Land Management Systems: Progress and Risks in Developing BLM's Land and
Mineral Record System (Letter Report, 08/31/95, GAO/AIMD-95-180).
The Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Automated Land and Mineral Record
System/Modernization, which is estimated to cost $428 million, is
intended to improve BLM's ability to record, maintain, and retrieve land
description, ownership, and use information. To date, the Bureau has
been completing most of the project's tasks according to the schedule
milestones set in 1993. In coming months, the work will become more
difficult as BLM and the primary contractor try to complete, integrate,
and test the new software system and meet the current schedule. The
Bureau is trying to maintain the project schedule, but slippages may yet
occur because little time was allocated to deal with unanticipated
problems. BLM recently sought to obtain independent verification and
validation to ensure that the new system software meets the Bureau's
requirements. A key risk remains, however. BLM's plans include stress
testing only a portion of the Automated Land and Mineral Record System/
Modernization, rather than the entire project, to ensure that all
systems and technology can successfully process workloads expected
during peak operating periods. By limiting the stress test, BLM cannot
be certain that the system's information technology will perform as
intended during peak workloads.
--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM: AIMD-95-180
TITLE: Land Management Systems: Progress and Risks in Developing
BLM's Land and Mineral Record System
DATE: 08/31/95
SUBJECT: Land management
Geographic information systems
Management information systems
ADP procurement
Public lands
Computer software verification and validation
Federal property management
Future budget projections
Cost overruns
IDENTIFIER: BLM Automated Land and Minerals Record System
BIA Land Records Information System
BLM Geographic Coordinate Data Base Project
Alaska
Wyoming
Montana
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Cover
================================================================ COVER
Report to the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on
Interior and Related Agencies, Committee on Appropriations,
House of Representatives
August 1995
LAND MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS - PROGRESS
AND RISKS IN DEVELOPING BLM'S LAND
AND MINERAL RECORD SYSTEM
GAO/AIMD-95-180
BLM's Land and Mineral Record System
(511393)
Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV
ALMRS - Automated Land and Mineral Record System
ALMRS IOC - Automated Land and Mineral Record System Initial
Operating Capability
BLM - Bureau of Land Management
COBOL - Common Business Oriented Language
DOI - Department of the Interior
GAO - General Accounting Office
GIS - geographic information system
GCDB - Geographic Coordinate Data Base
IRM - information resources management
LIS - land information system
OMB - Office of Management and Budget
Letter
=============================================================== LETTER
B-261143
August 31, 1995
The Honorable Ralph Regula
Chairman
The Honorable Sidney R. Yates
Ranking Minority Member
Subcommittee on Interior
and Related Agencies
Committee on Appropriations
House of Representatives
This report presents the results of our assessment of the Bureau of
Land Management's (BLM) Automated Land and Mineral Record
System/Modernization (ALMRS/Modernization). This project, which is
estimated to cost about $428 million, is intended to improve BLM's
ability to record, maintain, and retrieve land description,
ownership, and use information. As agreed with your offices, our
objective was to ascertain BLM's progress in developing and
implementing the ALMRS/Modernization, including identifying potential
risks. Details on our scope and methodology are provided in appendix
I.
RESULTS IN BRIEF
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :1
Although planning for ALMRS was initiated in the early 1980s, a
contract was not awarded to develop and deploy the
ALMRS/Modernization until 1993 because of numerous changes in project
concept and scope. Thus far, BLM has been meeting most of the
schedule milestones that were established in 1993; however,
deployment of some equipment has been deferred to fiscal year 1996
due to a shortage of hardware funds. Other project costs are
expected to increase $25.2 million in fiscal year 1996. This
increase is primarily due to requirements that were added after BLM
awarded the contract.
In the coming months, the ALMRS/Modernization work will become more
difficult as BLM and the prime contractor endeavor to complete,
integrate, and test the new software system and meet the current
schedule. The Bureau has been taking action to maintain the project
schedule, but slippages may yet occur because little time was
allocated to deal with unanticipated problems.
BLM recently took action to obtain independent verification and
validation to help ensure that the new ALMRS software meets the
Bureau's requirements. A key risk remains, however. BLM plans
include stress testing only a portion of the ALMRS/Modernization,
rather than the entire project, to ensure that all systems and
technology can successfully process workloads expected during peak
operating periods. By limiting the stress test, BLM will deploy the
ALMRS/Modernization information technology without knowing whether it
can perform as intended during peak workloads.
