Inside eRA, November 26, 2001

Help eRA Improve IMPAC II User Training

Two initiatives are underway to strengthen IMPAC II user training. First, eRA is seeking your help in identifying specific training needs, which may include modifications to classes or the introduction of new classes. Based on your experience as an IMPAC II user and as a consumer of the training program, share your suggestions for curriculum improvement with your Advocate. User Advocate Tim Twomey is contacting all Advocates and will share input from the user community with the Human Resource Development Division (HRDD).

Second, in response to user feedback, HRDD is working to provide business area experts as co-instructors in IMPAC II classes. These specialists will support software instruction by providing insight into business rules and explaining how best to use IMPAC II to perform your job.

The result of both initiatives will be classes that more effectively target current user training needs.

More IMPAC I Functions to Retire -- Are You Prepared?

We are moving ahead with plans to retire portions of IMPAC I. In the December 2001/January 2002 timeframe, the nightly update will be turned off and printing of council books and aggregate reporting of summary statements will have to be done through IMPAC II. For further information on the impact of these events on your IC, see Major IMPAC I Sunset Dates and Recommended IC Action.

ICSTORe Offers New Document Management Facilities in IMPAC II

ICSTORe (Search, Track, Order, Report) is a new common screen, accessible from Review, IC Operations (ICO), and QuickView, that will provide users with the ability to track, print, and distribute summary statements when IMPAC II Summary Statement (SS) deployment enters Phase 3 (see the October 16 issue) in January 2002. ICSTORe is a complete document management system that will allow abstracts, applications, Notice of Grant Awards (NGAs), and other documents to be searched, selected, sorted, and merged into a Portable Document Format (PDF) or zip file that can be printed either locally or centrally.

The system will provide users with the ability to enter query parameters from multiple modules and restrict the search to newly released SSs. Once the search criteria are established, the query can be named and saved for future use. The hitlist can be sorted on any field, and the fields can be reordered on the report. An advanced search capability, to be available in the next version, will enable full-text search to select applications.

ICSTORe also allows for printing centrally, with options to include number of copies, paper type, simplex or duplex, page range, and the ability to exclude rosters. Users can define sections (for example, Requests for Applications (RFAs) and non-RFAs) for printed books of SSs and specify sort order by section. Sorting can be based on values such as program class codes. Book definitions can be saved for reuse.

Pilot deployment of ICSTORe started in November.

Independent Evaluation of Project Health Completed

Denali Associates has completed a comprehensive point-in-time assessment of eRA (see the August 17 issue), which found that eRA offers a valuable service to the NIH and shows good return on investment. During its three-month evaluation of "project health," Denali reviewed project documentation, attended eRA meetings, interviewed Advocates, met with IC representatives, and held focus sessions with government and contractor technical staff. To ensure that the project is moving in the right direction, eRA is implementing a resource planning and tracking model, developed collaboratively with Denali, that helps Project Management support our target: a state-of-the-art architecture that allows our systems to be responsive to changes in business process, policies, and technology.

eRA Reaches Out to iEdison Community

The Interagency Edison (iEdison) Working Group met in Washington, D.C., on October 31 in conjunction with the November 1-2 meeting of the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR). Representatives of the grantee community, including current and potential users of the iEdison invention reporting system, meet three or four times annually. iEdison uniquely supports the extramural community dedicated to managing intellectual property portfolios and is slated for incorporation into the Federal Commons, an electronic grants management gateway for federal grantees.

Chaired by Dr. George Stone, Commons Advocate, the recent Working Group meeting focused on the redesign of the iEdison system currently in progress at the NIH. The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss potential enhancements and new functionality and to obtain community input into the development process. The project has begun the analysis and design phase and plans to deploy the redesigned iEdison system by summer 2002.

eRA Planning Retreat Focuses on Goals and Challenges

The eRA Project Management Team participated in a planning retreat at the Xerox Document University in Leesburg, Virginia, on November 1-2. The retreat enabled the eRA team to reflect on lessons learned during the past year, and discuss plans for 2002. As Jerry Stuck, Project Manager for Application Development for the NIH Commons, noted, "eRA is the tool, not the objective."

Speakers and discussions highlighted issues that affect the project. Al Graeff, NIH Chief Information Officer, put eRA into context with a discussion of the NIH enterprise architecture and the latest Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) initiatives. Tim Hoechst, vice president of Oracle Service Industry, lent insight into the struggles of technical transformation in private industry [see eRA Learns from Industry in this issue]. Other discussions focused on changing business practices for e-grants, IC scientific coding systems, priorities for the Electronic Council Book (ECB)/Query/View/Reporting (QVR) system, and methods of improving communications with the NIH and grantee communities.

Dr. John McGowan, eRA Project Manager, closed the retreat with a reminder that FY2001 was a startup year and that new management structures now in place will enable us to track project objectives and achievements in greater detail during the coming years.

eRA Learns from Industry

Oracle Corporation's story of struggle with changing technologies and a distributed environment resonates with the eRA Project Management Team.

With more than 43,000 employees in 100 countries, Oracle is undergoing a technology shift similar to the one at the NIH. At the eRA Project Management retreat on November 1, Tim Hoechst, vice president of Oracle Service Industry, described the challenges Oracle faces as it moves from a client-server environment to a Web-accessible system and centralizes distributed systems.

A key advantage for Oracle is that its CEO, Larry Ellison, can set goals and hold staff accountable for achieving them. Even so, it will take several years for Oracle to meet its major goal of an internal, worldwide technological shift.

At the NIH, a coalition of dedicated people is working together to achieve a similar goal -- moving from a client-server system to a central, Web-enabled system. Those participating in this massive effort, especially Advocates, are to be commended because they depend on logic and skills, rather than authority, to help the NIH make this transition.

RUP Brings Order to Development Process

eRA has adopted the Rational Unified Process (RUP)^TM for J2EE efforts for the Commons Version 2 redesign and IMPAC II. RUP is a complex, multi-phase methodology that uses "best practices" to ensure that community input is incorporated in the development process, resources are allocated appropriately, and schedules are clearly defined and met.

RUP verifies quality by satisfying "use" case requirements rather than validating design. "Use" cases are requirements expressed as the story of how users interact with the system to achieve an observable result. RUP methodology uses an iterative rather than linear software development path and ensures constant improvement by performing assessments throughout the process.

Reader Survey: Inside eRA Still Needs Your Input

You still have time to respond to the Inside eRA newsletter survey. Please answer the brief questions in our interactive survey and help us develop content that meets your information needs. User group chairs will have print copies of the survey available at November meetings. Survey results will be published in a future issue.