From FCW(Federal Computer Weekly?):
Rob Klopp, CIO [Chief Information Officer] of the Social Security Administration, told FCW that the Trump administration asked him to continue in his role to provide continuity as the new White House settles in. Klopp said he would stay at SSA "for at least the next few months," but did not have a definite end date in mind.
Shortly after Election Day during an IT Subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee hearing, Klopp demurred when subcommittee chairman Will Hurd (R-Texas) asked if he would hypothetically stay on board during the Trump administration.
The SSA CIO is in the middle of a wide-ranging IT infrastructure modernization project. In a recent post on CIO.gov, Klopp announced the deployment of the first piece of this effort, a disability case processing system dubbed DCPS2.
Klopp said that the Trump administration's agency beachhead teams have shown a keen interest in learning about what SSA is working on in terms of IT modernization.
"The teams we've met with have really capable guys who are really interested in what we're doing and how they can help and keep it going," he said. ...
57 comments:
this is not true..we are not modernizing anything and the DCPS is already costing the American people about 500 MILLION dollars and it's not even close to be deployed. it was supposed to be out the door over a year ago. Klopp has gone before Congress and begged for more $$$$$. he came in here and re-organized us and now we are even more dysfunctional than before.
Updating the original SSA computer system is not as easy as setting up Windows 10 people. Half of you cant even operate your own smart phone or add a wireless printer to your laptop but can suddenly become experts on the SSA computer system. The age of the system, combined with the nature of the data, how it is accessed and how it needs to be used is a HUGE problem.
To bring the current system up to speed with "modern" technology would most likely take more than a billion dollars and the best and brightest minds to make the system viable. It would also most likely have some severe unintended problems, errors and other assorted bugs.
Just converting the current data to a modern format is daunting. So if you have ever had problems moving your contact list from one phone to another, think about that before opening your mouth and exercising your ignorance in public.
Klopp is that you???
Someone needs some coffee. If 9:34 was Klopp, he would have started with "Hyia."
Glad to see the work out crowd getting the exercise so early.
934
You make some valid points. Revamping our entire cyber platform is a mammoth undertaking. Many of our employees do have trouble with their smart phones. No one likes change.
However, all of this begs the following questions:
Why did you not get meaningful input from employees in each position BEFORE you got too far into the process?
Why do you roll things out without more than minimal warning, without frankly acknowledging that there will be glitches, and without showing even a modicum of respect or appreciation for the end user?
You acknowledge that a significant portion of your end users have difficulty with the operating system of their smart phone, yet you keep rolling new systems changes with out providing decent training. VODs and overburdened HOSA/ITS are not going to cut it.
Your new platform may be fabulous, but I don't hear a Thunder of applause. However, the greatest platform roll out will suffer significantly if you don't consider the needs and limitations of your end user.
We may be living in a brave new world, but it is still populated by humans, whether you like it or not.
This is the Trump team laying the groundwork for saying, we don't need to hire more people; we can wring out greater efficiencies through better technology.
@12:54
It sounds more like the incompetent holdovers to me.
so we are getting rid of our dinosaur mainframe....wow that is news to me....(rolls eyes).
and what about DCPS?? another MASSIVE failure that has been mismanaged by TWO different contracting companies.
...Klopp is blowing smoke as usual.
he was asked to stay for another 2 years
Some people blow smoke better than others.
Anonymous said...
he was asked to stay for another 2 years
2:08 PM, January 30, 2017
____________________________
He was a political appointee who's appointment ended on Jan 29th.
If he was asked to stay on for another two years does this mean we don't have a hiring freeze???
I'm a manager but I have close contact with my HOSAs (CAs, now). The commenter everyone is excoriating is correct--we have so many people that have basically nil computer savvy or expertise. You can design the systems and end user experience to be as nice and easy and intuitive as can be, and a lot of our employees will still struggle. I literally see people take 15 minutes to copy and paste a few lines of data from a simple excel spreadsheet; many people don't even understand the difference between resetting/rebooting, logging off, and powering off, even if you walk them through it in real time.