BACKGROUND
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :2
BLM's mission is to manage public lands and resources to best serve
the needs of the American people. The Bureau, which is part of the
Department of the Interior (DOI), has 210 state, district, and
resource area offices that manage about 270 million acres of public
lands located in 28 states, primarily in the West and Alaska (see
figure 1). BLM's offices also manage another 300 million acres of
subsurface mineral resources that underlie lands administered by
other government agencies or are owned by private interests. BLM's
fiscal year 1995 appropriation totaled $1.24 billion.
Figure 1: BLM State and
District Offices
(See figure in printed
edition.)
In fulfilling its mission, BLM develops land-use plans to balance
multiple uses and competing demands, including ecosystem management,
timber harvesting, mining, oil and gas production, watershed
management, wildlife management, and recreation. It also designates
and maintains land of critical environmental concern and is
responsible for a major section of the National Spatial Data
Infrastructure.\1 In performing these functions, BLM maintains over 1
billion documents, including land surveys and surveyor notes, tract
books, land patents, mining claims, oil and gas leases, and land and
mineral case files. According to BLM, many of these paper documents
are deteriorating, and some are illegible. Most of the documents are
manually maintained and stored in a number of locations, although
some have been entered into various databases since the 1970s.
--------------------
\1 The Infrastructure is a cooperative effort of state and local
governments, federal agencies, academia, and the private sector to
collect and assemble geospatial data in ways that maximize the
usefulness and accessibility of the data.
EVOLUTION OF
ALMRS/MODERNIZATION
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :2.1
During the early 1980s, BLM found it could not handle the case
processing workload associated with a peak in the number of
applications for oil and gas leases. BLM recognized that to keep up
with the increased demand it needed to automate its manual records
and case processing activities. Thus, the Bureau began planning to
acquire an automated land and mineral case processing system (ALMRS).
At that time, BLM estimated the life-cycle cost of such a case
processing system would be about $240 million.
In 1988, BLM expanded the scope of ALMRS to include a land
information system (LIS). This system was to provide automated
information systems and geographic information systems technology
(GIS)\2 support for other land management functions, such as land use
and resource planning. BLM then combined the LIS with a project to
modernize the Bureau's computer and telecommunications equipment.
BLM estimated the total life- cycle cost of this combined project to
be $880 million.
According to DOI and ALMRS project officials, the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) directed BLM to scale down the combined
project in 1989 because of the projected high cost. The project,
which was renamed ALMRS/Modernization, was reduced to three major
components--the ALMRS Initial Operating Capability (ALMRS IOC),
Geographic Coordinate Data Base (GCDB),\3 and modernization of BLM's
computer and telecommunications infrastructure and rehost of selected
management and administrative systems.\4 Estimated life-cycle costs
were cut to $575 million. In 1993, BLM reduced the
ALMRS/Modernization 10-year life-cycle cost estimate from $575
million to $403 million, after the system development and deployment
contract was awarded at a lower cost than had been anticipated.
--------------------
\2 Geographic information systems technology is the computer hardware
and software that allow for the assembly, storage, manipulation, and
display of geographically referenced data, (i.e., data that are
associated with specific places on earth, such as the geographic
location of a lake or oil well).
\3 We have previously reported significant cost overruns and
milestone slippages on the GCDB component. See Land Management
Systems: Extensive Cost Increases and Delays in BLM's Major Data
Base Project, (GAO/IMTEC-91-55, Aug. 5, 1991).
\4 BLM is converting selected management and administrative software
from COBOL, a third generation programming language that uses flat
data files, to INFORMIX, a fourth generation query language and
relational database system.
OVERVIEW OF THE
ALMRS/MODERNIZATION PROJECT
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :2.2
BLM has designated the ALMRS/Modernization project as a
mission-critical system to (1) automate land and mineral records and
case processing activities and (2) provide information to support
land and resource management activities. The project is a
large-scale effort that is expected to provide an efficient means to
record, maintain, and retrieve land description, ownership, and use
information to support BLM, other federal programs, and interested
parties. It is to accomplish this by (1) establishing a common
information technology platform,\5 (2) increasing public access to
BLM records through the Internet, (3) integrating multiple databases
into a single geographically referenced database, (4) shortening the
time to complete case processing activities, and (5) replacing costly
manual records with automated records. Appendix II provides an
overview of the planned ALMRS/Modernization architecture.
