Inside eRA, October 16, 2001

Introducing Ask eRA

Do you have questions about eRA but don't know where to find the answers? Do you need general information about project plans or project management? Starting immediately, you can send questions, comments, and information requests to the Ask eRA mailbox at askera@od.nih.gov. We will respond to all inquiries. Answers that are of general interest to the community will be published in future issues of Inside eRA and may be posted on the website.

Summary Statement Enhancements Scheduled

To ensure a smooth transition from IMPAC I, the pilot phase of the IMPAC II Summary Statement process has been extended through December 2001 to address performance concerns and to enable the user community to provide additional design input. ICs will be required to use the IMPAC II system to generate summary statements for the June 2002 council cycle. The eRA Project Management Team encourages all ICs to participate in the current pilot phase of the IMPAC II Summary Statement process. The pilot is open to all Peer Review users.

During the pilot phase, the "official" summary statement text will continue to be entered in and released to final in IMPAC I. Pilot users will test the process of entering text but not finalizing it in IMPAC II.

Beginning in January 2002, IMPAC II will be the only comprehensive source of summary statements. Although ICs will be able to generate individual summary statements in IMPAC I that will be bridged to IMPAC II, summary statements generated in IMPAC II will not be reverse-bridged to IMPAC I. The Summary Statement Preparation User's Guide provides detailed instructions for creating summary statements in IMPAC II.

IMPAC II offers significant advantages in summary statement generation and management. Users create summary statement "bodies" in Microsoft Word or WordPerfect, which supports rich-text features such as boldface, bullets, underline, italics, Greek characters, and tables. After the bodies are submitted to the IMPAC II database, summary statements are generated in Adobe Acrobat portable document format (PDF). Any user who downloads the free Acrobat Reader from Adobe's website can view PDF files.

IMPAC II also enables users to view current and previous summary statements online through the Grant Folder. A summary statement sort screen in the IMPAC II Peer Review, ICO, and QuickView modules enables users to request central printing, merge PDF files into one file for local printing, or request a zip file of individual PDFs.

When the summary statement process is transitioned to IMPAC II in January, program officials will benefit from automatic email notification of summary statement availability. To prepare for full deployment of the module, ICs must update and maintain program officials' WRK address type in the IMPAC II User Administration (UA) module. Online documentation provides step-by-step assistance.

In addition, ICs must replace IC Council Book batch jobs with equivalent IMPAC II or Electronic Council Book (ECB) functions. Beginning in January, IMPAC II will be the only complete repository of summary statements.

The Human Resource Development Division (HRDD) offers training in summary statement generation as part of its Peer Review class. For more information, consult the HRDD website. The Office of Extramural Research (OER) will offer summary statement training prior to the January 2002 deployment.

To participate in the pilot or to request assistance in converting current procedures to run from IMPAC II, email the IMPAC II Helpdesk at helpdesk@od.nih.gov. Be sure to include your IMPAC II user account in the email.

Oracle Upgrade Slated for Holiday Weekend

To minimize disruptions to the ICs, the IMPAC II production environment will be upgraded to Oracle Version 8.1.7.2.1 over the Veteran's Day weekend beginning November 10, as approved by the Project Team at its September 25 meeting. During the weekend of October 20, the IMPAC II development and test databases will be upgraded to the new version.

Although the Oracle memory pool leak that was the impetus for the upgrade has been effectively contained (see the August 17 issue), the new Oracle version will resolve other problems that were not apparent to users.

To ensure that users at ICs are well informed and to forestall unexpected problems, a database administrator (DBA) will meet with the IC technical group and will provide updates through the technical list server. Because ICs with local databases generally prefer to remain synchronized with eRA, the DBAs will offer local test accounts.

For more information, please contact Ali Ghassemzadeh, Advocate for Infrastructure and Hardware, at 301-435-0981 or by email at GhassemA@oit.od.nih.gov.

Performance Measures Demonstrate Increased IMPAC II Stability

As the number of sessions on the IMPAC II system increases, eRA is closely watching performance measures that denote system stability. A recent study provided encouraging statistics about the substantial reduction during 2001 of unscheduled downtime on IMPAC II databases.

The following table lists the average unscheduled monthly downtime on the OLTP and IRDB databases in 2000 and 2001.

	OLTP	IRDB
2000	3 hours, 5 minutes	1 hour, 33 minutes
2001	31 minutes	58 minutes

One of eRA's goals is to continue improving the stability of the IMPAC II system, an effort that will be headed by Ali Ghassemzadeh.

Financial Status Report (FSR) System Focus Group Planned

A new Financial Status Report (FSR) system, which is a funded FY2001 priority to be developed in FY2002, will be another example of seamless electronic data communication from the grantee to the NIH. The system will integrate the eRA Commons, staff from the NIH Office of Financial Management (OFM), and the NIH grants management business community.

The grantee user community currently uses an archaic MVS mainframe/TSO-based dial-up or telnet system to enter data. It is a line-by-line, prompt-by-prompt data entry system. Most users still use dial-up access, so this system is ripe for overhaul. The current system allows only the submission of the initial FSR. All revisions are submitted on paper and no history is stored. When a revision is submitted and accepted, the new data replaces any previous data.

