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Social Security Administration: Technical and Performance Challenges Threaten Progress of Modernization

AIMD-98-136 Published: Jun 19, 1998. Publicly Released: Jun 19, 1998.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Social Security Administration's (SSA) ongoing efforts to implement its intelligent workstation/local area network (IWS/LAN) project, focusing on: (1) determining the status of SSA's implementation of IWS/LAN; (2) assessing whether SSA and state disability determination service (DDS) operations have been disrupted by the installations of IWS/LAN equipment; and (3) assessing SSA's practices for managing its investment in IWS/LAN.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Social Security Administration To strengthen SSA's management of its IWS/LAN investment, the Commissioner of Social Security should direct the Deputy Commissioner for Systems to immediately assess the adequacy of workstations specified in the IWS/LAN contract, and based on this assessment, determine: (1) the number and capacity of workstations required to support the IWS/LAN initiative; and (2) its impact on the IWS/LAN implementation schedule.
Closed – Implemented
SSA determined that the 100-MHz workstations specified in the IWS/LAN contract were not a limiting factor for applications under development. It believed that terms and conditions in the contract would enable it to acquire higher-powered computers if needed. However, SSA revised its workstation requirements, resulting in the acquisition of additional workstations to meet SSA's and the state DDSs' needs, and higher-powered workstations due to the unavailability of the 100-MHz workstations. In addition, systems officials concluded that additional intelligent workstations and LANs were still required to complete the rollout. In response, the CIO requested that agency components determine the reasons for the additional workstations and identify the benefits expected to be achieved from them. In June 2000, SSA issued a draft report documenting the results of its post-implementation analysis of IWS/LAN. The report detailed the agency's analysis of IWS/LAN's actual benefits and discussed anticipated benefits through 2002. Although the report did not address specific reasons for acquiring additional workstations, the CIO considers the post-evaluation analysis to have fulfilled his aforementioned request.
Social Security Administration To strengthen SSA's management of its IWS/LAN investment, the Commissioner of Social Security should direct the Deputy Commissioner for Systems to work closely with state DDSs to promptly identify and resolve network management concerns and establish a strategy for ensuring the compliance of those states relying on IWS/LAN hardware for year 2000 corrections.
Closed – Implemented
SSA continues to work with the DDSs to identify and resolve IWS/LAN network management concerns at DDS offices. For example, SSA previously proposed an alternative capability to provide DDSs with increased network control. However, since July 1998, SSA has only provided this alternative to one DDS, and the agency has not yet resolved other network control and management issues throughout the DDS community. Regarding the Year 2000, SSA has reported that all DDSs have now installed the hardware necessary for ensuring compliance.
Social Security Administration To strengthen SSA's management of its IWS/LAN investment, the Commissioner of Social Security should direct the Deputy Commissioner for Systems to establish a formal oversight process for measuring the actual performance of each phase of IWS/LAN, including identifying the impact that each IWS/LAN phase has on mission performance and conducting post-implementation reviews of the IWS/LAN project once it is fully implemented.
Closed – Implemented
SSA agreed that performance goals and measures should be prescribed to determine how well information technology investments support its programs and provide expected results. However, in July 1999, GAO testified and SSA agreed that the agency had not performed in-process or post-implementation reviews of IWS/LAN and had not measured or identified IWS/LAN's actual contributions to improved productivity and mission performance. In response, SSA conducted a post-evaluation analysis of its IWS/LAN initiative. SSA issued the draft report documenting the results of its evaluation in June 2000, and in September 2000, committed to finalize the report to implement lessons learned from its evaluation and from GAO's subsequent assessment of the draft report. For example, consistent with GAO's report message and recommendation, SSA agreed to improve its management of future information technology (IT) investments by institutionalizing post-implementation reviews and establishing baseline data, target goals, and performance measures to gauge the impact of its IT initiatives.

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Topics

Claims processingSoftware verification and validationFederal social security programsInformation resources managementLocal area networksPerformance measuresSystems conversionsY2KPersonal computersInformation technology