As noted above, the ALMRS/Modernization consists of three
components--ALMRS IOC, GCDB, and technology modernization and rehost
of selected systems. The ALMRS IOC component is to provide (1)
support for case processing activities, including recording valid
mining claims, processing mineral patents, and granting rights-of-way
for roads and power corridors and (2) information for land and
resource management activities, including timber sales and grazing
leases. The GCDB component is the database that will contain
geographic coordinates and survey information for land parcels.
Other databases, such as those containing land and mineral records,
will be integrated with GCDB. The information technology
modernization and rehost component consists of installing computer
and telecommunications equipment and converting selected management
and administrative systems to a relational database system that will
be used throughout the Bureau.
--------------------
\5 Information technology platform refers to an automated information
systems environment that consists of interoperable hardware, systems
software, and communications.
STATUS OF PROJECT FUNDING
AND ESTIMATES
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :2.3
Between fiscal years 1983 and 1995, about $296.2 million had been
appropriated for ALMRS/Modernization. According to project
officials, obligations for ALMRS/Modernization totaled $262.8 million
from 1983 through April 30, 1995. They expect obligations to equal
appropriations by September 30, 1995.
In 1993, OMB and BLM agreed to annual funding limits for
ALMRS/Modernization through fiscal year 2002. As agreed, total
spending was not to exceed $403 million for fiscal years 1983 through
2002. However, to stay within the limit for fiscal year 1995, BLM
delayed the initial hardware installation for the Alaska and Wyoming
state, district, and resource area offices. Also, BLM estimates that
it will exceed the fiscal year 1996 limit of $69.5 million by $25.2
million. BLM expects to obtain the $25.2 million from other parts of
its operations.
According to ALMRS/Modernization project officials, the increase is
attributable to several factors, but primarily because of
requirements that were added after contract award. These
requirements include system engineering studies for system
architecture and system security issues, a requirement to integrate
BLM's remaining older personal computers and local area networks with
the new ALMRS/Modernization systems, changes to more easily
accommodate land record automation requirements of other Interior
bureaus and federal agencies, and more training for users and
technical staff.
In addition, the ALMRS/Modernization project office now believes that
operations and maintenance costs in fiscal years 1997 through 2002
will be more than the OMB and BLM funding agreement for that
category. BLM is currently working on a new operations and
maintenance estimate.
PROGRESS ON THE DEVELOPMENT AND
IMPLEMENTATION OF
ALMRS/MODERNIZATION
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :3
BLM has completed most of the initial installation of computer and
telecommunications equipment and has met most of its ALMRS IOC, GCDB,
and rehost milestones thus far. As the ALMRS IOC development nears
completion over the next several months, tasks will become more
complex as the system is integrated and tested. BLM has taken action
to maintain its tight development schedule, but slippages could still
occur because there is little schedule time available to correct
unanticipated problems. Also, BLM has recently taken action to
obtain an independent assessment of the ALMRS IOC to help ensure that
its requirements are met.
STATUS OF DEVELOPMENT AND
IMPLEMENTATION
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :3.1
BLM has been meeting most of its schedule milestones for the initial
installation of ALMRS IOC and modernization computer and
telecommunications hardware. Thus far, BLM has installed (1) a mix
of ALMRS IOC, office automation, E-mail, GIS servers, and
telecommunications equipment primarily in eight state offices and
their subordinate district and resource area offices and (2) about
4,400 of the planned 6,073 workstations in these offices. The Bureau
plans to install 730 more workstations and other equipment in fiscal
year 1995 at the Idaho and Utah state offices, their subordinate
offices, and a support office.
However, initial hardware installation for Alaska and Wyoming state
and subordinate offices has been delayed because of a shortage of
hardware funds in fiscal year 1995, according to ALMRS/Modernization
project officials. BLM recently rescheduled the installation of
servers and 951 workstations for these locations to fiscal year 1996.
The collection and validation of land and mineral data for ALMRS IOC
are on schedule for all ten state offices. The land and mineral data
files are to be converted to INFORMIX after the installation and
testing of final hardware upgrades and ALMRS IOC software.
The development of ALMRS IOC software, which BLM divided into three
phases or "builds," is currently on schedule. Build 1, which
consists of about 46,000 lines of code, was developed and
successfully tested on time. BLM and the prime contractor have been
working on about 124,000 lines of code for build 2. They expect to
complete the software integration test\6 for build 2 on September 12,
1995. BLM and the prime contractor estimate that about 120,000 lines
of code will be developed in build 3 to complete the ALMRS IOC
software. The software produced in builds 1, 2, and 3 will be
integrated to form ALMRS IOC.
