Users can experience the 

collaborative editing features by visiting 

the Office 365 portal at https://portal.

office.com and selecting any of the 

Office applications from the browser 

(Word, Excel, or PowerPoint). From 

within the Office application, users 

can use the “share” function to extend 

a coauthoring invitation from the 

document, spreadsheet, or presentation 

to other NASA users. This same feature 

also exists within the locally installed 

version of these tools, which means 

that there are many avenues to enable 

coauthoring within your teams today! 

Similarly, users can start a coauthoring 

session by opening their OneDrive 

(locally installed or in the browser) and 

following the same sharing steps there.

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Jun 2019 5
6 www.nasa.gov

By John Sprague, Acting Associate CIO, Transformation and Data Division, NASA Headquarters

NASA’s vision of digital transformation 

(DT) sees the agency fully leveraging the evolving digital technologies on a transformational journey 

to advance agency missions, enhance efficiency, and encourage a 

culture of innovation. DT at NASA is 

driven by eight compelling goals:

• Accelerated technical and 

engineering innovation

• Increased efficiency and effectiveness of business processes

• Efficient, reliable, and safe mission systems and missions

• Real-time, data-driven decision making

• Agile workforce, facilities, and IT infrastructure

• Integrated collaboration and partnerships

• Advancement of exploration, discovery, and science

• Extended aerospace leadership

Digital transformation has been embraced and broadly pursued in the 

world of IT, including at NASA, because 

of the rapid advancement and convergence of a broad range of powerful digital technologies, including the following:

• Cloud computing (along with 

micro services, containers, etc.)

• Automation and robotics

• Big data/data mining/analytics

• Artificial intelligence/

machine learning

• Agile software development/

DevOps/DevSecOps

• Internet of Things (IoT)/sensors

• Integrated multidisciplinary 

modeling and simulation

• Augmented reality/virtual reality/visualization

• High-performance computing

• Mobile access

• Collaboration

• Social media

In early December, NASA held another in a series of meetings to draft 

the Agency’s digital transformation 

strategy. This December DT meeting was held in Washington, DC, 

at the National Coordination Office 

for the Interagency Networking and 

Information Technology Research 

and Development (NITRD) Program, and it brought together NASA 

center and mission directorate DT 

representatives. The meeting was 

opened by J.F. Barthelemy, of Langley Research Center, and Dr. Bryan 

Biegel, of Ames Research Center 

(co-leads for the DT Formulation 

team), who framed the meeting as a 

pivot point between DT data gathering and drafting recommendations.

The one-year DT formulation effort was commissioned in March 

of 2018 by the Agency Program 

Management Council (APMC) to 

Digital Transformation 

at NASA
Digital Transformation at JPL:

Advancing the Culture of Innovation

By Janet Zadeh, Office of Digital Transformation, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

To realize the vision of a digitally connected future, JPL has embarked 

on a journey of digital transformation (DT). Defined as “thinking differently about evolving our data, work practices, and digital technologies 

to excite talent, accelerate missions, and encourage a culture of innovation,” JPL joins the rest of the NASA family in embracing the future. 

JPL has created the Office of Digital Transformation (ODX), under the 

leadership of Dr. Mag Powell-Meeks, to provide the guidance needed to 

achieve these goals. Taking advantage of the matrixed structure of the 

Lab and the range of expertise that already exists throughout the organization, the ODX focuses on involving everyone at JPL in this journey.

“The ODX aligns, coordinates, enables, and integrates DX projects 

across the Lab by working with Digital Strategists from each of the 

four data domains—Engineering, Mission Assurance, Science and 

Technology, and Mission Support,” says Powell-Meeks. These strategists participate in the DX Working Group, the Enterprise Architecture 

Board, and Data Domain Teams, all of which work together in support of the JPL DT initiative. 

“By including people from all across the Lab, we ensure we are 

focused on those areas that will make the most significant difference,” explains Powell-Meeks. “It also enables us to understand and 

positively evolve employee experience.”