This is something I think about a lot--there is a huge amount of lost efficiency in this agency owing simply to folks who can't use a computer for crap. I'm deadly serious when I say I have at least 10 employees in my office who could work up, etc. 25, 50% more than they do if they simply had better facility with the computer. And we can't really provide that training because I am talking about BASIC COMPUTER SKILLS that are supposed to be things employees bring with them (kind of like basic grammar, etc. skills are not things we are supposed to have to teach for decision writers).
It is that bad, it really is.
@5:11
Your remarks are condescending, and do not appropriately take into account the fast pace of technology. When I started with the Agency, we did not have personal computers, including decision writers. I recall when each ODAR field office had one personal computer which everyone used to track cases, i.e., the HOTS Program. It was not until the mid-1990's before decision writers began to receive personal computers, and the year 2000 before they were required to type all of their work, and the typing/support staff dismantled. I am only in my mid-50's. I obtained my professional collegiate education before computers had really come of age. I adapted rather well to the use of computers in my career, but I did not grow up with them from the start of my life in the same way those entering the workforce today have. Your comments intimate I, and those my age and older, no longer have anything to offer because many of us are not as proficient with computers. Considering the Agency never offered any computer training classes throughout the years of transition I have described, I am proud of what I have learned to do with computers. However, I will never be a computer geek, understand computer code, or have any of what I consider extreme technological understanding of computers, nor do I ever wish to. Nevertheless, even though I have a JD Degree, law license, and nearly 3 decades of Agency specific experience, certain management PTB whom I suspect know far less about computers than I, believed it was entirely appropriate to illegally force me out of my career, while they still remain in their powerful positions, and could not use a computer all day each and everyday to type decisions, or much else for that matter, if their life depended on it. The Agency even found it necessary to relocate an entire ODAR Hearings office near one of their homes just to appease the 'poor' bastard. TPTB do not have their priorities straight. You do not intentionally throw out an employee with the level of education and years of Agency specific experience as me just because I can no longer persistently type all day each and every workday, and do not care to know the technological intricacies of computers. I am just saying ...
@ 6:41 in the private sector you keep up or get out. Out here bosses doent send us for training, we do it on our own or get fired. Its called personal responsibility. Time to drain the swamp of federal workers and get qualified people in those positions.
Where to begin, so many opinions, so few with a grasp on reality
1) The cold, hard fact is that way too many people at SSA, from young but particularly older employees, lack the level of computer skills to be productive. Regardless of job position, education or social standing there are a lot of people who either didn't come with the skills (and regard their failure to acquire them as somehow not their fault) or learned one way to get things done and have been unable to adapt as the technology changed. The questions the help desk and the end user computing center get all demonstrate an often sub-standard skill set for computer use. Training is available within and outside the agency at little or no cost yet self-improvement isn't an option for many. But whining about how it's demeaning or not my fault is irrelevant to the fact that many employees can't use a computer adequately enough to be considered adequate.
2) So the conundrum is, do you build a system that assumes the end user can operate it or do you dumb it down because they can't or because Operations can't afford to take them away from their desks for too long for proper training? Do you continue the old but venerable way of building a system in a way that takes years and becomes fixed (no changes) but at least builds in a coordinated handholding time of training or do you build in a new way that gives you much faster progress towards a system that does what is needed and provides frequent end user and specialist input into what is being built but makes training a moving target? (And again, assumes users who are flexible enough to adapt?)
Sidebar - Back when building MSSICS, there was a lot of debate over the user interface. Did we move to a question and answer decision tree that would get you to the right answers or do we assume the operator is a trained SSI CR and make it not that user friendly? The deciding factor was the fear that if the system was built to "let anyone do it" regarding user-friendliness, that could allow the SSI CR job to be downgraded. Operations decided that the interface should assume a well trained SSI CR is completing the screens. The rest is history.
We have had 40 years building systems the old way, it barely works anymore. And the real world has demonstrated that there are real being used in real life approaches that do work and can be used at SSA. Change is uncomfortable but the old way of doing things in Systems is going away, the old way of making products is evolving before your eyes and whether you like it or not, change is happening.
