NIH Electronic Directory Project

Steering Committee Meeting Minutes

October 26, 1999

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Participants:

            Akinyele Akinyelu (Junior)-CIT

Tom Bodine-CIT

            Bob Borah-CIT

            Bonnie Cramer-NINR

            Keith Gorlen-CIT

            Andrea Hobbs-NIAAA

            Rob Malick-CIT

            Sandy Miller-ORS

            Diane O’Neill-ORS

            Tina Roark-NHLBI

            Terri Sudler-CIT         

 

                                   

Pilot Status

 

The CIT pilot, originally scheduled to begin on 10/13, was aborted as a result of issues stemming from the late addition of the “return to AT” functionality to the user interface.  Unfortunately, this introduced problems in other areas of the system, and without adequate time for testing and issue resolution, resulted in a number of problems during pilot.  The NED development team is working on correcting the problems and adding additional functionality before re-piloting, which is expected to take place the week of November 1.  In addition to CIT, NINR, and NCRR, NIAAA has agreed to be involved in the pilot operation.

 

 

Miscellaneous Issues

 

• It was decided that company affiliation should be a required field during a contractor registration, but that contractor phone would be optional.
• Empty fields on the various “view details” screens will not be suppressed.  The AOs present felt it would be useful to see which fields did not contain any information.
• The issue of whether to allow SSNs to be changed was discussed.  There were varying opinions on this issue with the question posed as to what the ITAS system allowed.  The group agreed that it probably made sense to adopt whatever is the policy in ITAS.
• With respect to transfers between ICs, it was recommended that the interface provide a link to a person’s AO in the IC they’re transferring out of in the event that the AO in the IC from which they are being reassigned needs to contact them. This suggestion had been brought up at a previous DSC meeting, but not yet implemented.  It was agreed that this functionality would be added to a future release of the NED UI.

• With respect to individuals “transferring” from one IC, it was pointed out that “reassignment” might actually be a better word to describe the process.  Apparently, the term reassignment is commonly used by AOs to describe the case of a person moving from one IC to another, as well as moving between different organizations within the same IC.   It was indicated that the term “transfer” is understood by some people to mean moving between Government agencies.
• With respect to the issue of listing updated attributes at the bottom of the 1^st verification screen, it was decided that this might make sense at some later date, but for now would be left as is. 
• The suggestion to add a “view individuals in my coverage” button on the update and/or change status screens was discussed.  It was decided that this was a good idea, but would not be added for the pilot.
• It was suggested that the message appearing at the top of the Personal, Work and Home Information forms indicating that information should be entered “with the desired casing (uppercase, lowercase, mixed)” was confusing and should be modified.  This will be done for the pilot.
• Terry Sudler provided an update on the status of the NED privacy act clearance.

 

 

Demonstration/Discussion of New Interface Functionality

 

•  The “services required” checkbox screen during the registration process was demonstrated.  For the pilot, the only “service” options will be for an ID and whether a listing in the paper directory is desired.  Depending on which services are selected during the registration, certain fields become required.  The service options list will be expanded as the NED is implemented more widely.  It is further envisioned that individual services will be de-selected as workers terminate their affiliation with NIH.  In some cases, selected services will need to be retained following separation.
• The Search (View Only) interface was redesigned as a form that includes the following fields:  first and last name, email address, NIH ID, and IC.  Changes were also implemented to reduce the search time as well as the incorporation of  Soundex during the search process. 
• The previous user interface screen background was replaced with the familiar CIT “blue-to-white” background.

 

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Next Meeting:           TBD

 

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