There are three elements to JPL’s DX Implementation Strategy:

• Design a digital ecosystem to enable agility and insights through 

the combination of mature data and integrated systems.

• Accelerate business and workforce processes 

so JPLers can achieve more with less.

• Nurture a culture of digital innovation that enables 

better employee/partner experiences.

Underlying all DT efforts is an emphasis on the data life cycle. In fact, 

the initial focus of JPL’s digital transformation is data maturity and 

access. Through a federated, interactive, journey-mapping approach, 

JPL is identifying practices and transformative technologies to solve 

specific data challenges. 

Actions taken so far include the adoption of a new information access 

policy, ongoing deployment of tools and processes that assess and open 

appropriate data, and plans for training JPLers on correct data handling.

“Data is the engine of innovation—it is a prized institutional asset 

that provides valuable insight for future missions. We’re making it 

work harder by ensuring it is secure, appropriately marked, findable, 

accessible, interoperable, and reusable across as many systems as 

possible,” concludes Powell-Meeks.

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Jun 2019 7

recommend NASA’s path forward 

for digital transformation. The activity is cosponsored by the Office of 

Chief Technologist (OCT) and the 

Office of the Chief Information Officer 

(OCIO). Dr. Biegel said, “By using DT 

tools and techniques in this workshop, such as G-Suite to engage the 

simultaneous creativity of all participants for collaborative brainstorming 

and rapid document drafting, this 

meeting demonstrated the power 

of DT approaches and significantly 

advanced our progress towards a 

proposed DT strategy for NASA.” 

The data gathered by the DT team 

prior to this meeting featured NASA 

projects demonstrating the value 

of digital transformation, as well as 

the challenges and opportunities for 

NASA—identifying where DT is most 

needed and would have the greatest return on investment. Centers 

and organizations were also asked 

to rate their own “digital maturity” to 

determine their level of readiness to 

undertake digital transformation. 

Digital transformation data collection, 

including internal and external 

DT benchmarking and a literature 

review, was conducted from May 

to November 2018, with visits to 

all NASA centers and directorates, 

other government agencies, and 

industry partners and companies 

on the cutting edge of digital 

transformation. A diverse team of 

representatives from across NASA 

conducted in-person and phone 

interviews to collect information to 

help guide NASA’s DT formulation. 

The team found many examples of 

DT already complete or underway 

across NASA and as many ideas 

for future DT opportunities to 

enhance the way NASA works.

At the December meeting, participants discussed and drafted

• notional high-level findings 

and recommendations,

• how the agency should select 

its strategic DT investments 

and early pilot projects,

• strengths and weaknesses of various models of DT governance,

• how a day in the life would 

be different in 2025 for key 

NASA work roles, and 

• simple depictions of NASA’s DT initiative.

After further refinement, including coordination with NASA senior 

leaders in DT-related areas and 

agency stakeholder review, NASA’s 

digital transformation strategy and 

implementation framework will be 

proposed to the APMC in 2019.
NASA Shared Services Center Pioneers Robotics 

Process Automation for Federal Agencies

Doug LeMere, Communication Specialist, NASA Shared Services Center

The NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) uses 

digital employees—“bots”—to shift Federal 

employees and contractors to more challenging high-value work. Since 2006, NSSC has 

provided mission support services to NASA 

with the goal of reducing resource expenditure, 

improving the quality and timeliness of service 

delivery, and providing a positive customer experience. Times and technology have changed, 

but these goals remain. The NSSC continuously 

explores opportunities to innovate and improve 

the delivery of mission support services.

One such innovation is the introduction into 

the workforce of digital employees. NSSC’s 

Intelligent Automation Services (IAS) Team is 

using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to 

develop automated work instructions. RPA 

allows employees to configure bots to capture 

and interpret existing applications for processing transactions, manipulating data, triggering 

responses, and communicating with other 

digital systems. RPA software mimics human 

interaction with computers, enabling NSSC to 

automate processes and have digital employees perform them. Bots have supplemented 

and complemented the work of the NSSC’s 

workforce, freeing up human employees’ time 

for more complex and higher-value tasks.