3) People often forget that the reason we automate things is to be more efficient - it supports the mission of the agency. It's not done for making employees more comfortable, but that is a nice side benefit if it happens. The purpose is to improve agency performance. And that may make some Systems employees yearn for the old days (when their old skills still had value) and field people yearning for the old days (because they memorized the old system) but face it, change is happening. And it has nothing to do with disrespecting the input of employees. But employees forget that the agency doesn't exist to support them, keep them comfortable and cozy and unthreatened. They exist to support the mission of the agency and are resources used to do that. If they no longer can do what the agency needs, maybe it's time to find something else to do if they cannot keep pace. Likely both the agency and the ex-employee would be happier.
4) Klopp being asked to stay on is a pragmatic thing not related to hiring freeze. The new administration is bringing in thousands of new hires, and plenty of folks are staying on because they were asked to. While their positions were and are political, they understand their work is on behalf of the American people and so stay until their replacement is named. This is a highly technical and specialized area and frankly what SSA is doing is being watched by CIOs at other agencies interested in seeing if it succeeds. It makes sense not to change horses in mid-stream.
5) Funny how people bemoan the new way of doing things yet DCPS is an example of just why change must happen. It's the poster child for why the old way just cannot provide results anymore. And the new DCPS coming out later this year isn't out yet but it's prototyping approach has given both developers and end users so much input and feedback that it'll be interesting to see what people say. And if they understand that updates will be much more frequent, that the program isn't going to be static.
I'm personally interested in just how end users react to the fast change, incremental improvements that will mean that the program is always changing, adding new features and fixing things quickly. Will people adjust or fall back on "I need classroom training with this new drop down option to do my job".
914/915
You make a cogent argument. However, until you realize that our system, no matter hoe much you try to cut them out, is still administered by humans for the benefit of other humans, your way will not be as successful or as efficient as you wish.
I'm with 9:09 // 641, a firm would simply never tolerate someone without basic computer operation and Microsoft office skills. And they wouldn't train you. Basically, no one cares that you didn't grow up with technology. You have to adapt. No one would have gall to admit or show they lacked basic computer skills, it would be akin to asking for a pink slip. None of the programs we have been asked to use recently require more than that. The programs they design for us are actually pretty good now its just the old PCOM stuff that is terrible.
I think the supervisor who commented above may be an anomaly. People forget there are like 160+ ODARs and 1200 field offices. I haven't seen many problems in my office. Even the old timers were able to run the new macro for the mental listings. All our judges are typing instructions now. I guess all the old timers have retired or been "forced out." I notice that people seem to spontaneously develop the computer skill needed to telework. The old timers always want ODAR run like a law firm, yet they forget or maybe have not worked in a big firm in the past couple decades, firms are ruthless as hell.
1048 You don't know what you are talking about. Sure young associates better be techno wizards, but mid-level lawyers and partners, not so much.
6:41 here.
Many commenters appear to have missed my assertion that I adapted well to the use of a computer in my job. I stand firm I am able to use it better than the corrupt manager responsible for illegally forcing me out of my career, not too mention many others, especially ALJ's, who are still there.
I have made other more detailed, insightful comments, which unfortunately, have not been posted.
lol obviously partners do what they want they own the company. "mid-levels" barely exist and are in their late 30s, they're computer savy. This isn't a firm you don't get a secretary and you shouldn't the job isn't hard enough to need one. You type a word document and scan medical records all day quit demanding to be coddled and adapt to the market before you get outsourced. You're the reason Bannon hates us.
I keep seeing "Old Timer's," used in these comments. What exactly is an, "Old Timer, anyway?"
Is it the 53 year old SA illegally forced out of her career 3 years ago, or is it the corrupt former ROCALJ responsible for doing so, who I have no doubt is no more proficient with a computer than she, if nearly as much? Or, is it any of his higher level bosses in Falls Church and Baltimore who have covered-up, protected, and shielded him from any accountability whatsoever, and further placated him by relocating an entire Hearings Office near his home? Are these top level Agency officials any better versed with the use of a computer than the SA who was forced out? Indeed, could ANY of them actually write a legally sufficient ALJ decision on an Agency computer, let alone do so day in and day out, meet unreasonable production quotas they have set no less, and do this over a period of several years? I doubt it.
@11:34
Your remarks intimate you are management. However, the quality of your writing and typing skills based on your comment sucks. Yea, we are all supposed to respect people like you who obviously cannot write or type worth a damn. Ha!