Recently, eRA staff attended a demonstration of a Web-based FSR system that was developed for another DHHS agency. Although it is part of a larger system, the developers indicated that the FSR piece could be easily extracted and customized for NIH's use. Because the system uses J2EE architecture, it will integrate easily with the redesigned NIH Commons.

A focus group soon will be formed to determine basic requirements for the FSR system. This group will be composed primarily of representatives from OFM and the NIH grants management business area. Anyone interested in participating in the focus group should contact Marcia Hahn, eRA Grants Management Advocate, at 301-435-0932 or by email at hahnm@od.nih.gov.

Committee Management Redesign Planning Begins

Between now and January 2002, four user group meetings will address user requirements for the redesign of the IMPAC II Committee Management (CM) application. The next step in the redesign process will be Joint Application Development (JAD) meetings scheduled to begin in January. Claire Benfer, Committee Management Advocate, asked for volunteers and then assembled a twelve-member JAD team who will use their business expertise to identify system requirements.

For information about the CM redesign, please contact Claire Benfer at 301-496-2123 or by email at cb75g@nih.gov.

Introducing New Faces in eRA Project Management

As eRA continues to refine its mission, new members of the Project Management Team are adding their experience and expertise to our endeavors. In this issue, we welcome three new team members and acknowledge the contributions of the eRA User Advocate.

Advocate for Infrastructure and Hardware Named

Ali Ghassemzadeh has been named Advocate for Infrastructure and Hardware. In this capacity, Ali will work closely with the NIH Center for Information Technology (CIT), which will assume a larger role in hardware support. One of Ali's first efforts as an Advocate is to identify the hardware resources that will be needed to support scanned applications.

As Chief of the Systems Operations branch, Ali oversees the maintenance of all hardware, operating systems, and database instances for the IMPAC II project [see Performance Measures Demonstrate Increased IMPAC II Stability in this issue.] Ali has five years of service at the NIH, teaches at the Catholic University Graduate School, and is working on a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence at George Mason University. He previously was a professor at George Mason for eight years.

You can reach Ali at 301-435-0981 or by email at GhassemA@oit.od.nih.gov.

New Advocate Speaks for IC Technical Staff

Stephen Hughes has joined eRA as the new Advocate for the IC technical staff and has agreed to lead the shared design team that was introduced in the February 15 issue. Steve is a computer specialist with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and has worked with the IMPAC I and IMPAC II systems for more than 25 years. He was part of the Technical Evaluation Panel that reviewed the initial IMPAC II contract, and has served on JADs for many of the current IMPAC II modules. He currently is the chair of the NIH IMPAC II Technical Coordinators group.

You can reach Steve at 301-435-5206 or by email at sh83f@nih.gov.

New Team Lead for Division of Extramural Activities

Allan Czarra has been named Team Lead for the Division of Extramural Activities (DEA). Allan will work part-time with Program Advocate Bud Erickson to define how the operational needs of IC Offices of the Director (ODs) and Divisions of Extramural Activities (DEAs) can be met using components or modifications of the IMPAC II ICO application. Allan also will focus on simplifying IC-to-IC interactions including re-engineering processes to eliminate steps that are superfluous in an electronic environment.

Allan will devote the rest of his time to working with Dr. Belinda Seto, Data Integrity Advocate, on identifying patterns and trends in IMPAC II data quality problems, studying the effects of the problems, and identifying both short- and long-term solutions.

Allan brings 22 years of NIH service and experience to his new position. For 12 years, he was a Program officer with a portfolio of research grants and contracts, an SRA, and an associate division director for Program Operations. For the last 10 years, he has worked in the Division of Extramural Activities at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

You can reach Allan at 301-496-7291 or by email at ac20a@nih.gov.

User Advocate Focuses on Community Needs

After four and a half years as an advocate for the user community, Tim Twomey describes his pivotal role in the project by simply saying, "I represent the user." From project status meetings to branch chief gatherings to Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions, Tim seeks to increase awareness within eRA of how decisions affect our user community. For example, before an upgrade is planned, Tim considers council schedules, review cycles, and receipt dates, and advises the Project Team of potential adverse effects on the diverse user population. With prior experience in grants administration at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and in development of the IMPAC I system, Tim has an in-depth understanding of both the business side and the technology [see Tips from the Helpdesk in this issue].

Tim's advocacy has led to the scheduling of deployments after business hours to minimize the impact on users, the consolidation of eRA user support operations into a new Helpdesk center, and the introduction of a more efficient call center system. The phone system reduces caller waiting time by routing callers to the next available support representative, providing them with the option of leaving a message if all representatives are busy, and tracking the amount of time they remain on hold.

As the chief of the User Support Branch (USB), Tim manages eight government employees and five Helpdesk contractors who provide technical support to more than 2,000 IMPAC II and Commons users each month. Through participation at conferences, Tim also focuses on raising eRA's profile. At the August National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) ERA VI Conference in Portland, Oregon, Tim provided software demonstrations and project information to interested attendees.

