OIT INDUSTRIAL ADVISORY BOARD MEETING, 6 OCTOBER 1987

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89B01356R000100140023-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 2, 2012
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: October 13, 1987
• Content Type: MEMO

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/02 CIA-RDP89B01356R000100140023-9
1E and Meeting, 6 October,-1987
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/02 : CIA-RDP89B01356R000100140023-9
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/02 : CIA-RDP89B01356R000100140023-9
13 October 1987
SUBJECT: OIT Industrial Advisory Board Meeting, 6 October 1987
1. Ed Maloney, Director of Information Technology, conducted the
inaugural meeting of the OIT Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) on
6 October 1987. This group was established to provide OIT managers and
members of the Agency's Information Systems Board with a sounding board
of senior technical managers from private industry. OIT senior
technical personnel presented OIT's current strategies for managing
computer and communications systems in the Agency and OIT's future
high-level technical direction. Board members were asked to provide
constructive criticism from their indivfdual- -
perspectives. Members of the IAB are:
2. The inaugural meeting was held on 6 October in Rm 2D02, HQ and
began at approximately 0930. The briefings and discussions were
nominally at the SECRET level and not for attribution (to ensure
anonymity for Board members.) In attendence from CIA (in addition to
briefers) wer DD/OIT, all but one of the OIT Group
Staff Chiefs, (DD/OIR), /IMS),
(Pla
ning and esources Staff, DDS&T), (DD/OC), and
and myself from OIT Management Services Division. Mr.
Maloney first presented introductory remarks welcoming Board members and
emphasizing the pace of change in the information technology business.
Mr. Maloney discussed how this rapid change creates difficult
management and technical problems. He further described the purpose of
the IAB meeting which was to provide an overview of CIA information
technology, and to discuss strategic management and technical
initiatives and issues, with the ultimate goal of obtaining useful
feedback from IAB members. of the Public Affairs Office
then provided a half-hour CIA overview.
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/02 : CIA-RDP89B01356R000100140023-9
3.I lexcellent presentation exposed Board members to
the complexity of CIA and raised several questions as to component
responsibilities in the information technology arena. Board members
also requested clarification on the role of the Executive Director
versus the role of the DDCI. Mr. Maloney then began his presentation on
management issues in CIA information technology. He began by providing
an overview of information technology services, discussed the roles of
major components, and provided more detailed information on the role of
OIT and OIT service and workload statistics. The discussion was very
rich during this presentation. Due to a late start and the amount of
discussion, the presentation, which started at around 1030, was
continued after lunch and a subsequent tour of the Crisis Communications
Center. (The presentation went on for about 30 additional minutes after
lunch). It could have used even more time if it had been available.
Lunch was served in the Executive Dining Room and attended by the
Executive Director, the DDA, Information Systems Board members and OIT
senior managers. The Crisis Communications C~nte~TQU~ (1330-1345) which
follow d liinnh (1200-1315) was presented by of OIT Operations
Group.
4. The Board had a wide ranging discussion during D/OIT's
presentation. I will only provide highlights, grouped by topic below.
The discussions were not long enough or detailed enough to be termed
recommendations but they pointed the way to areas that should no doubt
be explored in greater depth by OIT.
Customer Surveys
The Board was very enthusiastic about customer surveys. A Board
member emphasized that surveys should be done by outsiders to remove
bias (unintentional as well as intentional). (This view was seconded by
a another Board member.) He further recommended surveying periodically
because of the rate customer problems change and indicated he had a
small staff for just this purpose. Another Board member preferred
personal interviews to paper surveys. One Board member went so far as
to say his salary is determined by customers' evaluation of services.
Chargeback
The Board was unanimous on the subject of chargeback indicating
that all their organizations used chargeback with their MIS Groups. One
member indicated that the only issue was level of detail.
Equipment Inventories
Board member expressed surprise at the absence of
centrally-maintained organizational equipment inventory. (The DDS&T
representative, indicated that the DDS&T had recently
completed an inventory. OIT has also been tasked by the DDA with
updating an older Agency-wide inventory.)