You should be able to write an ALJ decision with a quill pen and iron ink. This isn't Constitutional LAW for the SCOTUS, its insurance work.
An old timer is someone who has been working for the same organization for 20+ years. Yea Garmon was an old timer. Its not always bad, there is value in experience. The problems occur when the old timers are vehemently opposed to any change for seemingly no reason and refuse to adapt to changing conditions.
I'm pretty confident they could write a legally sufficient decision on an agency computer. Its not hard. Anyone with a high school education and two weeks training can write a legally sufficient ALJ decision. The agency give you a laptop with a core i7 processor and 8 gigs of ram to type a word document. What more do you want? It's tedious, but they let you do it at home three days per week, pay you a livable wage with a benefits package. It's what you signed up for, quit complaining.
I'm not in management, I just don't think the demands placed on me are unreasonable and I don't think anyone is out to get me.
You're right I'm nothing without my spell check, grammar check and autotext.
@11:55
I did not sign up to have my laptop intentionally disabled in my office while I attended a training session; be given a laptop with a broken keyboard that could only be used with an attached keyboard; be told my "broken" laptop would be returned as soon as it could be repaired; the laptop given to someone else to use, while I am stuck for 4 months using a broken laptop that can only be used with an attached keyboard; finally informed 4.5 months later the laptop had been repaired, the work I had on it deleted, the laptop cleaned out to replace Windows Vista with Windows 7, and low and behold, the laptop given to someone else! Talk about making ones work environment intolerable? This is only one of many, folks. Discovery years later shows an invoice where it took only a day to repair the intentionally disabled laptop, even though I constantly asked when it would be returned to me, only to be repeatedly lied to by management.
As an aside, you all should know the HOSA in my office started answering phones at the reception desk in the early 90's. He was promoted to HOSA based on no special education or training. So, before you blatantly lash out at writer's and other staff, ask yourselves who is responsible for this? Remember what I said about favorites, and how management ignores Merit System Principles and PPP's?
The commenter above who indicates she believes Garmon could write a legally sufficient ALJ decision on an Agency computer, do so meeting unreasonable production quotas, and over a period of several years? I am LMAO so hard I can barely stand up. Talk about drinking the Agency's koi laid? You are nothing more than a management shill. Garmon is an overweight ALJ whose actions over the years show he only cares about himself, keeping his bloated salary, power, prestige, etc., whom I know could NEVER do this!
The fact is we are NOT modernizing our IT infrastructure. We are modernization one application...DCPS...which is 500 MILLION dollars over budget was mismanaged by SSA and two different contracting companies and should have been deployed two years ago.
Yes Klopp is blowing some serious smoke.
You guys know that the company (MicroPact ) who currently has the contracts for our DDS's already has a replacement for their legacy products and has been ready to roll it out for some time now right....OOOPS!!!!
I thought Klopp was supposed to be a Silicon Valley visionary?
I'm trying to imagine a scenario where I could piss someone off so much that they would want to intentionally break my computer. There are a couple people here that play the victim card HARD. Some of this stuff sounds like it happened years ago, Garmon was moved. You never hear his name anymore. Maybe it's true but it seems more anecdotal to me. Out of 60K employees there's bound to be some negative experiences.
Anonymous said...
I thought Klopp was supposed to be a Silicon Valley visionary?
12:23 PM, January 31, 2017
_____________________________
Well he did say last year in an interview that he was going to re-write all of our applications. He hasn't re-written anything so far. Blowing smoke is a good way to put it.
Wow the whining of coddled overpaid federal employees is loud. Here is a clue, don't like QUIT! Try finding a job doing so little and get paid so much with such great benefits and time off policies. Hopefully we will see a 30% reduction in fed employee salaries with the new POTUS to give the tax payer a better return on the dollar.
Who ever said that revamping our SSA systems would be easy???
The 1st comment was regarding how we are not doing that at all VS what Klopp was and has been implying.
We don't have the staff or the knowledge to even attempt it.