Looking Ahead

Several new initiatives will further enhance the services offered by the USB. By January 2001, HEAT, an online help request system, will provide automatic ticketing of error reports and will enable users to track the progress of their technical assistance request (TAR). Users will be able to determine whether others have reported the same problem and can use an online knowledge base to search for documented workarounds. Data dictionaries that provide screen mappings for each application are another planned user resource. The dictionaries will be published as appendices to application user guides and will help users create ad hoc reports.

You can reach Tim at 301-435-0690 x 609 or by email at TwomeyT@od.nih.gov.

Project Central JAD Underway

The eRA Office of Planning, Analysis, and Evaluation (OPAE) and the User Support Branch are spearheading an effort to provide real-time project management information to the eRA Project Team, stakeholders, and the user community. The goals of this effort are to improve planning, allow more informed decision-making, and expand communication of project information. The initiative relies on Microsoft Project Central as the supporting technology.

MS Project Central is the Web-based companion to Microsoft Project 2000, already used internally by eRA staff. This enhancement of eRA's current project management practices will provide stakeholders (who need to know) with up-to-date project status and will show how the projects are performing against time and budget. Stakeholders also will be able to select a portfolio view of modules to assess summary status information. This feature is useful in analyzing all modules in a business area at once.

MS Project Central will be piloted with two eRA modules, Population Tracking and Committee Management. Using lessons gleaned from the pilot, OPAE will roll out MS Project Central to all modules in early CY2002. Joint Application Development (JAD) group meetings are in progress to refine requirements for eRA's implementation of Project Central. The following OD staff members have volunteered to serve on the JAD: David Carter, Megan Columbus, Donna Frahm, Stefanie Geaney, Chip Groh, Della Hann, Michael Martin, Carl Newcomer, Steve Patton, Robert Reifsnider, Chris Seker, George Stone, Jerry Stuck, Tim Twomey, Mark Weiser, and Sherry Zucker.

IMPAC II Helpdesk Advisory -- R15 Mailers

The R15 mailer is the first automatic e-mail system to be deployed in the IMPAC II system. It sets a precedent for future electronic systems including Type 5 Notification, FSR request, and score mailers. Although this process affects only a few grants/assignments, it is crucial for future mailings that you ensure that PO and GMO assignments and current addresses are entered for all staff. With regard to these data items, the IMPAC II Helpdesk has identified potential problems and resolutions.

Tips from the Helpdesk

Tim Twomey, User Advocate, suggests the following timesaving ideas for users who are reporting software problems.

• Click the Helpdesk address (helpdesk@od.nih.gov) on the lower-right portion of the displayed IMPAC II screen to generate a message to the Helpdesk that automatically includes the screen number.  
• Copy and paste the error message directly into your email when emailing the Helpdesk about an error message.

IMPAC II Software Release Schedule as of October 19, 2001

The following new versions will be deployed on October 19 for the noted business areas. Check the IMPAC II website for current release notes after the deployment date.

Module	Version	Platform	Highlights
CM	3.9.9.0	(C/S)	Edit subcommittee meeting information Modify OFM upload GSA XML file generation
Crisp Plus	3.4.6.0	(C/S & Web)	Bfile index Select hitlist rows
GM	1.9.5.0	(C/S)	Display update dates in People module Code 45 on training grants Revisions to NGA
RR	1.2.8.0	(C/S)	New racial/ethnic coding SSN match on selection, not just first and last name
TA	2.7.4.0	(C/S)	Email notification to PI Field of Training coding Stipend Level Maintenance screen

The complete IMPAC II Software Release Schedule for the next six months is now available on the IMPAC II web site. Please email questions about the schedule to the IMPAC II Helpdesk at helpdesk@od.nih.gov.

IMPAC II Training Schedule

The Human Resource Development Division (HRDD) has scheduled the following IMPAC II courses for the first quarter of FY2002.

Course Title	Number	Date	Time	Location	Tuition
Committee Management for CMOs and CMAs	5834	10/24/01	9 am - 4 pm	Executive Plaza South	$221
Committee Management for GTAs and Review Staff	5833	10/31/01	9 am - 4 pm	Executive Plaza South	$221
Committee Management for SREA Staff	5835	11/07/01	9 am - 12 pm	Executive Plaza South	$184
CRISP Plus	5829	11/05/01	9 am - 4 pm	Executive Plaza South	$141
Peer Review	5825	11/08/01	9 am - 4 pm	Executive Plaza South	$221
Quick View	5830	11/20/01	1 pm - 4 pm	Executive Plaza South	$141

The following courses are also offered; however, there are no scheduled sessions at this time or scheduled classes are full. For more information or to request a class, visit the HRDD website or contact Mr. Ajoy Gadhok at 301-402-3384 or gadhoka@od.nih.gov.

Course Title	Number	Duration	Tuition
Grants Management (GM)	5827	1 day	$221
Institute Center Operations (ICO)	5828	½ day	$184