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Association of Data Processing Managers

Meeting Agenda

Arnold's Restaurant
September 2, 1982
12:00 Noon

1. Introduction of Guests

2. Presentation of Guest Speaker

3. Approval of Minutes

4. Treasurer's Report

5. ADPM Board Report

6. DPA Announcements

7. Old Business

- Personnel Liaison

- Office Automation

- Forum '82

8. New Business

9. Correspondence

10. Other Comments

11. Adjourn

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Article

Agenda of September 2, 1982 Meeting 

A New Year Begins 

Minutes of July 8, 1982 Meeting 

Note: The following three sections are not included here:

• Human Resource Development Belvedere
• Data Structured System Development
• Data Structure Decomposition

List of Directors, Officers, Committees, Subcommittees, other DP/OA Committees

Membership/Mailing List - July 14, 1982

A NEW YEAR BEGINS

With this issue of the ADPM Newsletter, we begin another year with a new slate of officers, including a rookie newsletter editor. Further on in this edition, you will find a list of the Board of Directors; Officers; Committees and Committee members; Subcommittees and Subcommittee members., and other significant Committees on which the ADPM is represented.

Like all past newsletter editors I solicit any news- worthy article. Let's not leave Mike Brackett as the only contributor. Surely there is other activity of note out there in the community.

As always, we enter the new year facing the challenge of change. Some of the most senior of our peers, on whom we have relied for advice, counsel, and leadership, have left us--or will be leaving this year. And, a multitude of issues affecting our Community remains to be resolved. On us falls the responsibility for finding solutions

Your Newsletter Editor

Association of Data Processing Managers

MINUTES

July 8, 1982

The meeting was called to order by the Chairman, John Aikin.

Introduction of Guests:

Don Smith introduced three guests from Touche Ross -- Sena Williams, Doug Fay, and George Courlis. Tom Bennett introduced Wayne Hemphill of General Administration and Paul Smith of the University of Washington.

Guest Speaker:

Cliff Cotey introduced Jim Wilson. He is the Division Staff Manager for Planning with the Data Systems Division of Pacific Northwest Bell and Chairman of the DPA’s Acquisition Subcommittee. His topic was "Expectations of the DPA Acquisition Subcommittee."

Jim Wilson began by telling about his own background. He has been with the Bell System for 25 years and with data systems for the last 20 years. In Oregon he ran a large computer center, but since 1973 he has been located in Seattle with the Data Systems staff in various roles. He is currently Division Manager in charge of planning. He additionally has three application groups working for him developing and implementing fairly large systems. He is one of four division managers who work in an organization of about 1,200 people. Their organization has responsibility for all of the data systems in Pacific Northwest Bell. Their budget for hardware and expenses for the current year is about $62 million.

In 1969 in Oregon he worked as the head of a task force looking at the organization of data systems in Oregon State. He sees the State of Washington in a completely different situation than he saw Oregon then.

Pacific Northwest Bell operates two centers -- one in Portland and one in Seattle. These centers run in a standard operating environment which is IBM software oriented. Growth is forcing the office to open a third center in Bellevue to which they will begin moving hardware in October of this year. Pacific Northwest Bell is a strongly centralized organization. 

Regarding the expectations of the Acquisitions Subcommittee, Jim went on to say, surprises in the area of acquisitions are always something to be avoided. In most cases, there should be no surprises because plans have been filed that say if agencies are probably going to be requiring additional capacity. That doesn't mean that plans can't change; because there are things that come along and circumstances change.

The Subcommittee also would like to see what applications are driving the need for the acquisition. It is a lot easier to understand the cost benefit analysis that says, "These applications are going to be worth these kinds of dollars"; or if it’s not dollars directly, it’s the advantages of the system that you want to implement. The easiest cost-benefit analysis to sell is one that says there are hard dollars to be saved.

Another thing they like to see is that you have looked at alternatives in providing the additional capacity you need. Alternatives might include deferring until the last possible minute. Don't let people suffer in order to save a couple dollars, because sometimes that's worse than spending the dollars up front and doing the implementation properly, but defer when you can. Look at not only the leading edge of the newest of technology, but also what1s available in the used market. One other alternative today is to look at where else in the state of Washington you might find the additional capacity. The committee is interested in seeing the state use the State's resources to the best of their ability.

Format of presentation is not really important. It's the substance and not the format that is most important. It's very helpful if you are present at the committee meeting. Give a broad overview and let the committee ask some questions. The Data Processing Authority should be helping to implement the systems that are really going to do the State the job that it can do.

Question: What's the review and approval process for acquiring computers within Pacific Northwest Bell?

