National Aeronautics and Space Administration IT Talk Jan - Mar 2021 Volume 11 • Issue 1 Collaboration at NASA www.nasa.gov IT Talk Jan - Mar 2021 Volume 11 • Issue 1 In this Issue Office of the CIO NASA Headquarters 300 E Street SW Message From Washington, D.C. 20546 3 the NASA CIO Chief Information Officer Jeff Seaton (Acting) Editor & Publication Manager Eldora Valentine Graphic & Web Designer Michael Porterfield ICT SCRM Copy Editor 4 Takes a Village Meredith Isaacs IT Talk is an official publication of the Office of the Chief Information Officer Collaboration of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Headquarters, 6 at NASA 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: Remote Collaboration [email protected] Tools Support To read IT Talk online visit: www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio/ittalk 8 NASA’s Mission For more info on the OCIO: v www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio v inside.nasa.gov/ocio (Internal NASA network only) Communications www.nasa.gov/open/ v Program Hosts www.facebook.com/NASAcio 10 Webex Cheer Wall Message from the NASA CIO The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the importance of effective collaboration. Enhanced remote teamwork tools with the accelerated availability of Teams, train- ing sessions, Office 365 mobile applications, and the Teams Audio Conferencing service have allowed our Agency’s mission to successfully continue. Scientists and engineers have been able to collaborate with internal and external partners to develop research proposals, exchange ideas and observations, share data and analysis, and collaboratively develop scientific software applications. In this issue, we’ll look at how collaboration has evolved over the past several months and how we’re preparing for the future of work at NASA. And we will explore how NASA’s Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) team is playing a pivotal role in lowering the threats and vulnerabilities associated with pro- curing information and communications technologies. We all share a responsibility to protect NASA’s network and understand and manage supply chain risk. And finally, we’ll also highlight some prestigious awards that many of our Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) teammates have earned recently. This is a testament to the great work being done at the Centers that is helping to deliver critical capabilities to enable the NASA mission. I’m proud of how information technology at the Agency is evolving. Keep up the great work! Jeff Seaton NASA Chief Information Officer (Acting) Arvin Baroni Recognized as a 2020 Rising Star By Whitney Haggins, IT Communication Strategist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology The Government Innovation Awards, presented gathering/retention while creating labor efficien- by Federal Computer Week, Government Com- cies and process visibility. In his five years at puting News, and Washington Technology & JPL, Baroni has proven himself to be not only an Defense Systems, have named Arvin Baroni, a effective project manager, but a trusted part- Product Lifecycle Management Senior Product ner in the process, successfully teaming with Manager in the Information and Technology So- multiple engineering organizations to balance lutions Directorate, as one of their 2020 Rising their needs and priorities to meet their goals. As Stars. Baroni is the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s an ardent advocate for change and process flow (JPL’s) sixth Rising Star honoree since 2010. The improvement, he is passionate about learning Rising Star Award recognizes outstanding early- and serves as a role model to his fellow group career individuals in the first ten years of their members; moreover, he is continuously chal- IT career whose work significantly impacts their lenging the status quo, driving for the highest Arvin Baroni employers. standards in operations, user experience design/ user interface design (UX/UI), application devel- Tasked with managing multiple critical projects opment, and platform consistency. within the Product Lifecycle Management arena, Baroni manages several products heavily used Complete profiles for all the 2020 Rising by the engineering community as part of a cadre Stars can be found at https://fcw.com/ar- of applications for streamlining information ticles/2020/10/16/rising-stars-2020.aspx. NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Mar 2021 3 ICT SCRM Takes a Village By the ICT Supply Chain Risk Management Team, Goddard Space Flight Center Information Communications Technol- The ICT SCRM analysts play a piv- Here are some easy steps to take ogy (ICT) Supply Chain Risk Manage- otal role in lowering the threats and whenever you need a new ICT supply, ment (SCRM) is a huge title befitting vulnerabilities associated with procur- product, or service: the enormous task that NASA faces ing information and communications 1. Check the Assessed and Cleared maintaining the security of all mission- technologies. The comprehensive