And as previous commentators have said DCPS is WAY over budget and has been mis-manged multiple times. What's funny is the person who originally was ultimately in charge of the 1st debacle got a PROMOTION.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Wow the whining of coddled overpaid federal employees is loud. Here is a clue, don't like QUIT! Try finding a job doing so little and get paid so much with such great benefits and time off policies. Hopefully we will see a 30% reduction in fed employee salaries with the new POTUS to give the tax payer a better return on the dollar.
12:49 PM, January 31, 2017
__________________________
so pointing out that Klopp is blowing smoke is whining......wow who knew??
@12:33 stated, "I'm trying to imagine a scenario where I could piss someone off so much that they would want to intentionally break my computer."
Seriously, are you really this clueless? Please do not tell us you are an Attorney? If you cannot envision this happening, then you have clearly been so coddled and protected throughout your life you live in an alternate/fantasy reality. This is only ONE of many things done to me. My story has been detailed at length and corroborated numerous times on this blog. Try Googling sex discrimination in the context of domestic violence; coworkers, including ALJ's and Management, acting as proxy on behalf of an ex-husband to destroy ones career and life; disability discrimination; hostile work envrinoment and harassment; retaliation rampant at SSA ODAR; documented history and refusal by Garmon and others to honor merit system principles and engage in PPP's to illegally force people out of their jobs at SSA ODAR; workplace mobbing and bulling, check out "Minding The Workplace" online.
Before you open mouth and insert foot, try opening your eyes to the real world, as opposed to alternate facts which do not exist.
Try asking yourself why SSA ODAR, and Garmon specifically, have a track record of keeping employees who lack critical thinking skills, or are simply blind to the world around them, and take pride in forcing out the best and the brightest? Could it be they are easier to control and manipulate? That Garmon, and his minions (favorites) have an inferiority complex?
12:53 stated, " What's funny is the person who originally was ultimately in charge of the 1st debacle got a PROMOTION."
Of course they did! This is the way SSA operates! There are ONLY favorites. There are no pesky merit system principles, and engaging in PPP's is a fun game management likes to play.
@12:33 remarked, "...Garmon was moved. You never hear his name anymore."
Once again, you are apparently not well acclimated with the real world. For starters, try Googling, "Bad Odor/Smell in Atlanta," Atlanta TV News Reports linked on this blog not long ago, or you could ask a member of the AALJ why they sued him last year for relocating a Hearings Office near his home inconvenient to everyone but him.
Are you aware when you make comments like this, you proclaim to the world you are okay with organizational discrimination, e.g., which is where there are one distinct set of rules for management and TPTB, and entirely different set for everyone else? Garmon's conduct is the epitome of this. In other words, it's perfectly fine NOT to hold him accountable for known misconduct and wrongdoing, e.g., a long track record of illegally forcing people of their jobs, rampant engagement in PPP's to skirt around Merit System Principles, to name a few.
In a world where the POTUS has banned a religion from entering the country the stupid continuous banal rants of one poster seem ever more annoying.
First World Problems
11:55 stated, "An old timer is someone who has been working for the same organization for 20+ years."
Wow. How many of you Agency employees actually believe this? For those of you closely approaching 20+ years with the Agency, is this the way you want the Agency and those you work with to view your career?
It will be interesting to see how those recently entering the workforce will react to such a remark once they have been with the Agency 20+ years, like their job, and plan on making a career out of it. Will you feel the same then? How will you react when a corrupt management team tries to force you out of your job for no good reason?
I was only 53 when I was forced out 3 years ago. I hardly thought of myself as an, "Old Timer." Further, I was very good at my job. How will any of you feel when you approach that 20+ year mark, love your work, and such malignant corruption intereferes with the specific intent and purpose to destroy what you believed was a good career?
Specifically to 11:55, what will you do in the event this happens to you at the 20+ year mark, and you are pleased with your job? How will you react when a recent hire refers to you as an, "Old Timer," and believes you have nothing further to offer? What if you are only 53 years of age when this happens, perhaps with a family? What if you develop serious health condition(s), and the Agency refuses for years and years to provide the one RA you most need, but never answers why it would be an Undue Burden, and has the financial wherewithall to relocate a Hearings Office near the persons home ultimately responsible for what happened to you? He continues to receive a bloated salary, is given a big job title out of Falls Church even though he is not there, while you and/or your family have nothing and struggle financially?
