Behind the Curtain at TCG

We like it when the government saves money

TCG has a corporate goal of saving the US taxpayer $1 billion by 2016, by improving how government works. So we love it when we see news like this, showing how the government is saving $100 million in budget cuts for FY 2009 and $140 million for FY 2010 by using a little tangential thinking and a sharpened pencil.

We've established how TCG's staff and projects have saved the government over $164 million so far, and that number is rising every quarter. Pretty soon we're going to publish the details of some of those savings, and they mirror the kinds of things mentioned in this article -- distributing documents electronically, switching to more cost-efficient resources, and so on.

If you have ideas for how we can help the government save our taxpayer dollars while meeting the goals of the administration, let us know in the comments below!

NGMA calling for ARRA articles

The National Grants Management Association (NGMA) publishes a peer-reviewed bi-annual journal on a wide variety of grants management topics. They're currently seeking new articles from the community. Here's their information release:

Call for Articles -- American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
The Editorial Review Committee is seeking articles for the next issue of the bi-annual Journal that are relevant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Prior to preparing or submitting an article, prospective authors are asked to contact Judy Hoanshelt, Journal Editor, at 305.807.8647 or at judyhoanshelt@aol.com. Style, stipend information and submission guidelines are located on the NGMA Website at www.ngma.org. Articles should be received by August 1, 2009.

The NGMA Journal is a one-of-a-kind publication edited specifically for grants management professionals, peer reviewed and mailed to members twice annually. Articles deal in great length with specific grants management matters.

Grants.gov GAO report news links

GAO's recent report about Grants.gov has garnered a lot of coverage across the web and in print. Here are some of the links I've been following:

• Senators, GAO Criticize Grants.gov [National Journal]
  
• GAO: Grants.gov has serious weaknesses [Federal Computer Week]
  
• GAO: Grant application portal littered with technical problems [NextGov]
  
• GAO: Federal Grants Web Site Shows 'Weaknesses' [InformationWeek Government]
  

In addition, FederalNewsRadio reposts Grants.gov's retraction regarding the system's incompatibility with the Firefox web browser. Grants.gov can indeed be used with Firefox. I was surprised that the opposite had ever been considered true; I and thousands of others have been using Firefox for years and never encountered a major problem with Grants.gov. Anyway, it's good that this is clarified now.

ARRA grantee webcasts now scheduled

Following up from an earlier post, I see that NGMA has announced the ARRA training provided by OMB:

July 20, 2009

• 10:00am - 12:00pm SECTION 1 - General Information
• 2:00pm - 4:00pm SECTION 2 - Basic Principles and Requirements of Recovery Act Recipient Reporting ; SECTION 5 - Reporting on Jobs Creation Estimates by Recipients

July 21, 2009

• 10:00am - 12:00pm SECTION 3 - Recipient Reporting Process
• 2:00pm - 4:00pm Technology Solution from an Agency Perspective

July 22, 2009

• 10:00am - 12:00pm Technology Solution from a Prime Recipient Perspective
• 2:00pm - 4:00pm Technology Solution from a Sub- Recipient Perspective

July 23, 2009

• 10:00am - 12:00pm SECTION 4 - Data Quality Requirements
  

Go to http://www.recovery.gov/?q=node/658 to register.

A Rising Star is among us - congratulations to Rich Renomeron!

One of TCG's senior technical staff, Rich Renomeron, has been honored as a 2009 Rising Star by 1105 Government Information Group, publisher of Federal Computer Week, Washington Technology, and other government IT industry publications. From the announcement...

Now in its fourth year, the awards program honors up-and-coming employees in the public and private sectors who have made an early — and substantive — mark in the government information technology community.

Supervisors or co-workers nominate individuals for the awards, and a distinguished panel of judges chooses the winners. This year’s judges selected 28 individuals from more than 160 nominations.

The winners will be spotlighted next month in the print and online editions of Federal Computer Week, Government Computer News and Washington Technology. The winners will also be recognized at the GCN Awards Gala on Oct. 22. Look for an invitation to that event in the weeks ahead.

Rich was nominated because of his outstanding work supporting the MAX Federal Community and other budget formulation and execution projects. Rich is an ideal example of how someone devoted to technical excellence can make a significant difference in government IT by thoroughly comprehending and tailoring solutions to specific business needs. His ability to manage a complex and high-performing team, with all of the technical and personal skills that requires, is a testament to his important role for his client and his suitability for recognition as a Rising Star.

Have I moved to California?

Grants.gov held its latest webcast (I believe) at 1pm today. So how come I got an e-mail inviting me to attend that webcast at 1.44pm?

Answers in the comments, please...

GAO releases new Grants.gov report; recommends changes

Today GAO has released a report called "Grants.gov Has Systemic Weaknesses That Require Attention"; you can grab it here. The report highlights spell out some serious flaws in the governance, funding, design, and operation of Grants.gov, which are reasonably well known by now.