A digital employee shares several characteristics with human employees. Like human 

employees, digital employees require user information technology (IT) credentials, licenses, 

access roles, desktop computers or virtual 

machines, supervisors, and work instructions. 

Bots replicate human interactions and mimic 

common tasks such as queries, cut/paste, 

merging, button clicks, etc. They operate 

effectively in the user/interface layer and are 

able to automate rules-based work without 

compromising underlying IT infrastructure.

Bots never become distracted or tire of doing 

repetitive work, so mass quantities of work 

performed by bots have greater reliability 

than work performed by human employees.

Since its inception 12 years ago NSSC has 

grown to provide over 60 services to NASA, 

spanning the areas of financial management, procurement, human resources, 

enterprise services, and agency business 

services. The implementation of RPA supports NSSC’s mission of providing timely, 

accurate, high-quality, cost-effective, and 

customer-focused support for selected NASA 

business and technical services. Because 

using bots reduces the time humans must 

spend completing repetitive, mundane 

tasks, federal employees and contractors 

can shift their attention to performing more 

cognitively challenging and creative work.

Overcoming challenges associated 

with RPA Implementation

While NSSC recognized the potential efficiencies that RPA offers, there was some initial 

hesitation to venture into an area where no 

other federal agency had gone before. NSSC’s 

journey into RPA was fraught with IT security 

concerns, but it overcame them. Collaborating with the agency and Chief Information Officer organizations, NSSC addressed 

challenges with credentials, NASA systems 

integrations, and internal control procedures.

Additionally, NSSC’s management was concerned with how the workforce would react to 

RPA, and especially with employees’ perceptions that they might lose their jobs to bots. 

Through a series of employee outreach events, 

NSSC shared its plans for implementing IAS. It 

created a Web site to explain IAS and RPA and 

invited employees to be a part of this exciting opportunity. Employees were invited to 

“think ‘inside the bot’” for a moment and ask 

themselves, What repetitive tasks bog us down 

such that we would like a bot to perform them? 

How can automation allow for greater productivity? How can we increase performance 

and improve accuracy and customer service?

NSSC successfully socialized the workforce to 

IAS/RPA. Now, employees are offering ideas 

for work suitable to bots. Thus far in 2018, 

employees have submitted, through an online 

tool, over 300 ideas for process innovations 

and improvements. Some ideas become candidates for bots, while others result in simple 

process reform. Innovation and continuous 

improvement are encouraged at all levels of the 

NSSC organization, with award opportunities 

for those individuals who submit the best ideas.

NSSC’s RPA Implementation Team (left-right): Pinar Moore, Pam Wolfe, Michael Dukes, Lisa Monus, and Farrah Fouquet.

8 www.nasa.gov
What do bots look like?

Here you see NSSC’s RPA bots in action.

NASA was the first agency in the Federal Government to implement RPA, and today NSSC 

has three bots in production, running nine processes. NSSC’s first bot, named Washington, 

performs funds distribution work for NSSC.

Washington also performs four processes for 

procurement, including document imaging, 

scanning files, and creating folders to establish 

grant packages. A second bot, named Adams, 

performs funds distribution tasks for the 

agency. NSSC’s third bot, Pioneer, creates procurement requests for the Office of the Chief 

Information Officer. A fourth bot, Beacon, is 

planned to go into production in the first quarter of fiscal year 2019. Opportunities for bot 

utilization span all lines of business at NSSC.

