Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Action Items:

1. One Solution will put together an Advisory Group with representatives from all the sections and regions. The four regional advisors of NRSP-1 will be members of this group. A suggestion was made to avoid standardizing to fit all. It is important to be sensitive to the differences inherent among extension, research and teaching.
2. CSREES staff from CRIS and One Solution will be invited to give updates at the regional associations' spring meetings.
3. In addition to the annual face-to-face meeting, the NRSP-1 Technical Committee will meet by teleconference quarterly.
4. NRSP-1 will expire on 9/2009. The proposal should be finalized by March 2008. An external review of NRSP-1 will be proposed prior to its revision.
5. An update on One Solution will be requested for inclusion in the Experiment Station Section Meeting to be held in Philadelphia on Sept. 17, 2007.

The CRIS websites were supported on both the CRIS CRISTEL server http://cris.csrees.usda.gov and the CRISFRMS web site at the University of Vermont http://cwf.uvm.edu/cris. Enhancements were designed, developed, and implemented facilitating usefulness, increasing processing efficiency, improving the availability of information, and addressing specific concerns of users.

CRISOPS continued as the foundation database where CRIS staff processed transactions for project input, revisions, changes, etc. as an ongoing production activity. The CRISTEL file was maintained on a separate server and provided public access to current data. The CRISTEL server file was updated regularly so all information and data reflected was consistent with input submitted by contributors. The CRISTEL server was continuously available for more than 99% of time during the period.

The CRIS software system was utilized to maintain data in an on-line environment, accessible in a user friendly mode via the World Wide Web. The CRIS staff generated reports with technical information, financial information, or both, drawing on a variety of techniques to satisfy user requirements. Processing efficiency was increased by improving procedures for the data flow into the CRIS data files resulting in increased availability of CRIS data for searching and retrieval.

The CRISFRMS data entry web site was supported through a collaborative effort between the CRIS staff and University of Vermont staff. The Vermont staff provided customer service, hardware and software facilities, and programming support for modifications as well as continued development of enhancements to the web site. Maintenance processes were performed continuously throughout the period and included data collection for project descriptions (AD-416/AD-417), collection of annual progress or termination reports (AD-421), submission of annual fiscal year reports (AD-418/AD-419), submission of the Program of Research, annual reporting checklists, weekly CRIS updates, correcting bugs, security enhancements, security updates, backups, and direct support to users.

The CRISFRMS site furnished the managers of data at the institutions features and functions needed to effectively work with their CRIS project information. The web forms system helped sustain data quality because the information entered was checked and verified before being submitted to CRIS. Forms could not be submitted with inappropriate or erroneous information because the web forms are designed to enforce all of the CRIS business rules. This feature sustains higher data quality and better efficiency in collecting project data.

The administrative functions in the web forms system are the primary tools allowing designated CRIS site contacts to collect information at their site, verify that it is correct, and submit it to CRIS when ready. An online tutorial was available and is an integral part of the training. One of the most important concepts to understand is that until the action to submit data to CRIS is performed, the information entered is entirely in the site's own control and accessible only by the passwords which they control. Each site "owns" the information completely until they submit it to CRIS.

Additional activities conducted by the Vermont staff included enhancing security measures and converting to updated software and operating systems for the web forms system to meet industry standards. This security effort was a major focus during FY 2006. Achieving compliance with required security policies involved, providing system specific documentation (hardware, software, and operating details), creating comprehensive manuals that furnished operator-level details, enhancing backup procedures, and developing a disaster recovery plan. When fully implemented in 2007, the CRIS web forms system will have on-site redundancy for rapid internal recovery as well as off-site fail-over in case of University of Vermont campus-wide or regional disaster. A network/server/security consultant assisted with designing, setting up, and implementing the plan. All server and application software was upgraded to the most current versions available, and hardware standardized within the network in order to maximize rapid recovery from any system component failure.

The Vermont staff also addressed underlying application design of CRISFRMS to integrate a reference control table describing the CRIS "business rules" that will drive the application processes and screen designs. Computer Graphics Interface (CGI) and Extensible Markup Language (XML) processes were developed for participating sites to use for their own applications to place data into the web forms database, and extract data from it. Significant new features added to the application included the addition of new funding types and the options for sites to include Extension-funded activities along with research and education projects, or alternately, utilize the option to have a separate Extension site with its own site administrator. Management features for grants requiring anniversary reporting were implemented and documented in the on-line News and on screens where report due dates are indicated. Information and reports that use CSREES Strategic Goals were added in addition to GPRA goals (since the old GPRA goals are still being used through the 2007 report). The ability to resubmit the CSREES-2008 Assurance Statements was added. The submission of anniversary reports more than 30 days before they are due was blocked to assure proper timing in reporting. Additional features and modifications were completed and documented for users in the on-line News which retains all old notices in reverse chronological order.

CRIS staff collaborated with members of the REEIS team to facilitate data transfer of CRIS records into the REEIS production environment. The integrity of the data transfer was monitored and improved with increased frequency requiring less staff time and effort. CRIS data is available through the REEIS platform increasing visibility and potential usefulness of the information collected through CRIS.

Members of the CRIS staff conducted individual sessions and demonstrations for individuals and groups to assist with familiarizing them with data entry facilities of CRIS or search and retrieval capabilities. Additionally, CRIS staff provided assistance to many users through responses to emails or telephone calls providing technical assistance and data interpretation.

During this period, a significant amount of work was accomplished on the CRIS migration of the underlying proprietary database to a relational database environment. The migration project will provide greater data access and ensure long term maintainability. The approach utilizes Oracle for the relational database environment on a Linux platform. Java Server Page (JSP) and the JAVA application programming language are utilized for the application phase. At the completion of the migration, CRIS will be supported by a fully integrated relational database management architecture, thereby increasing the flexibility and effectiveness of data management, improving the potential for system integration with other application systems within CSREES and partner institutions, and bring CRIS more in alignment with federal and agency enterprise architecture goals.

The first phase involved validation and verification of the relational model for CRIS, finalizing definitions of the use-case scenarios and business rules controlling the processing of data, both in bound and out bound data, from the transaction database, creation of the physical database, generation of procedures to migrate data from the existing transaction database to the relational database, and generation of execution procedures to load data created in CRISFRMS at Vermont into the relational database.

The existing transactional database and supporting databases have been mapped to a relational database structure. The basic JAVA application was still under development at the end of this period. There are major areas of functionality still to be addressed.

When completed the implementation of the relational database and associated application will enable:

• Improved efficiencies of many data management functions
• Automated processes in lieu of current manual processes
• Improved audit and tracking functions
• Improved data validation processes
• Integration with other applications and databases