IT Standards Library 
Welcome to the Federal Student Aid Chief Information Officer's Information Technology IT Standards Library. Federal Student Aid and its contractors must comply with IT standards and guidelines applicable to all federal agencies. They must also comply with the policies and procedures specific to the U.S. Department of Education and Federal Student Aid. The IT Standards Library offers pertinent references for those who do or would like to do business with Federal Student Aid. Documents selected for the library , however , may not encompass all of the documentation or references necessary to perform work for Federal Student Aid. The library includes material in three broad categories : U.S. Department of Education Specific Resources Federal Student Aid Specific Resources Select Federal Standards and Guidelines 

U.S. Department of Education Specific Resources 
This section of the IT Standards Library includes documents pertinent to the U.S. Department of Education as a whole. 

Resources 
Security Requirements for Contractors Doing Business with the Department of Education The Department uses its Administrative Communications System to issue policies and procedures applicable to Department employees and contractors. Handbooks and departmental directives identify security policies and procedures contractors doing business with the Department must comply with. Administrative Communications System Departmental Handbooks and Directives IT Dashboard The IT Dashboard was launched on June 1 , 2009, to provide Federal agencies and the public with the ability to view details of Federal Information Technology IT investments online and to track their progress over time. The IT Dashboard displays data received from agency IT Portfolio and Business Case reports, including general information on over 7,000 Federal IT investments and detailed data for over 700 of those investments that agencies classify as " major . " Federal IT Dashboard 

Federal Student Aid

user: Hello, can you give me some information about federal student aid resources?

assistant: Of course. A section of the IT Standards Library includes documents that are specific to the Federal Student Aid IT lifecycle for all projects and lists other pertinent references that an IT project may be required to comply with dependent on the contract.

assistant: Would you like me to tell you about some general references?

user: Yes, please.

assistant: We have the Lifecycle Management Methodology, for example.

user: Sounds great. What about IT security?

assistant: We also offer some IT Security documents used by FSA.

user: Are there any other useful resources?

assistant: Well, there is the Office of Management and Budget Resources.

user: And that lifecycle management methodology you mentioned before? What is does that entail?

assistant: The Lifecycle Management Methodology comprises a comprehensive process for managing information technology projects from vision to retirement. The methodology is composed of eight distinct stages, each of which guides project managers through the LMM process by identifying a core/minimum set of deliverables to be created in order to ensure a project 's viability.

user: That's very interesting. And what can you tell me about program QA?

assistant: We have the Production Readiness Review PRR Process.