CBP Releases its September 30, 2005 Quarterly Report to Congress on ACE
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has recently posted to its Web site its quarterly report on the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) entitled Report to Congress: The Automated Commercial Environment. This report is dated September 30, 2005 and covers the July 1, 2005 - September 30, 2005 period.
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CBP states that this report provides a "snapshot" of current program status, highlighting recent accomplishments, challenges, cost and schedule status, and near-term milestones.
CBP notes that this report also addresses the ongoing CBP efforts to support ACE expansion if required, and in engaging other Government agencies to participate in ACE/International Trade Data System (ITDS).
This is Part I of a multi-part series of summaries on CBP's quarterly report to Congress on ACE and highlights CBP's efforts to address various open recommendations by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
According to CBP, it has taken the following actions regarding several open GAO recommendations:
Explore use ACE infrastructure to support other DHS applications. CBP states that, to date, no expenditures have been planned for ACE to support other homeland security applications. However, through the ITDS, CBP states that it continues to coordinate with other Federal agencies to explore areas where ACE can be expanded and integrated where it makes sense to do so, most prominently with the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program.
Joint ACE/US-VISIT planning activities include regular meetings between CBP's Modernization Office staff and their US-VISIT counterparts to coordinate deployment schedules. Integration testing of ACE and US-VISIT is being conducted to ensure both applications will operate on the same workstations and a common network. Both programs are sharing program control best practices, including those in the areas of requirements management and Earned Value Management (EVM).
Preparation of a Modernization Measurement Plan. CBP states that its Office of Information Technology (OIT) is preparing a Modernization Measurement Plan that will represent a substantial revision to the existing Metrics Plan, which was approved in August 2001 and revised in February 2004. The Measurement Plan will provide a comprehensive description of how OIT will measure the Modernization Program and the work of contractors contributing to modernization efforts. The Plan will consist of three key elements: measures, management approach, and enabling technologies. As such, the Measurement Plan will detail the following:
the types of measures that will be applied to the Modernization Program;
how current and future measures of system performance align with Department and Agency goals and objectives;
how these measures will be managed and changed by the Measurements Integrated Process Team using the industry standard Practice Software and Systems Measurement model;
what software tools will be used, and how will they be used, to support the collection and analysis of data; and
how measurement data will be used to guide overall management of the ACE program.
CBP states that its Measurement Plan would be provided to the GAO upon its completion in fall 2005. Future editions of the report will describe progress in executing the Measurement Plan, and the impact of resulting measurements and analysis.
Define and implement an ACE program accountability framework. CBP states that to achieve its two objectives for ACE-developing ACE capabilities sooner and at less cost and ensuring that those capabilities hit the mark when fielded-sound decision processes and clear quality standards have been established. CBP states that it is building on its existing program management foundation to address GAO-expected outcomes as follows:
CBP is developing an accountability framework that is combined with the program's governance framework, and which will serve as the nexus for existing program planning documents.
The FY06 Modernization Expenditure Plan is consistent with the ACE Program Plan. Additionally, CBP will review the Expenditure Plan throughout the approval process to ensure that it incorporates the most current program commitments upon delivery to the Department, Office of Management and Budget, the GAO, and Congress.
CBP has added a section to the FY06 Expenditure Plan that ties back to and tracks milestone and other program commitments made in all prior expenditure plans.
Immediately develop and implement a Human Capital Management (HCM) strategy. On July 1, 2005, OIT announced the second and final phase of its reorganization. The second phase established six program offices aligned to major mission areas, and three functional offices that provide services across mission areas. By emphasizing a program-centric management approach, the new organization will reinforce an integrated team environment and tighten relationships between OIT and its agency customers - most notably the Office of Field Operations.
CBP states that the OIT reorganization will strengthen the Government's oversight of ACE by expanding the depth and breadth of functional and program management expertise. In addition, the number of OIT personnel involved in the Modernization effort has been substantially increased.
September 30, 2005 ACE quarterly report available at