As to the GCDB component, nine state offices are meeting or are ahead
of the data collection milestones set in 1993. One state office,
Montana, is behind schedule. The final test of the software to
convert existing data files to INFORMIX is scheduled to be completed
by January 12, 1996. BLM plans to convert the GCDB data files when
ALMRS IOC is deployed in each state office.
Finally, the administrative systems rehost effort is on schedule with
all 13 of the planned software applications and related databases
converted from COBOL to INFORMIX. Three of these applications have
been rehosted to the ALMRS/ Modernization equipment and are
operational, one is in the process of being rehosted, six have been
tested and accepted and will be rehosted, and three have undergone
testing and are expected to be accepted soon. According to the
Deputy Project Manager, BLM plans to update the systems before
deploying them to satisfy users' change requests that were held in
abeyance while the systems were being converted to INFORMIX.
Figure 2 shows future milestones for the software integration tests
of builds 2 and 3, qualification test for ALMRS IOC (functionality
and integration), acceptance of ALMRS IOC, and final installation of
ALMRS IOC hardware upgrades and software. As the ALMRS/Modernization
nears the final testing and implementation stages, the project work
will become more complex and the schedule more demanding. The final
tests will include assessing the ALMRS IOC software to determine
whether it meets design specifications, software units properly
interface with other units, software responds correctly and
consistently to users, and hardware and software operate as expected
at pilot sites and under various levels of workload. As with all
development efforts, the actual performance of the new software
systems will not be known until they are completed, fully tested, and
deployed.
Figure 2: ALMRS IOC Testing
and Final Installation
Milestones
(See figure in printed
edition.)
Note: The milestones for final installation of ALMRS IOC were
recently rescheduled by BLM to fiscal year 1997 because of an
anticipated funding reduction for fiscal year 1996.
--------------------
\6 A software integration test, which is typically conducted after
software units have been successfully tested individually, is used to
determine whether software units meet design specifications, properly
interface with other software units, perform correctly under load,
and respond correctly to user and data errors.
STATUS OF
ALMRS/MODERNIZATION PROJECT
SCHEDULE
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :3.2
Developing realistic project schedules is critical to managing the
successful development of large software systems. The General
Services Administration has found that setting realistic project
schedules is one of the ten most important factors in successfully
developing large, complex federal computer systems.\7
ALMRS/Modernization project officials and an Interior Senior
Technical Analyst stated that the milestones were not based on an
assessment of the time and resources needed, but instead were based
on the need to complete the project by the end of fiscal year
1996--the deadline established in the OMB and BLM agreement.
Nevertheless, project officials said they have been committed to
completing the development and deployment of ALMRS as scheduled.
Our analysis of the project schedule showed that several critical
milestones are very close together with little recovery time
available to deal with unanticipated problems that may be
encountered. Therefore, slippages in the ALMRS/Modernization
development and testing schedule could occur and impact project cost
and completion plans. Similarly, slippages in the deployment of
ALMRS IOC and database conversions could also impact project costs
and completion plans because of the short installation periods
scheduled for each state. As shown in table 1, BLM was allowing only
15 to 20 working days to perform the final installation of ALMRS IOC
and convert databases in each state.
Table 1
ALMRS IOC Installation Schedule
IOC Installation Site Scheduled Duration
---------------------------------------- ----------------------------
New Mexico 20 days
Montana 15 days
Utah 15 days
Nevada 15 days
Arizona 15 days
Idaho 15 days
Colorado 15 days
Wyoming 15 days
Eastern States 15 days
Oregon 15 days
Alaska 15 days
California 15 days
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ALMRS/Modernization project officials and an Interior Senior
Technical Analyst agreed that both the development and testing
milestones and deployment and database conversion milestones are very
tight with little tolerance for slippages. Interior and BLM have
been taking a number of actions to closely monitor the project status
and schedule to avoid slippages. Interior Information Resources
Management (IRM) officials have been conducting periodic oversight
reviews and have required project officials to address project
schedule issues. BLM has also established a consolidated project
schedule that includes BLM's and the prime contractor's tasks to
estimate and monitor the entire project schedule. Finally, BLM
advanced the date for the software integration test for build 2 to
provide additional time to deal with any unexpected problems.