List to determine if the item has critical systems that support the assessment process works to iden- already been assessed for risk and Agency. Since we rely extensively on tify malicious software and hardware approved for purchase. computerized information systems and vulnerabilities, counterfeit components electronic data to carry out our wide and poor product designs, manufac- 2. If you cannot locate the item variety of missions, the exploitation turing processes, and maintenance you need, submit a Request for of ICT products and services through procedures. Our process ensures that Investigation (RFI), also known the global supply chain is an emerging only assessed and cleared covered ar- as a Supply Chain Risk Assess- and continuous threat that continues ticles enter the Agency’s supply chain. ment Needed (SCAN) or NF 1823. to grow. Reach out to your Center’s SCRM While the ICT SCRM Team is on the Point of Contact for assistance ICT SCRM is not about hindering pur- front line of supply chain security, it with the form. chases—it is about protecting NASA. takes a village. Protecting NASA’s From design to disposal, NASA’s ICT network and understanding and man- 3. Visit the ICT SCRM website regu- supplies, products, and services are aging supply chain risk is everyone’s larly for the latest SCRM news and susceptible to compromise. When we responsibility. the information you need to know fail to properly assess all ICT pur- to keep our supply chain and our chases for risks, bad things happen. missions safe. (Please note, this Perfectly put by our partners at the link is internal to NASA) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Secu- The ICT SCRM is a service provider of rity Agency (CISA) at the Department the Office of CyberSecurity Services of Homeland Security (DHS), those (OCSS), supporting the OCIO’s Cyber- things are vulnerabilities that “can security & Privacy Division (CSPD). enable data and intellectual property theft, loss of confidence in the integrity of the system, or exploitation to cause system or network failure.” 4 www.nasa.gov Teams’ New Meeting Experience Designed for Focus By Shaina Strom, End User Services Program Office Communications, Marshall Space Flight Center The End User Services Program Office • Feel closer together with Together • Reduced background noise uses (EUSO) is continually looking at new Mode and impose a shared back- artificial intelligence (AI) noise sup- and enhanced functionality coming ground with meeting participants, pression technology to keep your from Microsoft to implement at NASA making it feel like you are all sitting barking coworkers a little quieter and improve the user experience. in the same room. for your colleagues. Select one of four settings to suppress the right Recently, Microsoft released New • Turn on the Spotlight for speakers amount of background noise. Meeting Experience and additional so that all participants can give features meant to dim distractions their attention to the main speaker. • Meeting chat moderation allows and enhance focus. New Meeting Meeting organizers can lock the organizers to manage participants’ Experience features will eventually be individual video feed so that the ability to chat before, during, or enabled by default, but until then, you speaker has the floor. after the meeting, or if the chat can opt in to use them through your should remain read-only. Upcoming releases give you more settings. Turn them on now to explore. control over how you work in Teams. Visit our O365 Roadmap for the lat- • Use Teams in multiple windows est information on new releases from • Native notifications on Mac and with pop-out meetings, creating Teams (please note this link is internal Windows devices allow you to a new, separate window with the to NASA). choose how you would like to be Controls Menu at the top of the notified through the settings. new window. NASA OCIO IT Talk Jan - Mar 2021 5 Collaboration at NASA By Barbara Jo Webb, Customer Experience Specialist, Marshall Space Flight Center This past year has been fun, interesting, of having the correct set of tools to But what about trying to collabo- frustrating, exhausting, and educational. get the job done in an environment rate with partners outside of NASA? We’ve learned to work with spouses that involves remote collaboration. Admittedly, that gets a bit trickier. Due walking through the room, children to the sensitivity of the NASA data, playing in the kitchen, and dogs bark- NASA’s use of Microsoft Teams has extra protocols need to be put in ing in the background. Cats usually shown that we can collaborate internally place to ensure that the data are kept walk between you and your computer with ease. Files and documents are secure and handled properly. Since to ensure that they have been seen. constantly being uploaded to Teams most of you are using Zoom in your Thanks to videoconferencing, we’ve sites. Millions of messages have been personal lives and are already familiar seen how your home office is decorated sent across the Teams chat feature.