lllt~ at'Hl~l Welcome to REST STOPS by Shelley Anderson elcome to the premier issue _of /RM at Work, the new newsl~tter ·······•··•.:. .>,. ; '·•.••.:r~··;,:··i· . from the· Office of Information Resources Management. This ';'~;f6~~~W April issue represents our first monthly publication aimed at :>· .... W '.).;;:<; ;~;,1f1<:1.g~ keeping USAID employees informed of information management issues. This ..1 .. Newsletter replaces earlier newsletters issued in the past by IRlvl-including i>:. ·:··~·-,} -<>.' the Information Exchange and /RM.· /RM at Work is one of several new .. '•' ·.:i~~;·· channels of communication that IRlvl plans to implement over the next six J\'1a.n4g~~~tjf months as part of our ongoing commitment to providing the highest level of . :... •.·. ·.systell1~r· .. : customer service at US AID. 'Pag~·t~,,, .. c· !RM at Work will provide news articles about computer technology that directly affect you, the end user. The contents of each newsletter are written :~;~.'.:,Q$A."l?·:~t)g<l with the explicit goal of educating each reader. The infonnation on the ··/.:·'flag¢ 2·. availability, access methods and usage of technology tools will increase both your productivity and effectiveness. •. rxf ~~~~~s;.~~Wet The use of Information Technology has become an essential part of nearly Pa.ge:?: ·· . every job. It is part of our Agency's work environment and has become critical to getting daily tasks as well as major projects accomplished. ·w~t¥i~~·:K Furthermore, with the planned rollout of a new generation of information . Pi}ge·4~·.: systems, Information Technology will have an even greater influence on our work environments than it does today. We have devoted the majority of this otfibudsm~fi:: first edition of /RM at Work to the Agency's Information Systems Plan (ISP). ........ ..... The ISP will ultimately affect all of us and how we carry out our respective •···/J\t.Y~~f s~Olife.;:· responsibilities. · : .i: >J~ag~;~.: IRlvl is using IRM at Work as a means of communication and would ;:~'.(:~~~ri~th~~~~·····.·········. like you to do the same. Letters to the editor, questions about · USAID's office technology, comments about articles and article anathelSP suggestions are welcome. Send us your ideas about what you .•. :~age6 would like to see covered. Readers, particularly those in :·.·:.·:· ..:.:··.· .. ··· ... ··-.·.::··., missions, are encouraged to write articles. We would like to ]rlternet.. ID· devote a regular column to articles contributed by our readers. "f'age~ .. Writer guidelines are available to assist you in preparing s~bmissions (contact Shelley [email protected]@aidw). w6rcil'erte~··':······ . ; .... ·. ····· ' .. Please read and enjoy. Welcome to IRM at Work! ID · ·· :~ Macros ,· · J':ag~:0.·· s/· Shelley Anderson provides systems analysis and desktop publishing .:.f>i~tril:Jii~~rt support to the Consulting and Information Services (CIS) Division of ~·>ffag~ Ei<.; /RM. @ Printed on recycled paper U.S. Agency for International Development APRIL 1995 HIN 4t11Jod -ID tbl llfll'lllUID HllbWIV in order to increase efficiency of , the overall organization. New D Extensive involvement of the us­ ers in defining the organization's Management needs. LI Extensive use of shared corporate Systems data. The Information by Chuck Patalive Using the IE methodology, the Systems Plan, as Agency's work was broken down into it was originally ew Management Systems? eight business areas as shown below: conceived by ISP? What are these terms Operations Business Area /RM back in USAID people are N This is the core of the Agency's 1992, was a plan throwing around? The ISP, or Information Systems Plan as it was business. Operations involves our to use state of originally conceived by IRM back in development goals and strategies, the art business .1992, was a plan to use state of the art our project conceptionalization. analytical tools business analytical tools to develop design, implementation, closeout to develop new new systems for systems for carrying out carrying out USAID's business. USAID Logo Available The ISP has now USA/D's evolved into the New The USAID Logo was originally sent business. Management out as an attachment to an Agency Systems. Briefly Notice dated 7/22/94. The "'*"" defined now, the WordPerfect logo should be available ~. New Management on a local drive, however if you do not Systems are a set of have access to the graphic file, contact system processes for Bill Ruvinsky of IRM's CIS Division at carrying out Bill [email protected]@aidw. USAID's business. The new processes will rely on a new and evaluation. The remaining suite of corporate software designed business areas, in one way or and written specifically for the new another, support the Operations. processes. Without the Operations Area, there So, what are the areas for which would be no need for the others to The General these new processes are being . exist! Services developed? To help USAID identify Acquisitions and Assistance and analyze the business areas and Business