BLM recently revised the installation schedule because of an
anticipated reduction in funding for fiscal year 1996. Specifically,
the Bureau rescheduled the final ALMRS IOC installation and database
conversions from fiscal year 1996 to 1997.
--------------------
\7 An Evaluation of the Grand Design Approach to Developing Computer
Based Application Systems (U.S. General Services Administration,
Information Resources Management Service, September 1988).
RECENT ACTION TO VERIFY AND
VALIDATE ALMRS IOC
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :3.3
Verification and validation of software is widely accepted and
advocated by Federal Information Processing Standards Publication
132.\8 Verification and validation is a formal process to assess the
products of each system's life-cycle phase, including concept,
requirements, design, testing, implementation and installation, and
operations and maintenance. Typically, the assessments are performed
by someone not involved in developing the software to help ensure
that the software meets the organization's requirements, that
software development and maintenance costs will not escalate
unexpectedly, and that software quality is acceptable.
Recently, project officials decided to obtain an independent
verification and validation of ALMRS IOC software in response to
direction from the House Committee on Appropriations. This action
should help ensure that the software meets BLM's stated requirements
and provides the support expected from this mission-critical system.
--------------------
\8 Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 132,
Guideline for Software Verification and Validation Plans, National
Bureau of Standards, Department of Commerce.
ALMRS/MODERNIZATION STRESS TEST
PLANS NOT ADEQUATE
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :4
Stress testing automated systems before deploying them is a common
industry practice. Such testing is done to ensure that the entire
system will successfully process workloads expected during peak
operating periods and determine the point at which major system
resources (e.g., servers, workstations, storage devices, and local
and wide area networks) will be exhausted.
BLM plans to perform a 30-day acceptance test of the ALMRS IOC at
pilot sites to assess functionality and performance in an operational
setting. During this period, BLM also plans to stress test the ALMRS
IOC (i.e., state and district office ALMRS IOC servers, terminals,
and workstations) in a network environment. If ALMRS IOC performs
successfully at the end of the test, BLM will accept and install it
throughout all of its offices.
However, BLM's stress-test plans cover only the ALMRS IOC. The plans
do not examine how the entire ALMRS/Modernization-- including ALMRS
IOC, office automation, E-mail, administrative systems, and various
departmental, state, and district applications in a network
environment--will perform under peak workload conditions. While
ALMRS IOC is the largest and most significant component in the
initial deployment of BLM's modernization effort, other systems and
applications are expected to place considerable demand on the
ALMRS/Modernization computer systems and communications networks. By
limiting the stress testing to ALMRS IOC, BLM will deploy the
ALMRS/Modernization nationwide without knowing whether it can perform
as intended during peak workloads.
CONCLUSIONS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :5
To date, the Bureau has been completing most of the project tasks
according to the schedule milestones established in 1993. However,
the project schedule could slip because there is little time
available to deal with unexpected problems. Further, over the next
several months, BLM and the prime contractor will be working on the
more difficult tasks of completing, integrating, and testing ALMRS
IOC.
BLM's recent action to obtain independent verification and validation
of ALMRS IOC software should help ensure that BLM's requirements are
met. However, the Bureau's plan to stress test the ALMRS IOC portion
of the modernized system is not sufficient. Stress testing only a
portion of the modernized system will not provide assurance that all
of the systems and technology to be deployed can successfully process
the workloads expected during peak operating periods.
RECOMMENDATION
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :6
We recommend that the Director, BLM, ensure that the entire
ALMRS/Modernization is thoroughly stress tested before it is deployed
throughout the Bureau.
AGENCY COMMENTS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :7
In commenting on a draft of this report, BLM stated that it agreed
with our conclusions and recommendation. The Bureau said it now
plans to stress test the entire ALMRS/ Modernization to ensure that
all systems and technology can process the workloads expected during
peak operating conditions. As previously noted, the Bureau said it
has contracted for an independent verification and validation of the
ALMRS IOC software in response to direction by the House Committee on
Appropriations to perform a verification and validation test.
BLM also suggested some clarifications and provided additional
information for our report. We have incorporated these suggestions
and information as appropriate.
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :7.1
As arranged with your offices, unless you publicly announce the
contents of this report earlier, we plan no further distribution
until 30 days from the date of this letter. At that time, we will
provide copies to the Secretary of the Interior; the Director, Bureau
of Land Management; the Director, Office of Management and Budget;
and interested congressional committees. We will also make copies
available to others upon request.