No NSSC employee has lost a job as a result 

of successfully implementing RPA. To the 

contrary, every employee whose previous 

work is now performed by a bot has been 

shifted to more challenging work. NSSC 

intends to employ more RPA bots in the future 

to better serve its lines of business and to 

enable employees to dedicate more of their 

time to higher-value work. The results of IAS 

at NSSC are encouraging and indicate that 

RPA implementation can and should expand 

across agencies. RPA is an affordable, efficient, and effective means to shift federal 

resources from low-value to high-value work.

See NSSC’s video demonstration of bots in action at https://www.

youtube.com/watch?v=xIYxTUbg_

m4&=&feature=youtu.be.

(Bots, continued from page 8)

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Jun 2019 9

The “New Norms” of 

Information Technology

By Jaumarro A. Cuffee, IRD Communications Strategist, Johnson Space Center

NASA continues to embrace 

cloud technology and implement 

the Strategy to Improve Network 

Security. With changes in the way 

we access NASA resources and the 

technology (software and hardware) 

we use when accessing NASA 

resources, a curious question keeps 

coming up: “What’s the new norm?”

Information technology users 

want to know what resources are 

accessible, from which types of 

devices, and what actions are 

necessary to secure and maintain access to the information and 

resources they need to support 

NASA missions, programs, projects, and day-to-day activities.

In short, the “new norm” is persistent change versus paradigm shift. 

The introduction of computers in 

the workplace was a paradigm 

shift. The new norm became using technology instead of manual 

tools, but the new norm of using 

computers and other information 

technology is not a static norm. 

For IT, a new norm is fleeting. 

Digital transformation changes 

how technology is used to address 

ever-changing needs and threats. 

Ever-changing needs and threats 

mean ever-changing technology.

The new norm is that IT is a part 

of our lives at work and at home. 

The new norm is that IT (at work 

and at home) will continue to be 

a target for criminals, and we will 

need to be ever vigilant to avoid 

work and life interruptions. The 

new norm is that software is more 

often a subscription service than 

a static shrink-wrapped package 

with disk and activation key. The 

new norm is that keeping up with 

IT will continue to be more persistent change than paradigm shift.

For IT users looking for a new norm, 

stay informed on IT policies that 

affect IT access and use. Office 

memos are no longer pinned to a 

bulletin board. The new norm is to 

deliver them to your desktop via 

e-mail. Never stop learning what 

your systems and software can do 

to support your activity in missions, 

programs, projects, and office productivity. User guides and how-to 

manuals are no longer stacked on 

a shelf. The new norm is to post 

them online and in different formats 

(.pdf, audio, video). And regarding 

the oldest resource of all—officemates—the new norm is not limited 

to “phone a friend” but allows us 

to reach out to office-mates in the 

next cubicle, another building, or a 

different NASA center using e-mail 

and Skype. In the larger context, 

though, the new norms are the 

same old things—stay informed, 

keep learning, and help each other.

The more things change, the 

more they stay the same—even 

with the new norms of IT. Stay 

informed. Keep learning. Help 

each other. Make this your norm.
By Meredith Isaacs, Communications Specialist, NASA Headquarters

For his work with mission voice communications services, Goddard Space 

Flight Center’s (GSFC) Jean-Guy 

Dubois will receive the Space Flight 

Awareness Honoree Award. Dubois 

serves as the Service Element Manager (SEM) for Agency Mission Voice 

Services and led the Mission Next 

Generation Voice (MNGV) Initiative.

“Jean-Guy has proven a key leader 

within NASA Communications 

(NASCOM), specifically in regard to 

the Mission Voice Network.... Since 

June of 2016, he has been instrumental in developing hardware, software, 

materials, process, and operational 

improvements that increase reliability, 

efficiency, and performance on the 

Mission Voice Network.... His technical expertise and leadership skills 

have been critical to progress made in 

maintaining and enhancing the Agency’s Mission Critical Voice infrastructure,” said Curt Suprock in his nomination of Dubois.

The Space Flight Awareness Program, 

part of the Human Exploration and 

Operations Mission Directorate (HEO), 

was established in 1963 to recognize 

those who are dedicated to astronaut safety and mission success. The 

Honor Award commends employees 

who have demonstrated dedication to 

quality work and flight safety.