There's lots to digest in this report but I found two comments in the report particularly interesting:

[Page 32:] "If grantees remain isolated from the development of systems and policies that directly affect them, the systems and policies will be less effective, and opportunities to better streamline the application process will be missed."

[Page 34, in OMB/HHS's response to the report:] "Given where Grants.gov is in its useful life cycle, OMB staff said that they do not foresee any system changes beyond those needed to keep the system stable and operational, and that Grants.gov should be in an operations and maintenance mode until requirements for a new system are developed. OMB staff also provided technical comments that were incorporated as appropriate."

The former quote echoes what grantees (and many agencies) have been saying for years: how can you make it better if you can't listen to what we're saying needs to be fixed?

The second quote is especially interesting because this is the first time I've seen a government body state that a new Grants.gov is likely to be built. Yes, Grants.gov itself talked about moving to the cloud; I think this quote effectively admits that moving the existing system anywhere could be a colossal waste of resources. And, yes, GSA is developing a pilot right now, but that's always been portrayed as a pilot. "Replace Grants.gov?" they say rhetorically. "Oooh, I don't know about that. This is just a pilot! Just a pilot. Just a teensy-weensy $600,000 pilot. Replace Grants.gov? P-shaw!"

GAO's own conclusions don't seem to reflect the possibility of a new system being developed. Rather, they focus on governance and performance management changes. These are important and should be implemented now and persisted in the future. But GAO doesn't go so far as to follow HHS's lead in suggesting that Grants.gov should be built anew. So the question now is: What's next?

[Update 7/16/09 14:43: Jason Miller has posted a story on this for Federal News Radio, here.]

NGMA offering federal grants online training

It's late on a Friday, so of course I'm posting grants management news to the blog. What? You mean you don't post information about the business of grants at the start of the weekend?!

Anyway, the NGMA announced earlier this week that, in collaboration with Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP, they are offering these online training courses:

• How to Compete for Recovery Act Dollars and Avoid Common Mistakes Along the Way (Wednesday, July 29, 2009, 1:30pm-3:00pm EST)
• Reporting Requirements Under Section 1512 of the Recovery Act (Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 1:30pm-3:00pm EST)

To sign up, go to www.ngma.org.

OMB ARRA guidance webinars in two weeks

As posted over at the NGP blog...

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Recovery, Accountability and Transparency Board have announced that webinars will be held the week of July 20,2009 to provide information on implementing the guidance set forth in OMB Memorandum M-09-21, Implementing Guidance for the Reports on Use of Funds Pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that was released on June 22, 2009.

Recipients of the ARRA grants should visit http://www.recovery.gov/?q=node/658 to view the webinar schedules and to register. Participation is limited so interested recipients and agencies should register early.

Each webinar will focus on a major section of the Guidance as well as on the technology solution. The intended audience for these webinars includes Federal agency personnel, prime recipients and sub-recipients.

For your reference, OMB’s Implementing Guidance for the Reports on Use of Funds Pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is available at the following links (the memo and two supplemental documents):

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda_fy2009/m09-21.pdf
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda_fy2009/m09-21-supp1.pdf
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda_fy2009/m09-21-supp2.pdf

Importing Microsoft Project into GForge 4.6 (Open Source Version)

With the latest open source version of GForge (4.6), thanks to a new CSV import system and a little bit of work (a custom export map and Perl script) you can now import a Microsoft Project file into GForge!

Step 1: Prepare and Export the Project File

First, you need to prepare and export your data:

• Resources names need to match the system names of users in GForge
• Each task can have at most 5 resources and 5 dependencies

Next you need to create a custom export map.  For Project 2003, go to "File/Save as...", select "CSV" for "Save as Type:" and specify a file name (for our example "project.csv").  This will start the Export Wizard.  Under map options, select "Tasks" as the type of data, check "Export includes headers", and select the comma as the text delimiter.  Then for Task Mapping include the following Project Fields in this order:

• ID,
  
• Outline Level ("Outline_Level"),
  
• Name,
  
• Duration,
  
• Work ("Scheduled_Work"),
• Start ("Start_Date"),
• Finish ("Finish_Date"),
• % Complete ("Percent_Complete"),
• Priority
• Notes
• Resource Names ("Resource_Names"),
• Predecessors

then save the file.

Step 2: Convert to GForge's Import Format

Assuming you have Perl, Text:CSV, and Date::Parse, please download and save the script MPPToGForge.pl .

Then run the script on your Project export file:

MPPToGForge.pl project.csv > gforge.csv

This will convert your MS Project export file into a GForge import file named "gforge.csv".  (Feel free to open the result in Excel and compare against GForge's list of columns for import).

Step 3: Import into GForge

Use the "Import CSV" option in the task manager to import the newly converted CSV file "gforge.csv".  I strongly suggest you import it into a new "subproject" in the task manager to avoid deleting any existing tasks.

Enjoy!