Goddard News - Top Feature

The Goddard News is published weekly by the Office of Public Affairs

The Core Financial Project Team Working For You

The GSFC Core Financial Implementation Team commenced a major milestone in preparing the center for Core Financial "Go-Live." The System Integration Testing (SIT) phase began with a kick off on 1/15 - 1/16. During the kickoff, GSFC project team members and testers discussed how to test, what will be tested and in what order. The actual System Integration Testing will begin on January 27th. SIT will help ensure that the NASA Core Financial systems (SAP, CCSI, Bankcard and Travel Manager) operate in accordance with process design specifications for the business functions of GSFC.

System Integration Testing will allow GSFC to validate that all solution components are working together. Beginning SIT testing 5 months prior to "Go-Live" allows GSFC to have adequate time to identify, isolate and correct any issues with GSFC's enormous amounts of legacy systems and data. By testing the Core Financial system, end users and GSFC, as a whole, can expect an easier transition.

System Integration Testing will be broken up into three iterations (passes) and will be completed on May 2. The following chart explains more about the individual passes:

GSFC Core Financial SIT Testing
Pass	Dates	Focus of Testing
1	1/27 - 2/20	Simple transactions within a functional area
2	2/21 - 4/3	Integrated, end-to-end business functions including all custom development components (Interfaces, Extensions, and Reports)
		Month-end closing activities coordinated across all centers
3	4/7 - 5/2	Regression testing for System Investigation Reports (SIRs)

Terri Keane, Core Financial Process Co-Team Lead, stated, "There is a strong implementation team in place and is continuously gearing up for 'Go-Live'. Core Financial is set to "Go-Live" June 2003 for GSFC.

The Core Financial Module will be the 4th Integrated Financial Management Module to "Go-Live." The program's other implemented modules include: NASA STARS -- Resume Management--, Position Description Management, and Travel Management. The Program projects its 5th module, Budget Formulation, to "Go-Live" in August 2003 with other modules, such as ePayroll, Asset Management, Contract Administration, and Human Resources, to follow.

For more information on IFMP, visit its Goddard-specific website, http://ifmpinfo.gsfc.nasa.gov/. For more information on the Core Financial Module, visit that page at: http://corefinancial.gsfc.nasa.gov