Status Report on SMART

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 STATE 013048 E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AMGT AINF AADP ACOA ASEC KRIM SUBJECT: Status Report on SMART REF: A) 03 STATE 284912 B) 02 STATE 195704 STATE 00013048 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. Please provide wide dissemination of the information in this telegram. ¶2. Reftels describe the Department's progress toward a new integrated messaging system. SMART (State Messaging and Archive Retrieval Toolset) remains the Department's highest priority information technology initiative. Designed to be simple, secure, and user-driven, it will consolidate existing messaging systems (e-mail, cables, memos) into a single e-mail based messaging and archival system. ¶3. The Department awarded a fixed price, performance based contract to Northrop Grumman in November 2003 to transform the SMART vision, which was developed by a department-wide, Assistant Secretary/DAS-level steering committee based on user input, to a modern messaging solution. Following successful demonstration of the solution, the contract provides for a pilot phase, a deployment phase and an operations and maintenance phase. ¶4. Because of hardware and software stability issues that were identified in late November, Northrop Grumman requested a three-month extension in the current phase to deliver a beta solution for Department evaluation at no price increase to the government. The terms and conditions of that extension are currently under negotiation. In the meantime, Northrop Grumman reported to the SMART Steering Committee that the hardware has been stabilized and bug fixes have been successfully applied to the software integration. TESTING SMART ¶5. The first phase of Systems Integration Testing is underway. The second phase will commence on February 1. Qualification testing is scheduled for the last two weeks of February, during which time usability tests will be conducted by the State Department, and technical tests will be observed and analyzed by Gartner, Inc. Gartner will verify that the test plan, which maps to SMART's functional and technical requirements, is faithfully executed. Gartner will describe the root causes of any test failures, in terms of system configuration, stability, or design, and assess their importance to the overall system solution. ¶6. Acceptance Testing for Northrop Grumman's SMART Beta solution will follow in March. A group of representative State Department users will test the various elements of the system for usability, and Gartner will observe and analyze the results of scores of technical tests. The results well be analyzed by a State Department Technical Evaluation Team and presented to the SMART Steering Committee for decision. ¶7. This rigor in testing is necessary to ensure that SMART serves the business needs of the Department and its employees. SMART PILOT ¶8. Assuming that the system meets State Department standards, pilot testing will begin in late spring and continue through the summer and into the fall. The pilot will be run with approximately 3,000 American and LES employees in 15 Northern and Central European posts, along with Washington elements of EUR and DS. If all goes as scheduled, worldwide deployment will begin late this year. STATE 00013048 002.2 OF 002 SMART IS HEALTHY ¶9. The Department is aware that delays in the Northrop Grumman contract timetable could raise questions. However, what is at stake is the contract schedule, not the credibility of the SMART project. Indeed, it is because of the Department's clear standards of usability and technical excellence contained in the contract that the project has been delayed. ¶10. Minimize considered. POWELL