Answer: We have an Officer Committee of Non-Data Processing Executives. Every time that we need to acquire additional hardware, we have to go before that group and sell the fact that we need the hardware.

In summary, those generally are the things that the Subcommittee is looking for. In the future, they will be looking more and more for a standard architecture between service centers and data centers. Network sharing and an architecture with the ability to share across centers is the tenor of the committee. Jim commented that the Ad-Hoc Planning Committee would like to let this association be in the lead and say what's practical and help tell the Authority what avenues are practical.

Question: You indicated that PNB is highly centralized. How does that temper your philosophy dealing with the State?

Answer: Oh, I'm sure that I always view acquisitions as centralized initially, but r don't think it is practical today to say that the State can ever reach that.

Question: John Aikin - The State likes to encourage competitive acquisition because we do not want to be seen in the position of favoring one vendor or another. It has always seemed inherent that there is some conflict between that desire for compatibility of data systems and the desire to have competitive acquisition. What is your thinking about that as a conflict and how that might be resolved?

Answer: I really believe the bulk of the Authority would be willing to say "let's get rid of this problem and look at where the state can save money." If vendors can't fit the chosen architecture, they're not going to be a part of the competitive process. That's my feeling. That would say that not everyone would be able to compete unless they could be a part of that architecture.

Question: Paul Newman - To your knowledge, have other states done that?

Answer: I really don't know the answer to that question.

Question: Jim Michal - You mentioned that your Acquisition Subcommittee is interested in seeing what's driving the acquisitions. Do you anticipate that your committee will become more involved in the applications systems area prior to the acquisition themselves or are you leaving that issue open?

Answer: I think gradually we're backing away from becoming involved in application development. One of the things we're saying is, if we have same kind of an architecture that we could all live with, then we would say that we are concerned that whatever you1re developing, you1d better be sure that it is going to fit that architecture. Having that architecture in place is a little way out, but it's something that we're thinking about.

Question: Paul Newman - To change slightly, do you see a resolution between the DPA and General Administration on the word processing/data processing hassle?

Answer: I would hope so. But I don't know where it is today. I guess it is up to Keith Angier and whoever the DPA staff director may be. Cliff was asking me about what we have done in our company to deal with this. We have the Data Systems Department in our company and what we call Administrative Services. Administrative Services saw office systems of the future coming up and they came to us and said, we want you people to help us pick them out ... because you're going to support that system ... that's going to be required. We now have a committee headed up by the Administrative Services department head, my boss, and another general planning manager. They are defining the functions that Administrative Services wants and the vendors that we ought to be looking at. We are not committed to any vendor, but we are working together to try to solve the problem. I would like to think the State could do that.

This Association could come up with a policy or just a direction that you would like to see pursued.

Question: Terry Wold -"I wanted to preface my question with a statement that one of the bright spots in my tenure has been working with the private sector members of the DPA. The state's been fortunate to have the quality of people like Jim and others that we have had. It's amazing the amount of time and effort that you have put into this. What motivates you to do that and hang in there through the trials and tribulations of state government?"

Answer: I guess there are a couple of reasons. I really enjoy working with the people. Another thing is getting a different perspective on data systems. You know my thinking is so "bell-shaped" today, that it's very helpful to get out and share some things with other people. And the last minor little thing, it's kind of a plus for me in my own company.

Jim closed by inviting ADPM members to feel free to call him to express concerns or share information.

BUSINESS MEETING

The minutes were approved with no changes.

Board Meeting Report - John Aikin

The Board met twice during the past month. The principle item of both meetings concerned the Ad Hoc Subcommittee. The Board is working actively with the Subcommittee to involve the Managers Association in some of the issues in a . much more direct fashion. They also discussed the programs for the year with. Cliff and the board agreed that issues of the day would be the focal point.

DPA Announcements - Jim Michal

·        Terry Wold has resigned to go on to greener pastures in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

·        The DPA has lost Mary Jansen, the full-time secretary. A temporary secreatry has been hired.

·        Service Center 3 announced a rate change of 35 percent reduction for weekends.

·        Joe Coogan’s name has been submitted to the Governor's Office for distinguished service for averaging 1.5 days sick leave per year during his 13 year career.

·        EWU's long-range plan was approved.

·        DOT’s RFP was just recently issued and they will be issuing an RPF for a potential statewide contract for 9600 bit modems.

·        Service Center 1 has announced that they will be issuing a RFP for programmer work stations.

·        DNR has an RPF for a geographic coding system.

·        Department of Corrections got approval at the staff level for 35 terminals. . DOL got approval for 52 terminals for county auditors.

