ADP ISSUES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00473A000400030003-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 15
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 30, 2001
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: February 3, 1977
• Content Type: MF

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OC M77-074
3 FE B 1977
DD/A Registry
DD/A Registry
File
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Administration
1. Your draft on the same subject, accompanying
DDA 77-0440, covers the salient points. You might also wish
to observe that the major components have developed simple
organizational techniques for dealing with substantive issues
as opposed to those situations in which one is merely a
customer of the other's service. For example, a BUS Communi-
cations Branch of the SAFE Project includes both OC and ODP
personnel. In addition, a joint ODP/OC Planning Committee
meets regularly to address those near-term planning problems
which involve both offices in the provision of timely service
to Agency customers.
2. The common functions of the three offices form a
very small proportion of the total services provided by the
three offices. To consolidate based on the perception that
this commonality is significant would be doing a disservice
to the great proportion of activity in each office which is
unique to the functioning of that component.
3. Any change of this magnitude would be bound to
introduce a great deal of trauma and uncertainty among the
personnel of the components involved. This shock would
probably prevent any such organization from functioning
efficiently for an appreciable period of time unless a care-
fully thought out plan was devised and put into affect, prior
to consolidation.
4. I am attaching two drafts which flesh out the
differences in the people and the personnel management philos-
ophies of the three components somewhat more than your draft,
should you wish to use those words.
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D R A F T
27 January 1977
1. Probably the major single factor that mitigates
against amalgamation of OC, ODP and OL/P&PD is the huger
size, both in budget and manpower, of the organization
which would result.
STATINTL On the other hand, to simply combine the three
organizations under a single head will accomplish little
in coordination and cooperation that doesn't already exist
with them presently in a single directorate.$
2. A problem second in magnitude only to the size
is the vast difference in the types of people and careers
in the three different organizations. The career manage-
ment techniques and pr~$edures developed by OC to operate the
worldwide commo network stresses flexibility and personnel
discipline combined with technical vers&tility. On the
other hand/the ODP personnel are generally acknowledged
to be free spirits who are almost nomadic in their job
moving habits. Here the stress is innovation and a flair
for thinking of different and unusual solutions for problems,
Finally, there are the people in P&PD who perform more
or less routine tasks in the confines of a single building
in Langley.
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3. The broad span of control and the multiple
iiNdisciplines involved in this combination would pre-
clude a single leader/manager from possessing first-
hand experience and technical knowledge in all of the
skills and arts so that he would simply have to look to
the next level or below to find the expertise to make
technical judgments. Now if the result of this amalgamation
is to be a too large, more or less unmanageable combination
of vastly different skills and technical disciplines, then
what is to be gained by amalgamation?
4. On the other hand, through the use of task force
techniques such as the BUS Communications Team of the SAFE
Project which includes OC and ODP personnel among others,
a closely coordinated working relationship has been
accomplished. Likewise, the joint ODP/OC Planning
Committee meets regularly to address near term planning
problems concerned with providing our customers
integrated systems approach to their problems.
type of coordination and cooperation can be and
accomplished today without creating the various
problems which would result from amalgamation.
the computer portion of the P&PD operation, the
with an
Now this
is being
management
Furthermore,
communications
portion of ODP and the data processing portion of the
Office of Communications are quite small by comparison
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to the total and generally unrelated work performed by
the three organizations. In the case of Commo, the
narrative message network with its hundreds of rotating
communicators worldwide, its Telephone Branch operating
thousands of gray, green, red and black telephone circuits, and
its covert communications support to the DDO also world-
wide comprise over 90% of the manpower and funds spent
annually. The ratios in the other units between unique/
unrelated work and ADP related work is likewise great.
5. In what fashion amalgamation would aid in solving
the Agency's ADP problems is not clear. At some level,
Agency management is going to have to come to grips with
the question of what size data processing facility is
appropriate for this organization to provide the most cost
effective use of computer technology and then come up with
a method to establish the priorities of potential users
to stay within the limitations established. The use of
industrial funding techniques and the establishment of a
knowledgeable, hard-nosed data processing control board
have more potential for success in my opinion.
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DRAFT
1 February 1977
FAg some time, there has been an undercurrent within the
Agency proposing some type of consolidation of those components
seen as being in the information hand.linI business. Generally,
the discussions have proposed a joining together of ODP, OC,
OCR and some portion of P&PD into a directorate concerned
with the transportation and processing of information. The
request for a study of an amalgamation of ODP, OC and a portion
of P&PD is the first proposal to combine the units into a single
entity at the office level. The results would be rather like
the mating of a mastodon and a woolly mammoth. The offspring
would certainly be the largest organism on the face of our
small earth and might well have the most disconnected nervous
system of any such organism.
