NASA Procedures and Guidelines
This Document is Obsolete and Is No Longer Used. Check the NODIS Library to access the current version: http://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov
NPR 9130.1 Eff. Date: September 30, 2008 Cancellation Date:	NASA Financial Information Systems
| TOC | Preface | Chapter1 | Chapter2 | Chapter3 | Chapter4 | AppendixA | AppendixB | ALL |

Chapter 4. System Development And Change Management

4.1 Overview

4.1.1 This chapter sets forth NASA policy to jointly manage system development and changes through a formal collaborative effort of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Information Officer (CIO), and Integrated Enterprise Management Program (IEMP). Business processes change and need improvement requiring new development and changes to existing system architecture, technology, and processes. Communication and partnership between the CFO, CIO, and IEMP in planning for new systems, upgrades, and changes is critical to assure business goals are met by software and technology performance. The CFO and IEMP must bring changing business requirements into the planning process so the CIO will know to integrate financial management requirements into overall enterprise architecture planning.

4.2 Agency Requirements

4.2.1 The addition of new or proposed changes to existing NASA CFO policies, processes, operations, and systems must be approved in accordance with CFO Governance. The CFO Governance Structure is defined as follows:

a. Financial Executive Round Table

b. Financial Steering Group

c. Financial Process Teams

4.2.2 The Financial Executive Round Table is responsible to review and approve the addition of new or proposed changes to existing CFO policy, processes, and systems/requirements.

4.2.3 The Financial Steering Group is responsible to develop/concur on recommendations to be presented to the Financial Executive Round Table for approval, and to support the CFO with the implementation of approved actions/decisions made by the Financial Executive Round Table. If the course of action has systems implications, then the Financial Steering Group should coordinate with IEMP to ensure the development of requirements are consistent with CIO standards.

4.2.4 Financial Process Teams are responsible to coordinate with the Financial Steering Group for the development of new or proposed changes to CFO policy, processes, and systems/requirements efforts. The Financial Process Teams consists of financial subject matter experts (SMEs) from across the Agency.

4.2.5 The IEMP Competency Center exists to deliver an integrated customer support function that consolidates the majority of the application support elements for NASA.

4.2.6 Service Level Agreement (SLA) formally quantifies consistent performance expectations associated with the use of the delivered Core Financial application. It is an agreement between the IEMP CC and the Financial Steering Committee, acting as a proxy for the NASA user community. It defines the roles and responsibilities performed by the IEMP CC, Center, and Agency organizations as well as service level commitments and associated performance standards and definitions.

4.2.7 All financial system change requests, which are approved via the IEMP, but do not require CFO approval, are screened by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) to ensure that changes needing CFO concurrence are presented to the CFO for concurrence.

4.2.8 Within the OCFO, the Business Integration, Financial Management, Quality Assurance and Budget Divisions are the primary users and stakeholders of the Core Financial system. The Business Integration Division, Systems Integration Branch is responsible for managing changes that have cleared the governance process. Business Integration is accountable for ensuring that service requests are reviewed and implemented in a way that meets federal policy requirements and is in line with NASA's financial and operational goals.

4.2.9 The NASA CIO has the responsibility for ensuring that NASA's information assets are acquired and managed consistent with federal policies, procedures, and legislation. The Office of the Chief Information Officer's (OCIO) primary office for implementing changes to Core Financial is the IEMP.

4.2.10 Fiscal Year-End Close Testing and System Integration Testing is used to ensure that the NASA Core Financial system, Contract Management Module (CMM), and other related systems operate in accordance with the process design specifications for all business functions. This test covers business processes, system functions (standard and custom), application security, and user procedures & job aides. The test also helps to ensure that these aspects work together as an integrated whole. Competency Center is responsible to perform System Integration Testing (SIT 1, SIT 2 and SIT 3) in conjunction with OCFO headquarters and Centers. Test Scripts are developed and utilized by responsible parties to conduct SIT 1, SIT 2 and SIT 3 testing. Testing and Test results are validated and approved by assigned Point of Contacts (POCs) and Approvers in OCFO HQ and Centers.

4.2.11 Testing must include the points of integration between the system applications supporting Core Financial business functions.

a. Interfaces between SAP and CMM system

b. Interfaces between SAP and Metadata Management (MdM) system

c. Interfaces between SAP and Bankcard system

d. Interface between CMM and Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG)

e. Interfaces between SAP and Travel Manager

f. Interfaces between SAP and Fed Traveler

g. Interfaces between Fed Traveler and NASA Account Management System (NAMS)

h. Interfaces between NAMS and NASA Property Disposal (N-Prop)

i. Interfaces between SAP and Agency and Center application systems (e.g., NASA Supply Management System (NSMS), Advanced Materials Management System (AMMS), Contractor Held Asset Tracking System (CHATS))

j. Interfaces between SAP and third-party/external entities (e.g., Treasury, General Services Administration (GSA), Department of Interior)

(1) At a minimum, execution through the EAI integration tool

(2) Through to the third-party wherever this business partner or third-party entity has such test support capabilities

4.3 Roles and Responsibilities

4.3.1 Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Congress chartered the CFO with broad responsibilities for financial systems, making the CFO the key decision maker for managing and implementing changes to these systems. See Chapter 1.

4.3.2 Chief Information Officer (CIO). The CIO's focus is primarily with the technical aspects of NASA financial systems. OMB and Congress chartered the CIO to provide the leadership, vision, communication, coordination, and innovation necessary to maximize government effectiveness in using information technology. The NASA CIO is the key decision maker for technical judgments concerning financial systems. The CIO implements systems development and systems maintenance and support initiatives through the IEMP CC which coordinates with systems owners and user in the OCFO organization and NASA users in Centers and Headquarters. See Chapter 1.

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