MEMORANDUM

To: Glenna Donnelly

Acting Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs

From: Assistant Inspector General for Audit

Subject: Assessment of the Electronic Disability Project (A-14-01-11044)

Thank you for the opportunity to participate on the Electronic Disability (eDib) Steering Committee. Audit involvement in systems development is a trend throughout the Government and private sectors, and we welcome the opportunity to be of assistance. This strategy will allow us to provide input throughout the development process instead of waiting until the project is complete and substantial funds have been expended. The Office of the Inspector General will not only participate in a consultative function, but will be active in identifying any fraud risk factors.

This memorandum is to provide you with two documents that we have developed while gathering information for the eDib project. First, we found 15 sites containing eDib information, which were not linked to the official eDib site on SSA’s Intranet (see Attachment A). Second, we created a detailed flowchart, which depicts the flow of information and related controls in Version 4.0 of the eDib (see Attachment B). We conducted our work in Baltimore, Maryland, and Wilmington, Delaware.

While searching the SSA Intranet for documentation relating to eDib, we noted that the Office of Systems Analysis maintained the primary eDib site, eDib Central Information Site. However, additional information was available from other SSA Intranet sites. On some of these sites, we found that the following offices had unique postings: Office of Systems Analysis had 21 postings, the Office of Telecommunications and Systems Operations had 21 postings, the Executive and Management Information System had 15 postings, and the unofficial site of Office of Systems Analysis had 10 postings.

It would be more efficient if the central site contained all the information, or at a minimum, provided links to the other sites containing eDib information. For this to succeed, the eDib Steering Committee needs to decide which component should control the central location to ensure all information is available. Attachment A lists the SSA Intranet sites containing eDib information and documents located on those sites as of May 14, 2001. As of October 5, 2001, we verified that the Intranet issues described above still existed.

During our search for information, we could not locate a detailed flowchart depicting the flow of information and related controls in Version 4.0 of eDib. This type of flowchart has been of great value to organizations. It simplifies the identification of internal controls and their interrelationships in a system and helps in assessing their adequacy.

Attachment B provides a flowchart, which we prepared with assistance from SSA’s Wilmington, Delaware staff, to show the eDib Version 4.0 process at work and the controls in that process. Our flowchart is based on the field office procedure followed to process a claim in the eDib "proof of concept" site of Wilmington, Delaware. We designed our flowchart to show what forms are accessed to complete most claims because the key system controls are inherent in this process. Upon your request, we are ready to work with SSA staff to update this flowchart as needed.

Based on the information we found, we suggest the eDib Steering Committee:

  1. Expand the eDib Central Information Site to provide links to other sites containing eDib information or consolidate all the eDib information in the central site.
  2. Designate one SSA component to maintain and control the eDib information on SSA’s Intranet.
  3. Update the process flowchart with each new major version of eDib.

We prepared these suggestions to help facilitate the eDib systems development process. There is no expectation for the Agency to formally respond to these suggestions. We look forward to participating in the eDib Steering Committee. If you have any questions or comments, please call me or have your staff contact Kitt Winter, Director, Systems Audit Division at (410) 965-9702. Members of the eDib Steering Committee may contact Ms. Winter directly or Al Darago at (410) 965-9710.

Steven L. Schaeffer

Site Source

Item Date

Item Title

OSA eDib Site

  

Background Information on eDib

OSA eDib Site

2000-08-03

Management Plan for the development of the Agency's Electronic Disability System eDib

OSA eDib Site

 

eDib Project Scope Agreements Version 1

OSA eDib Site

 

eDib Project Scope Agreements Version 2

OSA eDib Site

1999-12-17

eDib Project Scope Agreements Version 3, Version 1.6

OSPI

1999-12-09

eDib Project Scope Agreements Version 3, Version 1.5

OSA eDib Site

2000-03-08

eDib Project Scope Agreements Version 4

OSA eDib Site



2000-10-06

eDib Project Scope Agreements Version 4.1, version 1.4

OSPI

 

eDib Project Scope Agreements Version 4.1, version 1.4

OSA eDib Site

2000-12-01

FAQs

OSA eDib Site

2000-05-02

Contacts for hardware, configuration or software problems

OSA eDib Site

2001-02-01

Version 4 Problems and their status

OSA eDib Site

2000-06-08

Electronic Folder - Statement of Work

OSA eDib Site

 

