Elements of Systems Modernization for the Social Security Administration (1991) / Chapter Skim
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4. Structuring the Organization
4. Structuring the Organization
Pages 35-48
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From page 35... ...
This chapter addresses how overall organizational structure relates to goals and functions and affects the agengy's technology organization and management, and it discusses the specifics of management systems and issues that the committee addressed during both phases of its review. RELATING STRUCTURE TO GOALS AND FUNCTIONS Commissioner King has set forth the SSA's primary goals, which will be used to guide the revision of the Agency Strategic Plan that is under way.
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From page 37... ...
Further review has shown that the operations sector equally needs access to OA functions, but these functions are being accomplished in an awkward technical manner using mainframe computer applications. This need was not foreseen in the original planning of automation support for the OASI programmatic functions performed by the Operations sector.
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From page 38... ...
As part of its review of SSA's technical organization and management, the committee examined five large commercial service organizations and found that each of . ~ ~ ~ ~ them nau a single ~no~vloual at the executive or senior vice president level, reporting to the chief executive officer, with responsibility for technology, telecommunications, and information resources management.
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From page 39... ...
Issues that have important implications for management policy, resource allocation, and technical management are discussed below. Management Policy Issues While the commissioner, as the chief executive of the SSA, bears the ultimate responsibility for formulating management policy, the committee agrees with the practice of many organizations to establish a formal mechanism for formulating management policy with the next subordinate layer of executives, in a board, council, or committee.
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From page 40... ...
Furthermore, the SSA's two technical organizations appear to set their respective priorities for human resource allocation (a separate budget line item) on a different basis.
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From page 41... ...
Therefore, this expense category will likely consume a larger part of the ITS budget and will consequently curtail discretionary procurements that in turn are needed to complement the systems development investments carried out under the labor budget line item. To mitigate this effect, certain on-going telephone expenses such as those for service to field offices, program service centers, and the SSA's headquarters complex may be retained in a mandatory category -- but the 800 number, including teleservice centers expenses, may be moved to the discretionary category, requiring annual approval in competition with other discretionary project requests.
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From page 42... ...
Rectifying this technical management disparity is clearly a task that remains to be done in the budgeting process. The committee recommends that the commissioner, and/or the chief financial officer, review the management aspects of the budgeting process to effectively tie together the approval systems of both the labor and Information Technology Systems budgets.
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From page 43... ...
A reason for the slow evolution is general scarcity of individuals with the high-level of expertise needed to assure software quality, which should equal the level of the developers. For this reason, most software-based organizations employ rigorous software engineering methods to assure that quality is built into the product.2 Another option would be to contract out to qualified software consultants for the equivalent of a quality assurance department.
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From page 44... ...
Technical Design The committee believes that the major technical issue at SSA is not centralization versus decentralization but rather how much decentralization makes sense. SSA currently maintains a large centralized client database, developed over many years to support its programs.
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From page 45... ...
Electronic down-loading over the telecommunications network offers such a means. Centralized network control and device management used in concert with a sound configuration management program will be necessary and vital technical management tools at the SSA in the future.
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From page 46... ...
For example, the committee found that, at the program service center in Richmond, California, where major telecommunications lines terminate, the local telese~v~ce center for the 800 number was located elsewhere. Effective systems integration management has been difficult to achieve at SSA as a direct consequence of the Operations/Management technical organization split.
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From page 47... ...
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