Congratulations to Dubois for receiving the Honoree Award and thank you 

for all of your hard work to support 

mission communications with collaborative and thoughtful solutions!

Goal 4: Value—Maximize Business Value by Optimizing IT

By Jonathan Walsh, IT Strategic Planner, and Meredith Isaacs, Communications Specialist, NASA Headquarters

To sustainably support the achievement of NASA’s extraordinary science 

and discovery objectives, as well as 

its complex infrastructure and ongoing digital transformation, the agency’s 

information technology (IT) must use 

intentional operating models and acquisition strategies while reducing duplicative services. To ensure the business health of the agency’s IT, NASA 

identified Value as an IT Strategic Goal 

for Fiscal Years (FY) 2018-2021. 

The successful planning and delivery 

of IT products and services to fulfill 

customer needs requires insight into 

NASA’s IT investments, data-driven 

decision making, portfolio management maturity, and strong program 

and project performance. NASA has 

begun transforming its IT operating 

model to manage this complexity by 

streamlining its IT governance process 

and engaging senior leadership representatives in the IT Council, performing agencywide IT investment portfolio 

reviews, and developing roadmaps to 

guide implementation. 

By the end of FY 2021, NASA has 

committed to empowering data-driven 

strategic decisions and intentional 

IT operating model choices, increasing the effectiveness of investment 

analysis and prioritization, and 

strengthening IT strategy execution 

through disciplined program and 

project management. We will perform 

assessments to identify IT capability 

gaps and closure strategies, establish 

an IT portfolio management capability, 

and enable transparent and effective 

execution of the IT portfolio. These efforts will be supplemented by maturing 

acquisition, software life cycle management, and vendor management 

capabilities.

By embracing value through the 

strategic management of IT, we will 

strengthen our support for NASA’s 

incredible achievements in the years 

ahead.

To view NASA’s IT Strategic Plan for 

Fiscal Years 2018–2021, visit

https://www.nasa.gov/ocio/itsp.

Questions about NASA’s

IT Strategic Plan? E-mail

agency-itsp@mail.nasa.gov.

Space Flight Awareness Honoree

10 www.nasa.gov
NASA Receives a B+ on FITARA

By Treasure Arthur, ITBMD Business Consultant, NASA Headquarters

On December 11, 2018, the House 

Oversight and Government Reform 

(OGR) Committee released the 

seventh version of its Biannual IT 

scorecard. NASA received a B+, a 

significant improvement from the 

C+ score from May 2018. The OGR 

Biannual IT scorecard grades 24 

government agencies based on the 

implementation of the 1) Federal 

Information Technology Acquisition 

provisions (FITARA), 2) Making 

Electronic Government Accountable 

By Yielding Tangible Efficiencies 

Act of 2016 (MEGABYTE), and 3) 

Modernizing Government Technology 

(MGT) Act.

Since the initial release of this scorecard in Nov. 2015, NASA OCIO has 

proactively engaged with GAO and 

other key stakeholders to report comprehensive and accurate data while 

maintaining a commitment to executing 

the NASA mission, rather than ‘gaming the score.’ Collectively, through our 

efforts, NASA continues to improve 

in several aspects, with notable progress in incremental development of 

IT projects. Incremental development 

of IT projects is an effective management practice that delivers capabilities 

to users more rapidly and increases 

the likelihood that projects achieve 

cost, schedule and performance goals. 

Thanks to the agency’s work and 

transparency of the Major IT investment 

owners, NASA reported a new data set 

of software development projects and 

found that 75% of these software projects followed incremental development 

practices. Their work in reporting this 

information significantly contributed to 

the increase in our IT scorecard. 

Many thanks to the Flight Operations 

Directorate (FOD) at Johnson Space 

Center, the Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) at Marshall Space 

Flight Center, the High-End Computing 

Capability (HECC) team at Ames Research Center, the Agency Applications 

Office, and others across the Agency 

who supported these efforts.