Electronic Folder - Effort to Contract with Levy and Versa to Build Generic Interfaces to SSA’s Electronic Disability Folder

OSA eDib Site

2000-12-07

Electronic Folder - Electronic Disability (eDib) Strategy Paper

OSA eDib Site

2000-05-03

Electronic Folder - Business Process Description for eDib Version 3

OSA eDib Site

 

Electronic Folder- eDib field office to DDS Claim Transfer graphic

OSA eDib Site

 

Electronic Folder - Plan to Identify eDib Pilot Sites

OSA eDib Site

2000-05-01

Electronic Folder - STRAWMAN PAPERLESS BUSINESS PROCESS DESCRIPTION

OSA eDib Site

2000-11-01

New York Paperless Pilot System - KEY INITIATIVE CONCEPT PAPER

OSA eDib Site

2000-11-15

New York Paperless Pilot System -

Functional Requirements Document

OSA eDib Site

 

Regional Contacts

OSA eDib Site

SSA Web: eDib Central Site

EMIS

2000-02-29

Key Initiative Plan and Schedule

OSA

 

5-year plan - eDib

OTSO

 

Oracle Instance Report

EMIS

 

SSA FY 2002 Annual Performance Plan – p78
Indicator: Implement activities necessary to have the software and infrastructure in place for electronic processing of disability claims

 

OTSO

2000-03-21

Wang/Levy 3/22/00 – Summary of Federal Day at Spring SASUS held in Tuscon AZ March 21, 2000


SASUS = State Agency Systems User Services

EMIS

2000-10-06

FY2002 Working Documents – edib entry points to key initiative plan and schedule as of 02/29/2000

EMIS

2001-01-?

The Role of the Office of Systems

OSDD

 

OSDD Projects

STECS

 

Data Link - The Lab Corner

OTSO

2001-02-15

Distributed Data Architecture Team list of UNIX servers as of 2/15/01

     

OSDD

 

DSEL Projects has created a simulated production Wide Area Network (WAN) environment for client-server application testing and validation.

     

OSA

 

SEC.xls Security Support data for edib versions 4.0 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 5.0

OTSO

 

Non prod oracle servers.xls

EMIS

 

2002 Program for Objective Summary Report DI/SSI

OSA

 

Hw.xls – item 83 is edib support project

OSA

 

CTW Chart 9-00.xls

OSA

 

Division of Claims and Controls listing employees assigned to EF and edib-MIDAS interface



OTSO

 

October 2000 LSTT Application Assignments

   

IWSLAN Software Testing Team

OTSO

 

LAN Software Testing Team Home Page

OSPI

 

CTW Function Point Report for edib release 4.2

EMIS

 

Key Initiatives as of January 2001

OIM

 

OIM MIB Disability Systems Branch

EMIS

200-10-06

FY 2003 Working Documents (edib file password protected)

EMIS

2000-12-01

Quarterly Management Meeting

EMIS

2001-02-08

Matrix.xls - List of FY 2002 programs and how they meet certain subsets of SSA’s objectives such as Responsive Programs, World Class Service, Program Integrity, Valued Employees and Public Understanding

OTSO

2000-02-29

Austin III Conference - OTSO presenters

OTSO

2000-08-30

Fall SASUS Notes

OSA

 

MI.xls – 5 year plans - edib mi version 4 is item 11

   

Appendix 3 - Description of Key Initiatives

EMIS

2001-02-02

eDib section on page 11

   

Appendix 5 – Key Initiative Table of Contents
eDib summary on page 7

DCS

 

Systems Partnership Council - Draft Minutes

EMIS

2001-05-08

List of FY 2002 programs and how they meet certain subsets of SSA’s objectives such as Responsive Programs, World Class Service, Program Integrity, Valued Employees and Public Understanding

 

OTSO

1999-10-19

Laptops IMB ThinkPad 600E Notebook – Power Point Presentation Cost $67.250 Million


No edib entry on any of 18 screens



National IWSLAN Followon Plans – LANS, Desktops, Laptops and Printers

STECS

 

SEF Configuration Page 1
CICS Development Regions as of 04/03/01

EMIS

2001-02-15


2001-03-30

The Role of Key Initiative Leads and Teams
List of contacts for each KI

OSDD

 