You may recall I earned numerous QSI's and Performance Awards through the years for both quality and quantity. Yet, look at where it got me. Unfortunately, these types of things can and do happen at an ever increasing pace in America today, and I suspect these types of things are only going to continue to increase.
I was 55 when the private owner of our company walked in and said he had sold the business and the new owner did not need any of us. It is an At Will State, meaning we had no prior notice and two days later we were all unemployed. Then did pay out any remaining vacation days we had, no severance, no benefit extensions, nothing. He walked away with a big pay day and we walked away unemployed.
Know what we did? GOT JOBS! Suck it up buttercup, don't like it tough, it is a hard world.
Life is not fair. Sorry snowflake, but Old Yeller Dies, Bambi's dad dies, even Mufasa died. See, life is not fair, bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. You get up, you get over it and you move on and GET A JOB!
Your continued banal blabbering will not change what happened. You can wrap yourself in all the conspiracies, but guess what? They don't pay the bills.
To give you an example of how screwed up the system is... I hear some overpayment cases. These are fairly technical and someone at a lower level has decided that someone has been overpaid and how much. that someone comes to my hearing room and I usually don't have a clue as to how or how much. The lower level uses a software system that is incompatible with the hearing level system. They used to send technical experts from the lower level to testify at the hearing, but now refuse to because they are overworked. I have no way to even see what the lower level did on an overpayment case. This just one of many problems we have. I think our basic mainframe software is over 30 years old and it is impossible to change or so I am told.. We have three HOSA's or IT's as they are now designated. Their usual response is restart it, turn it off and turn it back on, unplug it and plug it back in, and I am going to lunch now. That last one was while I was having trouble with a remote hearing. She just walked off....
@4:12, it was Bambi's mom, ya mope.
@4:25 they are all venison now. Moral of the story, the lesser get eaten by the greater. Relax beta.
I see a troll, don't feed the troll. In virtual world he is tough and self sufficient with a beautiful girlfriend and big .... hands. In reality he is insecure and self loathing, living in his mom's basement or the rental equivalent thereof. He pretends to be a lawyer, but is probably a poorly treated IT slave. Have empathy for the troll, but don't feed him.
Beautiful beta speech, did you get a participation trophy for that too?
@4:12
Well, la-dee-da for you. I have been a Federal employee nearly 3 decades, and like it, or not, the civil service system protections still exist. SSA ODAR has not gone out of business. Further, what happened to me was not only illegal, but criminal. Do you think for one minute private sector employers whose employees engaged in such conduct cannot be held accountable? You better think again. In addition, this not only happened to me, but to several others, as well, over a period of several years, and the same individual was responsible. Much of this has been detailed on this blog in the past year.
Bad things may happen to good people, but good people have the right to seek redress, and obtain legal remedies, and that is exactly what I am doing. Your attitude that I should, “Suck it up,” get a job, and reference to me as a “buttercup” is despicable. You are a TROLL nd an IDIOT!
Oh I apologize. I forgot every single solitary item posted on this blog is about you and your infinite pool of babble. Please return to your normally scheduled delusion whack job.
Please stop feeding the troll, or should I say management rent boy.
10:35
SPOT-ON!
Management rent boy, indeed!
What an ignorant fool.
I vote for whack job being the most accurate so far!
Oh, I love whack job, too!
God Bless America! Pray for Senator Ron Paul of the great state of Texas and our new president Donald M. Trump. Pray for America. In the words of that great song and dance man Lee Greenwood--"God bless this USA!"
Dear Lord God. Please give our great new leader and president of the USA Donald W Trump the mind powers and blessing to solve these mechanical-technical problems of America's social securty administration. Hear his prayers for this agency and our great country. Bless all of the computer machines in this government. In Jesuas name I am a praying. Sha lama lama shalabama lama homa hom homa homina tole lama dala lama shamamabonga lama lama hear me oh baby Jesus deaest lord Amen.
"What's funny is the person who originally was ultimately in charge of the 1st debacle got a PROMOTION."
Yep, she's now the Deputy Commissioner for my component!
if you get fired from a federal position you have to be a total waste of carbon.
Totally man. Fur sur!
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