CONFERENCE ON AGENCY PRIORITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90G00993R000100260003-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 22, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: October 8, 1986
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/22 : CIA-RDP90G00993R000100260003-5
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CO ?ENTIAL
OIT 0884-86
8 October 1986
MEMORANDUM FOR: Chief, Management Staff, DA
VIA:
FROM:
Edward J. Malone
Director of Information Technology
Chief, Management Division, OIT
SUBJECT: Conference on Agency Priorities
REFERENCE: Your memo, ?dtd 4 Sept 1986, Same Subject
(DDA 86-1515)
1. In the Reference, you ask that OIT address three
resource-related issues for the outyears (1989-1993). What new
activities shall we pursue? What activities underway need
additional resources? and what activities can be consolidated or
eliminated to free up resources? The following paragraphs speak to
major resource and management issues in the future (the management
issues raised in response to your last question we believe have
significant though unquantifiable resource implications as well as
effectiveness implications.)
New Activities
2. Information systems (I/S) support to the field
is a critical challenge for this Agency. It
is the field where we are stretched the thinnest; where our
reaction times are the shortest; and where we are in desperate
need of the data processing, storage and retrieval capabilities
that I/S technology offers. It is in the field, with available
technology, that we will receive our greatest return-on-investment
in the I/S arena. What is needed is a strong coordinated
Agency-wide effort in this Area. The technology is or will be
available. Improving support to All field components should be
our goal (DA, DI, DS&T,
systems engineering portion of this effort as a dollar
activity.
as well as DO). We see the the early
3. Exploiting artificial intelligence technology will be
absolutely essential in the late Eighties, early Nineties.
Artificial intelligence and expert systems, in particular, have
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/22 : CIA-RDP90G00993R000100260003-5
rDeclassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/22 : CIA-RDP90G00993R000100260003-5
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the potential to permit this Agency to leverage its most critical
resource---its people. Expert systems will be a significant
productivity tool, freeing up personnel currently performing
straightforward tasks. Expert systems will also permit us to
capture and approximate the expertise of many of our more highly
trained and skilled employees who retire or otherwise leave their
positions. Not only will we be able to automate many tasks
currently requiring "an expert," we will be able to ensure
consistency, provide backup, and improve the speed of
decisionmaking. To fully exploit this technology, we must be
prepared to make the necessary investment in staff resources,
consulting services and hardware and software infrastructure. This
will be an ongoing program which will require considerably more
resources than OIT currently devotes from it thinly-stretched
Base. We estimate this to a dollar per year
level-of-effort activity.
4. A third area where resource investment is required is the
implementation of new storage technologies such as optical disk
storage. Storage requirements have historically grown at forty
percent (40%) annually. We see this rate continuing and
potentially even accelerating as major new applications and data
types (e.g., image, video, etc.) come online. Given our well-known
space constraints, we are reaching a crisis in regard to data
storage. In conjunction with technological solutions, we must also
investigate archiving strategies that will help us manage the
burgeoning requirements for storage. In addition to developing an
in-depth knowledge of storage options and archiving strategies
through the use of study contracts, we must be funded to implement
new storage technology should it prove appropriate. We estimate
this to be about a dollar per year resource
requirement.
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/22 : CIA-RDP90G00993R000100260003-5
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/22 : CIA-RDP90G00993R000100260003-5
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Underway Activities
Consolidation/Elimination of Activities
7. We see three major organizational changes that in the
future could result in considerable resource savings and in
improvements in effectiveness and efficiency. First, in our
judgment, Agency I/S activities remain too fragmented for
effective and efficient management. There is the potential of
considerable _savings through the clarification of I/S
responsibilities. There is much I/S activity Agency-wide that is
either overlapping or in conflict. For example, a rational
approach to I/S field support is extremely difficult with
responsibilities fragmented across OIT, OC, IMS and other
components (such as OF). Similarly, DDA I/S planning continues to
lack coherence due to our failure to vest authority and
responsibility in a single component and manager
program responsibilities are heavily circumscribed in this arena).
A related issue is the fragmentation of the I/S budget. As it
stands, any component can propose and capture in perpetuity an I/S
initiative. This frequently leads to a conflict between the
customer and developer on control nf project direction. it also
leads to the proliftration or un(!oordinated and irwompatihie
initiatives. Some, if not all, of these may generate considerable
downstream costs ( FBIS Modernization is a potential example.)
Thus, we believe, a revisiting of responsibilities and authorities
in information systems, and a review of the I/S budget process
could potentially result in cost-savings and management benefits
Agency-wide.
CONFIDENTIAL
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/22 : CIA-RDP90G00993R000100260003-5
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/22 : CIA-RDP90G00993R000100260003-5
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/22 : CIA-RDP90G00993R000100260003-5