Strategic Planning
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Board members seemed to unanimously support the value of formal
strategic planning and indicated their organizations were actively
involved in this activity.
Turnover Rate
The Board expressed extreme surprise at the OIT turnover rate
(i.e., resignation rate) for professional and technical personnel of 3
percent. (One member deemed that low a rate, "spectacular.") Several
members implied their rates were considerably higher. D/OIT expressed
concern that maybe our rate was too low, leading to inbreeding and
excessive training requirements.
Succession Planning
Board members indicated they were deeply involved in succession
planning and took it very seriously. One member indicated he spent as
much as a week per year with the Chairman of the Board in this activity.
Members indicated that secrecy was important in such planning and one
member pointed out the importance of not falsely raising expectations.
Miscellaneous
---Board members expressed concern that we had no mechanism other
than the collection of anecdotes for measuring the benefits of systems
such as SAFE. The issue is what is the intelligence pay-off for the
large expenditure of resources and what should the expenditures be in
the future.
---One Board member recommended that we look closely into video
teleconferencing as a major time and money saver. (The savings comes in
the reduction of executive travel.)
---Board members did not seem to be overly concerned about our
"three cultures problem" (ADP, commo, and information management). One
member indicated that you can't change cultures, cultures must change
themselves, and that integrating the cultures may not be necessary.
---OIT did not have figures on average age (currently being
gathered) which Board members felt could be an indicator of
organizational health.
---One member indicated that it was important to have a
compensation system which allowed for non-managerial experts. Another
added that prestige, perks and visibility were also needed for experts.
5. After the D/OIT finished the afternoon carryover portion of his
presentation, the focus of the meeting moved from management to
strategic technical issues. Chief, Architectural and
Technology Planning Staff, briefed on OIT standards and overall
architecture. outlined the standards process and its
importance, as well as describing our overall technical direction. He
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/02 : CIA-RDP89B01356R000100140023-9
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particular) em hasized our new stress on the workstation versus the
mainframe. followed with a presentation on the
architectural history of OIT and presented his recommendation for a
future architecture. This new architecture was local area network (LAN)
based and used diskless PC's and servers. The latter servers provided
the gateway to the mainframe. These two presentations engendered
considerable discussion on standards in general. To wit,
Standards
Board members raised concerns on the impact of standards on new
technology. There was concern about "closing the Patent Office" and
"freezing technology." Also expressed were fears that standards
interfered with creativity, denied organizations competitive advantage,
and did not contribute to the solution of unique problems (such as
security). Another Board member, however, believed that while standards
in many areas were five years away, the pace of movement toward
standards was accelerating, and that" tomer pressure continues to
build for standards "for good reason."
6. At the conclusion of the Board meeting, Mr. Maloney went around
the room asking Board members for their preliminary impressions.
Several Board members expressed concern about strategic planning and how
we needed to have an active Agency-wide and OIT planning process. One
comment made was that a "plan is sales tool for leadership." Several
Board members indicated that they would look at their organization's
plans for ideas (as to content, issues, etc.) Another Board member
expressed concern that stronger leadership by OIT (or someone) in
information technology was required. A passive approach ("tell me what
you want to do") was not useful. OIT should suggest tools for customers
to use. In the same vein, it was suggested that more control, not less
was needed. This control was needed to avoid, a "Tower of Babel."
Other comments made in relation to OIT concerned the "regaining of
market share" and that OIT must react to a changing market. (After the
formal meeting, a Board member commented to me that the willingness to
accept a declining market share if it is in the "the best interest of
the customer" begs the more important issue of the organization's not
adantin? to a changing market by providing needed services.)
7. Mr. Maloney thanked Board members for their active and lively
participation. He stated that he would follow up on many of the
excellent ideas expressed by Board members and remain in touch with
them. He encouraged Board members to provide him feedback in any form
when they had had time to think over the day's discussion. The meeting
was adjourned at 1530.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/02 : CIA-RDP89B01356R000100140023-9