Information availability

Current state of MAPS

OPRE managers and staff currently have to reach out to colleagues individually to provide updated information about their projects because it is not stored in a centralized space.

It is difficult to run analytics using these manually compiled spreadsheets; and it is difficult to keep manually compiled information up to date; and it is difficult to know how long the information and analyses can be trusted to be accurate.

OPRE staff, meanwhile, have to remember to update their project information in multiple places, and it is difficult to keep all the sources in sync.

Future state of OPS

Management and research staff need information about the projects that are being worked on across OPRE, including the research description, topic(s), population(s), method(s), etc, and the amount being spent so that they can plan their research activities, report on those activities, and make cross-project connections.

Real-time budget data

Current state of MAPS

It can be difficult to figure out how to pull the numbers they track most often from MAPS, and they often need to export and stitch together multiple pieces of data to get the summaries they want, which is brittle to maintain.

The Budget Team, meanwhile, is often asked to pull and stitch together these reports for other staff because it is so confusing.

Permissions are overly restrictive, making it difficult for people on shared projects to see everything they need.

Statuses are not tracked as granularly as needed, making it difficult to get an accurate read on budget availability. Staff need to email requests to the Budget Team rather than make requests through the system.

Future state of OPS

Project Leads, Team Leaders, Division Directors, and the Office of the Director need to see how much money is available and how much has been spent so that they can plan and manage their budgets to ensure they neither overspend nor underspend.

Agreements & invoicing

Current state of MAPS

Procurement-related processes are not intuitive and currently require several manual steps and approvals, as well as assistance from the Budget Team to communicate with external systems.

It is difficult to remember the steps for processes that are executed infrequently, MAPS provides limited visibility into progress and status, and it requires vigilance to keep things from falling through the cracks.

The Budget Team, meanwhile, has to do a lot of manual work to keep external systems and OPRE records in sync.

Future state of OPS

Project Leads, CORs, and Federal Project Officers need to plan and execute agreements (contracts, grants, etc) and authorize invoice payments so that they can secure research-related services.

Fees & shared costs

Current state of MAPS

Shared costs must be calculated across all CANs and contracts collectively, and must be recalculated at multiple times throughout the year. Much of this work happens in spreadsheets outside of MAPS and is then inputted.

The 50-60 numbers must be updated individually, so there are several days when Team Leaders cannot trust the numbers in the system, but there are no system alerts.

Updates to shared costs are sometimes skipped because the process is so cumbersome and time consuming.

Shared costs and fees are not displayed in all the places a Project Lead needs, so they have to piece together different reports to get an accurate view of their budget.

Future state of OPS

The Budget Team needs to allocate fees and shared costs so that these can be accounted for in budgets.

Workforce planning

Current state of MAPS

OPRE managers and staff need to individually maintain information about project staffing because it is not stored in a centralized space.

It is difficult to run analytics using these manually compiled spreadsheets; it is difficult to keep manually compiled information up to date; and it is difficult to know how long the information and analyses can be trusted to be accurate.

Future state of OPS

Managers need to see which staff are allocated to which projects and in which capacities so that they can manage staff workloads and plan for future project staffing.

Intuitive & user-friendly

Current state of MAPS

Workflows involve a lot of friction and are time-consuming to complete.

It also takes a long time to learn how to use MAPS, the help documents aren’t comprehensive or up to date, and staff often have to contact the System Administrators (the Budget Team) for help.

This leaves staff less time for mission work, and the Budget Team with less time for strategic priorities.

Future state of OPS

Staff in general need the system to be intuitive to use so that they can easily get the information they need and get through their tasks quickly without needing to read a lot of help documents or reach out for assistance.

Flexible & adaptable

Current state of MAPS

From a technical perspective, the MAPS code base is poorly documented and few automated tests have been written, making it difficult for a developer to understand how or why the system works the way it does or test the impacts of proposed changes. This makes changes to the system expensive and risky.

MAPS also relies on technology that is proprietary and/or is not under ACF’s or HHS’s control, further adding to the costs and risks of maintaining this system.

Future state of OPS

OPRE needs to be able to modify the system without incurring a lot of expense or risk so that they can adapt to growing and changing needs.