United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Accounting and Information Management Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1998-06-19 monographic deposited born digital 29 p. GA 1.13:AIMD-98-136 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-136 P0b002ee1803946ab f:ai98136 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-136 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-136 AIMD-98-136 Computer software verification and validation Federal social security programs Information resources management Systems conversions Claims processing Local area networks SSA Year 2000 Program Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance Program SSA Reengineered Disability Program Social Security Program Letter Report AIMD 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.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) SSA has moved aggressively in installing intelligent workstations and LANs since initiating IWS/LAN acquisitions in December 1996; (2) as of mid-March 1998, it had completed the installation of about 31,000 workstations and 850 LANs, generally meeting its implementation schedule for phase I of the initiative; (3) the contractor that is installing IWS/LAN has expressed concerns about the future availability of the intelligent workstations that SSA is acquiring; (4) problems encountered in developing software intended to operate on IWS/LAN could affect SSA's planned schedule for proceeding with phase II of this initiative; (5) staff in SSA offices generally reported no significant disruptions in their ability to serve the public during the installation and operation of their IWS/LAN equipment; (6) some state DDSs reported that SSA's decision to manage and control DDS networks remotely and the IWS/LAN contractor's inadequate responses to DDS' service calls have led to disruptions in some of their operations; (7) because IWS/LAN is expected to correct year 2000 deficiencies in some states' hardware, delaying the installation of IWS/LAN could affect states' progress in becoming year 2000 compliant; (8) consistent with the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 and Office of Management and Budget guidance, SSA has followed some of the essential practices required to effectively manage its IWS/LAN investment; (9) SSA has not established essential practices for measuring IWS/LAN's contribution to improving the agency's mission performance; (10) although the agency has developed baseline data and performance measures that could be used to assess the project's impact on mission performance, it has not defined target performance goals or instituted a process for using the measures to assess the impact of IWS/LAN on mission performance; (11) SSA does not plan to conduct a post-implementation review of IWS/LAN once it is fully implemented; and (12) without targeted goals and a defined process for measuring performance both during and after the implementation of IWS/LAN, SSA cannot be assured of the extent to which this project is improving service to the public or that it is actually yielding the savings anticipated from this investment. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-136/html/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-136.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-136/pdf/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-136.pdf GAO/AIMD-98-136 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-AIMD-98-136 Letter Report GAO/AIMD-98-136; Social Security Administration: Technical and Performance Challenges Threaten Progress of Modernization; Computer software verification and validation Federal social security programs Information resources management Systems conversions Claims processing Local area networks SSA Year 2000 Program Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance Program SSA Reengineered Disability Program Social Security Program