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DOT&E FY2000 Annual Report

NAVY STANDARD INTEGRATED PERSONNEL SYSTEM (NSIPS)

Navy ACAT IAM Program		Prime Contractor
Total Number of Systems:	1 (850 sites)	Lockheed Martin
Total Program Cost (TY$):	$118M
Average Unit Cost (TY$):	$139K
Full-rate production:	3QFY02

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION & CONTRIBUTION TO JOINT VISION 2020

The Navy Standard Integrated Personnel System (NSIPS) will consolidate the Navy active and reserve personnel field source data collection systems, both ashore and afloat. The objective is to produce a standard single point of entry system for all personnel and pay information. The primary interfaces for NSIPS will be with systems belonging to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS). NSIPS provides pay and personnel functionality for the Naval reserve force in Release 0 and for the Naval active force in Release 1. The client-server architecture will have information held at the local level and at regional data servers, using a corporate-level data base for survey purposes.

NSIPS supports the Joint Vision 2020 paradigm by providing commanders with up-to-date, accessible information on the strength of their forces, hence facilitating the operational concept of dominant maneuver. In addition, information superiority will support the conduct of dominant maneuver by enabling concurrent planning and coordination of widely dispersed forces.

Prior to Milestone II (1QFY98), the program developed a prototype system to prove out the planned architecture and "user friendliness" of the graphical user interface. PeopleSoft was selected as the basic human resource software package. The software package was customized and Navy requirements were incorporated. An operational assessment on the prototype was conducted in August and September of 1997. In May 1998, an Acquisition Decision Memorandum (ADM) approved funding for hardware deployment to 64 NSIPS sites.

In December 1998, an ADM authorized additional funding for continued hardware deployment through 1QCY99. Based upon an independent assessment of the software development effort, an ADM was approved in March 1999 granting program authority to expend additional funds to continue hardware deployment through 3QCY99.

The operational test activity, the Navy's Operational Test and Evaluation Force (OPTEVFOR), conducted a DT assist during May 1999. From this evaluation, the Navy found that NSIPS demonstrated the software maturity required in the March 1999 ADM, and concluded the NSIPS program manager should be able to proceed with software development.

The Release 0 operational evaluation began in mid-September 1999. Various deficiencies were noted, such as inadequate hardware and software configurations, inaccurate transmittal logs, missing e-mail functionality, corrupted reports, improperly established security roles, inadequate responses from the help desk, memory leaks, inadequate connectivity, and inadequate training.

The NSIPS program manager developed a plan of action to address the system shortcomings, and beginning in October 1999, three separate software builds were installed to address the noted deficiencies. The program manager proposed a new schedule for continuing the operational evaluation. End-to-end testing with DJMS-RC was conducted in early November 1999. The operational evaluation resumed later in November 1999.

In January 2000, OPTEVFOR briefed its Release 0 final operational evaluation report to the DOT&E Action Officer and representatives from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (C³I) and the developmental test community. COMOPTEVFOR determined Release 0 was operationally effective and operationally suitable, and recommended approval for fleet introduction. COMOPTEVFOR also described two minor deficiencies identified during the operational evaluation, related to reliability and interoperability, and recommended fixes to the deficiencies.

The OSD Action Officer chaired a review in January 2000 to assess the readiness of NSIPS Release 0 to deploy to the Naval reserve force. It was determined that Release 0 was operationally effective and operationally suitable; the IPT recommended that the milestone decision authority approve fielding of Release 0, provided an approved Acquisition Program Baseline and certification of system interoperability are made available. Release 0 is currently operational at 260 reserve sites, and replaced the Reserve Standard Training, Administration, and Readiness Support (Manpower and Personnel) System.

In June 2000, the NSIPS program office announced a deviation in the Acquisition Program Baseline because of a four-month schedule slip in software development, and proposed correcting its schedule breach by splitting Release 1 into two increments. The first increment would address functions associated with personnel actions for the Naval active force and would undergo a full operational evaluation. Upon demonstration of operational effectiveness and suitability, the increment would be deployed. The second increment would address functions associated with pay actions for the Naval active force and undergo a full operational evaluation.

A Flag-level suggestion was raised during a briefing in mid-November 2000 to consider stopping the development of Release 1 after the completion of the first planned increment-fielding DMO rather than the second planned increment of Release 1 to address pay functionality for the Naval active force. The underlying reasons to explore this option included the slip of initial operational capability to April 2002 and the ability of the DMO module to allow early replacement of UMIDS. The DMO module is similar to UMIDS, but is a user-friendly Windows-based application. An action was taken to explore options, costs, benefits, risks, and the impact on schedule and the Operational Requirements Document before the next Flag brief.

Working group members met in early December 2000 to review the functionality of the second increment of NSIPS Release 1 and the DMO module. The working group unanimously recommended replacing UMIDS with DMO as an interim solution until the second increment of Release 1 of NSIPS is delivered. Also in early December, the Requirements Integrated Product Team reviewed options in response to the Flag brief action item. The overall recommendation was to continue development of NSIPS Release 1 while continuing to explore the feasibility of deploying the DMO module to replace UMIDS on an interim basis.

Several actions are pending before the potential fielding of the DMO module can be fully evaluated. These actions include confirming the technical feasibility of the DMO module, completing the surveys and tests on hardware available to field the DMO module, determining the total cost of the DMO deployment on ship and ashore, determining the best strategy to deploy DMO based on the Release 1 schedule, and identifying the funding source.

During the Flag brief in mid-December 2000, the NSIPS program office presented the current test status. Operational evaluation is scheduled for March 2001, with the Milestone decision expected in July 2001. Setting aside the DMO module potential, operational evaluation of the second increment of Release 1 is scheduled for February 2002, with the Milestone decision expected in April 2002. Full operational capability is planned for July 2002. The NSIPS program office concluded that continuing to evaluate the feasibility of deploying DMO to replace UMIDS on an interim basis is a good risk-mitigation strategy.

NSIPS continues to be under development with in-house unit testing taking place concurrently. Robust developmental testing is crucial to ensure that operational testing truly tests the ability of NSIPS to support the pay and personnel functions of the Naval Reserve and Active forces. DOT&E has consistently worked hand-in-hand with the NSIPS program office to ensure sufficiently robust developmental testing. DOT&E has encouraged the NSIPS program office to learn from the test experiences of the Release 0 product. To conduct an adequate operational test of NSIPS, DOT&E has recommended that legacy system performance data be collected at the test sites to allow a baseline comparison. In addition, it is imperative that OPTEVFOR clearly defines the test objectives for Release 1; this will allow better data collection and evaluation on behalf of DFAS interests.

DOT&E has provided significant contributions in helping to shape the NSIPS incremental evaluation strategy for Release 1. These contributions have been well received by the NSIPS program office. On behalf of the oversight test community, DOT&E has offered much-needed guidance regarding the need to bring to test a Release 1 product that will meet the needs of NSIPS users.

FY00 NAVY STANDARD INTEGRATED PERSONNEL SYSTEM (NSIPS)