European Union Institution CIO Forum

26 March 2019 - Washington, D.C.

ov

March 26, 2019 - Washington, D.C.

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Jun 2019 11
JPL Parking App 

receives Digital Edge 

50 award from IDG 

Whitney Haggins, IT Communication Strategist, 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute 

of Technology

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has been 

named an honoree of a 2019 Digital Edge 

50 Award from IDG. This prestigious honor is 

bestowed upon a select group of organizations 

that have executed digital transformation initiatives with significant, measurable business 

impact. 

JPL’s winning entry is the JPL Park app to help 

combat the decades-long problem of driving 

around searching for parking in a landlocked 

environment.

To find a solution, JPL hosted an internal 

parking app hackathon which ran for a month 

with a final competition where all JPLers could 

participate in person or via video conference. 

It yielded two winners whose ideas, along 

with features from the other contestants, 

were combined to create the JPL Park on iOS 

and Android. JPL Park uses real-time data to 

show commuters how many spots are open in 

specific parking areas. Ground sensors were 

added, along with large digital displays at the 

entrances, voice information for hands-free 

notification while driving, and analytics designed to help both the employees in realtime 

and JPL management using the data for planning future events.

The system uses Geofencing technology that 

triggers a voice update on available parking 

spots once a vehicle is within range of JPL (the 

range is configurable by the user).

JPL Park also includes a “future parking” feature, which predicts parking space availability 

for every hour of every workday at the Laboratory campus, based on historical parking data. 

The historical parking data provides information to employees to make better commuting 

decisions as well as to JPL decision makers 

for how to structure JPL’s remote worker 

program.

JPL accepted its award at the AGENDA19 

Conference held March 18-20, 2019 in Ponte 

Vedra Beach, Florida.

Help Reel in Phishing

By Meredith Isaacs, Communications Specialist, NASA Headquarters

Many are now familiar with phishing, 

having seen and heard warnings in 

their offices. Phishing is when bad 

actors attempt to gain access to your 

personal, financial, or sensitive information through fraudulent e-mails and 

duplicitous links and attachments.

These messages are often designed 

to mimic retailers, companies, banks, 

and even your acquaintances or 

colleagues. Sometimes they include 

incentives, assurances that seem 

too good to be true, and promises of 

rewards. Others may employ scare 

tactics, pose as fraud prevention, and 

threaten inconveniences if you do not 

comply with instructions. You may 

see statements like “confirm identity,” 

“verify information,” or “call to get a 

refund.” In order to gain access to 

your information, phishing e-mails will 

instruct you to open an attachment, 

click on a link, or reply/call with your 

information.

While these e-mails may look real, 

they hide a number of tricks. Company 

logos and e-mail design can be stolen 

or mimicked, and these phishing messages may use similar e-mail addresses or Web sites. Rewards and threats 

over inaction are designed to make 

you respond. Through these methods, 

the bad actors gain pieces of your 

personal or work information, building 

to an attack against you personally or 

against your organization.

To help protect yourself and your 

organization, think critically about the 

e-mail you receive. Were you expecting a file from your coworker? Do you 

remember making an order, or did a 

tracking link show up unexpectedly? 

Do the e-mail addresses, language, 

and logos look off to you? Many 

phishing e-mails contain clues you can 

recognize to avoid the lure.

• Check for misspellings in the 

e-mail, links, or body.

• Hover over links (without clicking) and 

the full address will pop up. If the two do 

not match, or if the real Web address in 

the pop-up is suspicious, do not click!

• Think twice about e-mail attachments 

and open them only if they are expected.

• Verify suspicious e-mails 

from those you know.

• Use strong passwords, like passphrases, and keep software up to date.

• Always complete NASA’s annual cybersecurity training and any others assigned to you 

by their due date. They contain important 

reminders and information about how you 

can keep yourself and the agency safe.