·        WLN and SC2 made a joint presentation regarding a facilities management contract wherein WLN would acquire a computer to be managed by SC2.

OLD BUSINESS

Office Automation - Tom Bennett

Some vendors whose contracts do not meet with the approval of GA in their terms and conditions avoid going through the GA approval for office equipment by adding a port which could later be used for communications. Therefore the equipment is called data processing equipment and is being routed up to the data processing management for approval. One vendor gives discounts to state government but the trade-off is that there is no warranty as to the performance of the equipment or the software. Watch for such things.

Fall Forum - Joe Coogan

The topic chosen is: Tools to Enhance Systems Development.

Ad Hoc Subcommittee - Dennis Jones

The Ad Hoc Subcommittee of the DPA not only endorsed the ADPM's proposal, but added to it asking that we broaden its scope, to look at the Systems Development Standard, the Cost Benefit Standard, and the Language Standard, and come back to them with recommendations as to changes or what we thought would be a more appropriate set of standards. The Board met and agreed that this would be a good project for the association to take on. A subcommittee of the board consisting of Dennis Jones, Bob Payne, and Ron Pierce has been formed, and the DPA has been asked to appoint someone to work on that subcommittee. The purpose of that group would be, not to do the work, but to coordinate and make sure that the work gets done and to report back to the DPA Ad Hoc Subcommittee. Dennis moved that the Association of Data Processing Managers endorse the project. The motion was seconded. There was no discussion. The motion carried.

John Aikin added that the board will be hoping for members to be willing to work on the three tasks: (1) The review of the systems approval methodology, (2) The language standard; and (3) The systems development standard. Contact one of the three board members on the subcommittee if you are interested in working on that particular project. John commented, "We really have been given an opportunity here to do what we have said we ought to be doing all along. That is letting the people who know something about what's going on in data processing have something to say about how it1s done. So we really better do it and we better be prepared to invest the effort to do it right."

NEW BUSINESS

Presentation of Plaques - John Aikin

John presented plaques to Will Wolfe and Twila Perry who completed terms on the ADPM board this year.

ADPM Board Membership

Bill Lundberg was elected to the board but took another position, not in data processing.. The board recommends that since the terms do not begin until this month, we simply ratify the next name on the ballot, Twila Perry. There were no objections. Twila will serve a one-year term.

At its last meeting', the board elected officers for the coming year. Rick Stablein was elected as the scribe and Dick Applestone as chairman. John turned the gavel over to Appy. Appy took the gavel and commented that the Board and the ADPM have really been well represented in the chairmanship with John. John was given a round of applause. The meeting was adjourned.

ASSOCIATION OF DATA PROCESSING MANAGERS

List Of DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, COMMITTEES, SUBCOMMITTEES, OTHER DP/OA COMMITTEES

July 1, 1982

ADPM BOARD OF DIRECTORS

John Aikin, Chairman                TESC   TA-OO            866-6232

Rick Stablein, Member             SC/5    KF-OI              3-2628

Bob Payne, Member                WLN   AJ-ll                 459-6526

Dick Applestone, Member        ESD     KG-II              3-1529

Dennis Jones                            OFM   AL-OI               3-4562

Ron Pierce                               DRS     ES-ll                 4-2426

Twila Perry                               GA       AX-22             4-1904

ADPM OFFICERS

Cliff Cotey                                WDPSC EB-OI           3-4360
          Program Chairman

Sunny Schomburg                     CPSE   EW-ll               3-1148
          Secretary/Treasurer

Galen Schmidke                       Thurs. Co. FQ-ll           753-8008
         Newsletter Editor            Central Services

COMMITTEES

PERSONNEL LIAISON

0FFICE AUT0MATION

(Deactivated 6/22/81)

ADP FORUM

PLANNING CONFERENCE

ADP SUB-C0MMITTEES

COMPARABLE WORTH

EXAMS, PANEL MEMBERS & REVIEW

D. P. PROFESSIONAL SERIES

SPECIFIC REGISTER REVIEW

D. P. MANAGERS MATRIX, POST- IMPLEMENTATION REVIEW

ISR TASK FORCE SYSTEMS - DEVELOPMENT DECISIONS

Dave Scheibe, Chair  SC/5  KF-Ol   3-2949

OTHER COMMITTEES

( Non - A D P M )

COMMITTEES & MEMBERS

HRD DP ADVISORY (Training)

 OFFICE AUTOMATION TECHNICAL COMMITTEE (OATC)

Notes:

1) Sharon is the appointed ADPM representative to the HRD DP Advisory Committee.

2) Tom is the appointed ADPM representative to the OATC.