The superficial advantage of such an organizational mating
would be to provide a single management mechanism which would
presumably have as its objective the better control o" Agency
utilization of ADP resources. This would imply that a rnxnagux
major priority of the Agency is the establishment of such
management control and that other organizational imparatives
can be sacrificed to that objective. The presumption is that
the technical skills and human relationships of the three
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cultures have a certain degree of interchangeability. This
is not so.
The P$PD is largely wage board in its composition with a
latent atmosphere of unionism present. It is a Washington-
based organization with limited horizontal and vertical mobility.
It is the closest thing to a craft organization existing in the
Agency.
ODP, in contrast, is composed of a number of highly mobile,
relatively young people whose bonding tends to be to the
profession rather than to the institution. Job mobility is
a fact o:F life and the skill is a highly mobile one in both
the public and private sectors.
The Office of Communications is a very structured, tightly
disciplined organization where rotation is a way of life. The
degree of professional skills required within the Office of
Communications vary considerably from the skills of a telephone
operator to those of a electronic engineer.
The impact of change brought about by such an enforced
amalgamation might well cause organizational anomie. At the
very least, there would be a long period of organizational
trauma and mission confusion.
The Office of Communications is already the object of
considerable congressional attention because of the size of
its budget. The amalgamation of these elements would end up
with an organization having an annual budget in FY 78 figures
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This would
become a highly vulnerable target to congressional attack
not only because of its very size but because it could be
perceived as a very inefficient organization. The problems
associated with the management of the ADP assets would submerge
the visualization of the efficient management of the Office
of Communications and the Printing and Photography Division.
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25 January 1977
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Communications
Director of Data Processing
Director of Logistics
FROM John F. Blake
Deputy Director for Administration
SUBJECT ADP Issues
1. In a meeting held several weeks ago, I committed
myself to reduce some thoughts to writing on the fourth
tasking contained in the "ADP Issues". The attachment
reflects the product of my labor.
2. May I ask each of you to review the material and
add to it material you believe relevant to the issue. Do
not feel constrained to comment on the matter solely from
your own organizational point of view, but feel. free to
comment on the other units involved as well as commenting
on what may be the deficiencies of a combined organization.
3. 1 would appreciate receiving your input by Friday,
11 February 1977. Feel free to reply in the same type-of
format as the attachment. We do not need from the individual
components, at least at this time, anything as extensive as
a formal staff study.
John F. Blake
Distribution:
Orig - D/0C w/att ~'- DDA Subject w/background (Memo to EAG
1 - D/DP w/att Members fr DDCI, dtd 11 Dec 1976)
1 - D/OL w/att 1 - DDA Chrono w/o background
(Attn: C/P&PD)l - JFB Chrono w/o background
DOWNGRADED TO A-IUO WI-IEN SEPARATED E2 IMPDET
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1. The fourth tasking on the subject of "ADP Issues"
given to this Directorate by the Acting Director of Central
Intelligence reads as follows:
"Fourth, in view of ADP trends linking
computers to the communications, micrographics,
and publishing fields, would any advantages be
gained by consolidating ODP, the Office of
Communications, and the Printing and Photography
Division of the Office of Logistics? I would
like the DDA to undertake a preliminary review
in this area for EAG discussion in April."
2. This paper sets forth some views on this matter
and solicits from the three units involved additional comments
on the issue.
3. I believe the day will come, and I have already
had conversations with the Directors of Data Processing and
Communications, when serious consideration should be given
to studying the pros and cons of merging the Offices of
Data Processing and Communications. Perhaps, when that day
arrives consideration could also be given to considering
also the amalgamation of the Printing and Photography
Division, although I am not nearly as clear in my mind on
that point. For a variety of reasons, however, we are of
the opinion that it would be an ill-advised step to combine
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these units at this time, and some of the reasons for
that feeling are as follows:
I. Office of Data Processing
The Office of Data Processing is faced with a
considerable set of problems, not of its own making,
that should be addressed, studied and solved before
any organizational realignment were to take place.
At a minimum, those problems include:
A. The issue of cost accounting, budgeting, and
reimbursing for computer services. Only now
has there commenced some Agency-level
consideration of this issue and I have not
noted as yet any great enthusiasm to attack
the problem.
B. The matter of establishing standards for the
acceptance by the Office of Data Processing
for requests for computer services and the
issue of establishing Agency-wide and enforce-
able priorities for computer service has yet
to be attacked at the Agency level.
C. We do not at this moment have a crystal clear
indication that Project SAFE will proceed and,
if so, at what funding level.
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D. The third tasking on "ADP Issues" given for
study is "what balance should we be striving
to achieve between centralized and decentralized
computer facilities?" This issue should be
thoroughly studied and some indication of the
future path be known before any thought is
given to reorganization.
II. Office of Communications
A. We would be ill-advised to undertake any
organizational change affecting the Office of
Communications until we receive the results
of the investigation by Staff Members of the
House Appropriations Committee. It is my under-
standing that this report may not be issued
until next year.