Area Administration design solutions and new processes, (GSA) was so IRM contracted with James Martin Essentially this encompasses all impressed with Government Consulting, which facets of procurements and grants. refined a business analytical process Any action which affects or is the ISP that it undertaken by a contract officer honored called Information Engineering (IE). Briefly, the IE methodology calls for and/or the Office of Procurement is USA/D's Office studying the entire organization's included in this business area. ofIRMwith a information needs and carefully Budget Business Area 1994 "Best defining a number of "environments", This BAA focuses on the Practices" Award i.e., information, systems, technology formulation of the Agency's and organization environments. Only annual budget submissions at the then can a comprehensive plan (or Front Lines individual Bureau, Office, Mission architecture) be devised for meeting level and aggregate Agency level. February 1995 these needs. Financial Management There are three distinguishing characteristics of the IE methodology: (AWACS) Business Area This includes all facets of the LI A focus on the business impact, bookkeeping of the Agency's i.e., systems are engineered transactions, including grants, around basic business functions or loans, accounts payable, accounts areas and may cut across tradi­ receivable, payment vouchers, etc. tional organizational boundaries 2 Office of Information Resources Management lllH a111o.W -DD tbe lnfonnalion HIDbWBV VOL. 1 N0.1 ... the Agency's work was broken down into eight Business Areas: D Operations D Acquisitions and Assistance DBudget D Financial Man­ . Human Resources Business Guidance Business Area agement Area Guidance governs the (AWACS) This Business Area integrates the dissemination of all USAID D Workforce Plan­ personnel and payroll systems for handbooks, orders and directives ning (Human the Agency's three distinctly issued from Washington, as well as Resources) different workforces, U.S. direct Mission Orders issued in the field. D Property Man­ hire, foreign service nationals and After identifying the eight business agement personal services contractors. areas, the next step in the process was D Communications Property Management to undertake, again using IE D Guidance methodology, in depth analyses of Business Area each of the business areas (hence, Property Management is Business Area Analysis or BAA) by a comprised of the overall group of Agency employees, heade~ management of the Agency's up by the "executive sponsor". This expendable and real property. This Tatter term is one of the critical aspects includes such functions as oflE: the executive sponsor is that inventory, motor pool management person from the corporate entity who and property planning/usage is responsible for that particular management. business area. In other words, the Communications Business Office Director for Procurement is the Area executive sponsor for the Acquisitions and Assistance Business Area, not an This area incorporates the handling IRM person. Likewise, the Controller of all Agency external of the Agency is the executive sponsor communications, including those for the Financial Management with USAID' s clients, interest (AWACS) BAA and so forth. groups, Congress and other government agencies. Generally, under the BAA Executive Sponsor, there are two , I U.S. Agency for International Development 3 APRIL 1995 lllH at ?U~ _on the Information Highway Deleting! The Easy Way ~ Word.Perfect (5.1 DOS I 5.2 Windows) offers several quick and easy editing tools which many of us tend to overlook for deleting text . The following are a few useful tips to speed up your editing: D To delete a word, place the cursor (or Insertiop. Point as it is known in Windows) on the word and press CTRL/Backspace and poofl- the word is gone. Using the mouse to place the cursor or Insertion Point on the word to be deleted saves considerable time compared to motoring around the document with arrow keys. D To delete a line of text, press CTRL/END and all text to the right of the cursor or insertion point will magically disappear. Text from the line be­ low will wrap up to your cursor if there was not a Hard Return command at the end of your original line of text. To delete all the text from the cur­ sor or insertion point to the bottom of the page, press the CTRI/PgDn key Of course, if you are working in Word.Perfect for Windows and accidentally delete text that you wanted to keep, simply use the mouse to click on the ·WordPedect EDIT pull down menu and click on for Windows UNDO or UNDELETE. That simple. groups, a Reference Group and a Core Assistance Business Area, providing I Group. The Core Group is the heart feedback on the systems and processes ---------- of the BAA. This Group is comprised under design. of technical experts of the area., (e.g., An effort was made to ensure that contract officers for the A&A BAA), both the core and reference groups an IRM representative and a team of.