If you think you have received a phishing message, report it to NASA’s Security Operations Center (SOC), available 

24x7, at soc@nasa.gov. Remember, 

cybersecurity begins and ends with 

you. Don’t be the meal – catch the 

signs before they catch you!

12 www.nasa.gov
NASA CIO Named to Federal 100

By Meredith Isaacs, Communications Specialist, NASA Headquarters

FCW has named NASA CIO Renee 

Wynn to the 2019 Federal 100 list, 

now in its 30th year. A judging panel 

selects the winners from hundreds of 

nominations to recognize the best of 

Federal IT each year. Recipients are 

honored at a gala in Washington, DC, 

in March.

Wynn is not the first from NASA to 

be recognized by the Federal 100. 

Since 2010, 16 of NASA’s IT leaders, 

program executives and managers, 

computer scientists, and cybersecurity experts (among others) have been 

recognized by the Federal 100 for their 

contributions to enterprise and Web 

services, cybersecurity, and innovative 

IT solutions.

These winners include 2011’s computer scientist Tim Baldridge for his 

work with security, identity, and PIV 

usage through the Identity, Credential, 

and Access Management (ICAM) Federal working group, along with 2017’s 

Kevin Murphy—Program Executive for 

Earth Science Data Systems. Murphy 

worked to turn satellite data into visualizations used by 1.5 million scientists 

and the public and supported the transition to commercial cloud services.

In 2018, Jim Walker was lauded for his 

work on Robotics as a Service to automate time-consuming tasks through 

process robotics. Magalene PowellMeeks (2014) of the Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory (JPL) applied IT project 

plans to mission events, allowing IT to 

better meet mission requirements.

2013’s Sasi Pillay—then the Chief 

Technology Officer for IT—developed 

a mobile strategy with cybersecurity 

and service benefits. Michael Powers 

(2018) led NASA’s HTTPS Web site 

conversion for the highest compliance in the Federal Government while 

also decommissioning unused sites. 

NASA’s contributions to Federal IT 

include these stories and more.

Congratulations to Wynn and all of 

NASA’s past winners on their Federal 

100 recognition. Here’s to the next 

ten years of accomplishments within 

Federal IT!

Ten Years of NASA on the Federal 100

2019 Renee P. Wynn

2018 Mamta Patel Nagaraja

Michael Powers

James “Jim” Walker

2017 Luis Barés

Kevin Murphy

Tomas Soderstrom

2016 Joanne Woytek

2014 Magalene Powell-Meeks

2013 Tony Facca

Sasi K. Pillay

Tomas Soderstrom

2012 Deborah Diaz

2011 Tim Baldridge

Linda Cureton

2010 Emma Antunes

Did You Know?

Self-Service Features Available via the Enterprise Service Desk 

The Enterprise Service Desk (ESD) website (esd.nasa.gov) offers several selfservice features than can be accessed from any PIV-enabled device. Without 

contacting ESD, you can use the self-service features to: 

• Find links to reset your passwords

• Search more than 1,900 knowledge articles to help resolve issues

• Create tickets and requests and check ticket status for yourself or on behalf of others

• Approve requests (if you are an approver)

• Take surveys when your tickets and requests are closed

• View assets that are assigned to you

• Leave feedback to help improve service

Next time you need to contact ESD, instead of calling, visit our website.

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Jun 2019 13
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Office of the Chief Information Officer

300 E Street, SW

Washington, DC 20546

www.nasa.gov

NASA

SACIO Forum Photos

NASA CIO, Renee Wynn and Senior 

Advisor for Cybersecurity, Robert 

Powell participated in meetings 

with the International Space Agency 

CIO (SACIO) forum, held February 

4-7, 2019 in Paris, France. Space 

Agencies participating in this forum 

included NASA, CNES (France), 

ESA (Italy), DLR (Germany), JAXA 

(Japan), and CSA (Canada).

IT Talk