C. Certain of the on-going technical programs of the
Office of Communications, e.g., SKYLINK, AFT, HATS,
etc., should be completed before any organizational
realignment is considered so that the current
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figures, an annual budget
While it
may be true that some minor monetary and
personnel savings could be made at the overall
management level, we would still end up with a
unit highly vulnerable to OMB and Congressional
budget slashing.
B. The admixture of the types of people, and how
they are used, from the three units involved
could be a personnel management nightmare.
Printing and Photography Division personnel
exclusively serve at the Headquarters complex,
Office of Data Processing personnel do some,
but little rotation and that primarily at
Headquarters, and the Office of Communications
personnel, next to the DDO, run the largest
worldwide rotation program.
C. An unknown but predictable period of time,
measured in years, would transpire before
parochial rivalries and maneuvering for power
subsided to an acceptable level.
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Communications management would not have to
simultaneously wrestle with the myriad
bureaucratic problems involved and still be
deeply involved in extensive technical develop-
mental programs.
III. Printing and Photograph Division, Office of Logistics
A. The inclusion of the Printing and Photography
Division in the tasking lacks some clear rationale.
The thought to include the printing function is
more understandable than the photography responsi-
bilities of the Division.
B. To a great degree it appears to me there is a
difference in the culture of the personnel used
in the Printing and Photography Division as opposed
to the Office of Data Processing and the Office of
Communications. Their orientations are somewhat
different.
C. The physical location of the Printing and Photo-
graphy Division, and it is a completely dedicated
facility to its mission, is also a consideration.
4. The above merely reflects a minimum number of reservations
based on the individual units. There exist other reservations on
the totality of problems that would be created if all three units
were put together:
A. If an Office of COMADPRINT (Communications, ADP, and
Printing) were created at the current budge and
personnel levels, it would have, based on FY-78
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It c;C), Lii)UrI FOIE. Lxc:cuti"-e Advisory Grouy1 PNNembers
SUBJECT : ADP Issues
1. At the conclusion of our recent sessions on the management of
CIA's ADP resources, i promised to set down the issues that I believe
we should address in the near future. I feel it is essential that we take
positive .steps during the coming year to improve central management of
our total ADP program. We were called to task on this by the CFI and
OMB durinci the recent budget review arid suffered cuts which were
intended to stimulate improvement on our part.
2. I see four fundamental issues:
First, how can we monitor current month-by--month use of the
central services provided by the Office of Data Processing (0DP) in such
a way as to ensure visibility to top management of the many demands
teeing levied on ODP by Agency components and permit. Agency--level decisions
to be made on priorities when contentions for limited ODP resources arise?
The proposed ADP Resource Allocation System, which the Director of ODP
summarized for us the other day, represents one way we might accomplish
this. What other options are there? I want the Office of the Comptroller
and O.UP to outline the options available to us so that we may decide
among them at an LAG meeting in January.
Second, what can be done to improve top management's ability
to plan for future ADP resource requirements so that we may assure
ourselves that the large AD)? budget increases we are experiencing are in
the overall. interests of the Agency? How can the key AD.P investment
issues we face be brought forward for top manage.,rient~review so that we
may establish guidance for the budget planning process? I would like
the Comptroller to review existing ADP program planning procedures
arid suggest: changes which would improve our ability to focus on major
ADP irivestrient issues---includi:ig those which do not fall under ODP's
jur. isdiction, as well as those which do. This should be done for the
same January EAG meeting.
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Third, wheat halunce should we be striving to aChi ve between
centralized and decentralized c mpu`er facilities? I understand
that there are many complex balances involved, including dedicated
vs. general-purpose computer systems, minicomputers vs. massive machines,
di.str.i;uted vs. Centra.-. processing, and decent.ralired vs. centralized
systems c 'velop ili ill . I would like 'Dip, workiaq with NUIC ? ORD, CIC!~.
I..i:.a, and possibly other CC t;:io;le;1..s, to study this :issue and ma,!,-o
reco;; :1: nda.t ions to the EA C In April.
Fourth. in view of ADP trends linking computers to the cct--
municstiGns, micrographi(' ,, and publishing .fields, wou.Id any advanta`-.te;
he gained by consolidati.ng the Office of Co:alfn nicatiaris' and the
Printing and I5hotagra ny i~ivision of the Office of Logistics? I would
like the DDA to undertake a preliminary review in this area for LAG
discussion in April.
3. :I alri well aware that these are extraordinarily complicated
issues containing many points of contention. I am sure that Mr. Blake
and Mr. Taylor would welcome any coy mrients other. EAG members may have
at this time.
E. H. Knoche
Deputy Director of Central Intelli_g_rice
cc: D/~)DP
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