Please call me at (202) 512-6253 if you or your staff have any
questions concerning this report. Other major contributors are
listed in appendix III.
Joel C. Willemssen
Director, Information Resources
Management/Resources, Community,
and Economic Development
SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
=========================================================== Appendix I
To ascertain BLM's progress in developing and implementing the
ALMRS/Modernization, we reviewed ALMRS/Modernization project
documents, DOI reports, a Department of the Treasury report, BLM
studies on ALMRS/Modernization project development, General Services
Administration IRM publications, Federal Information Processing
Standards Publication 132, OMB Circular A-130, and GAO reports on
large-scale systems development projects. We also attended
departmental project reviews at the ALMRS/Modernization project
office in Lakewood, Colorado, and reviewed the minutes of four prior
project reviews.
We discussed the planned capabilities of the system, technical
complexity, and development progress with prime contractor officials,
a DOI Senior Technical Analyst, and ALMRS/Modernization project
officials responsible for systems engineering, software development,
and project management. We also discussed with ALMRS/Modernization
project officials and BLM Headquarters officials the planning and
development history of ALMRS/Modernization, testing plans, and
efforts to follow industry practices. We analyzed project milestones
against current progress, and reviewed the remaining tasks for their
complexity.
We reviewed and analyzed ALMRS/Modernization project estimates and
fiscal year 1996 budget justifications and documentation. We also
compared BLM's fiscal year 1996 budget request for the
ALMRS/Modernization with its cost estimate for fiscal year 1996. We
reviewed BLM's options paper for ALMRS/Modernization operations and
maintenance funding through fiscal year 2001 and discussed it with
the ALMRS/Modernization Deputy Project Manager and the project budget
analyst. We interviewed ALMRS/Modernization project officials and a
Department Senior Technical Analyst on ALMRS/Modernization total
project budget and milestones. Budget estimates were collected from
the ALMRS/Modernization Deputy Project Manager, budget analysts, and
other BLM Headquarters representatives. These estimates were
confirmed by the Department's IRM office; however, we did not
independently verify the accuracy of the estimates.
Our work was performed between March 1995 and August 1995, in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. We
performed our work at the Department's IRM headquarters and BLM
headquarters in Washington, D.C., and at the ALMRS/Modernization
Project Office and prime contractor's office in Lakewood, Colorado.
We requested comments on a draft of this report from the Director,
Bureau of Land Management. In response, we received comments from
the Chief, Office of Information Resources Management/Modernization,
Bureau of Land Management. We have incorporated these comments as
appropriate.
ALMRS/MODERNIZATION ARCHITECTURE
OVERVIEW
========================================================== Appendix II
The ALMRS/Modernization system--slated for deployment at
approximately 200 BLM sites around the country--is to be implemented
on a common information technology platform. The platform will be
composed of servers, terminals, workstations, switching hubs,
multiplexers, modems, and firewalls interconnected via local, state,
and national-level networks. As planned, the ALMRS environment will
initially support existing automated systems, including legacy local
area networks and microcomputers.
BLM expects that a typical state office installation will consist of
several servers supporting major application groups--ALMRS IOC and
related databases, office automation applications, GIS applications
and related GCDB databases, and E-mail. A typical state office is to
provide land and mineral resource data through the state ALMRS IOC
server to district and resource area offices. State offices are to
be interconnected via a Department of the Interior network. Each
district or resource area office is to have its own GIS and office
automation servers.
BLM users are to access applications via terminals and workstations
interconnected through the local, state, and DOI networks. The
public is to have access to selected ALMRS information in public
access rooms equipped with stand-alone ALMRS IOC servers and
terminals. The public access systems are expected to be isolated
from the state and district office ALMRS IOC systems for security
purposes.
BLM is also planning to provide connections to the Internet. The
Bureau plans to protect each state office with a firewall system--a
security device designed to protect the BLM systems from intrusion by
hackers.
Figure II.1 shows a high-level overview of the ALMRS/Modernization
environment.
Figure II.1: Overview of
ALMRS/Modernization Environment
(See figure in printed
edition.)
MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS REPORT
========================================================= Appendix III
ACCOUNTING AND INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT DIVISION, WASHINGTON,
D.C.
David G. Gill, Assistant Director
Mirko J. Dolak, Technical Assistant Director
Marcia C. Washington, Senior Information Systems Analyst
*** End of document. ***