Distributed Software Engineering Library
DSEL Projects

EMIS

 

Key Initiative: Return to Work
eDib, appendix 3

EMIS

2000-02-08

Quarterly Workload Meeting
Latest news in Information Technology Power Point show
Rydstrom, Hamer and Mesterharm show 9 screens; just titles; no data

Presentation with ITS cost for edib and other initiatives

OSA

2001-02-12

Functional Directory of OSA. eDib on pages 6 and 35

 

 

OSA

 

OSA Division of Requirements Support and Security – Lists contacts in Control Audit and Security Branch and subsets CATF, Audit and Integrity Review Team, and Security and Internal Control Team. The Network/Exchange/ Office Automation Team has responsibility for determining imaging H/W and S/W requirements for edib

STECS

2000-09-01

Identify Security Requirements Early

Article in STECS DataLink Newsletter that lack of security planning slowing down fast track internet/intranet projects

OTSO

2000-10-19


2001-05-10

Forecast.xls – Description and status of initiatives
Support files and reports

OTSO

 

Onlineappl.old


Online Application Schedule as of 05/08/01

Online application schedule as of 04/20/00

OTSO

 

Ccbdly.rtf


CCB Daily Abstract as of 05/10/01

CCB Daily Abstract as of 11/07/00

 

OTSO

 

Applications in Production

OSA

 

OSA Division of SSI Systems

OTSO

 

Ccbdly.old

SYSCONF

2001/06/06

Systems Conference Agenda 06/06/2001

TRAINING

 

Index of Online Courses (select E and then scroll down for 12 edib courses)

OTSO

 

Who wants to be an eDib Expert presentation given at the 2001 Spring SASUS conference

OSA

 

OSA Home Page with eDib selection option

SSAWIN2000

 

DIET paperless FO Test for Windows 2000

SYSCONF

 

A list of the presentations to be given at this year's conference.

OTSO

 

SASUS 2001 list of Presentations

Who wants to be an eDib Expert presentation given at the 2001 Spring SASUS conference

AS 400 Migration Presentation

OTSO

 

Applications Monitored by SmartWatch


EDib response time reports

 

OTSO

2001-05-04

System Information on status of UNIX host machines using CA management software Unicenter TNG and firewall software tool, eTrust

EMIS

2001-04-18

Implement activities necessary to have the software and infrastructure in place for paperless processing of disability claims - This goal will have been met if we develop, test, validate and implement release 3.8 of MCS. This goal will have been met when we develop, test, validate, implement and evaluate Version 4 of eDib

OTSO

2001-05-01

NS-Elite Replacement Offsite Power Point Presentation Screen 5 of 7 shows that edib will be affected

OTSO

2001-05-01

Client Server Configuration Meeting Minutes 04/04/01 – Item 2 gives edib status


04/11/01 Minutes

04/18/01 Minutes

OTSO

2001-03-20

OTSO Presentation at Spring SASUS on Technology Initiatives. SSAnet Modernization, Frame Relay, Virtual Private Network, AS400 support for DDS

 

2001-04-01

Office of Public Service and Operations Support (OPSOS). OPSOS is responsible for the operational delivery of public service and the overall effectiveness and efficiency of DCO components. We conduct studies, analyses and implementation planning on a myriad of issues related to the RSDI, SSI and HI programs, and provide leadership on customer service delivery, budget, management information and administration issues. The Division of Program Policy and Operations works with the Regions and central office components to develop and implement new legislation, new policies, and to develop strategies to improve current existing policies and service delivery. The Disability Analysis Branch is responsible for issues related to the disability program. In DAB, the person monitoring edib and HIPAA is Gillian Crane.

DDS

2000-11-01

DDS Mini Forum – Florida. Slide show on frame relay

DCO

 

OAS Highlights

May 14, 2001


May 7, 2001


April 30, 2001


April 23, 2001


April 16, 2001


April 9, 2001


April 2, 2001


March 26, 2001


March 19, 2001


March 12, 2001


March 5, 2001


February 26, 2001


February 12, 2001


February 5, 2001


January 29, 2001


January 22, 2001


January 8, 2001

philanet

 

eDib Delaware pilot web site