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New DII(F) IT System

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New DII(F) IT System

Old 5th Dec 2008, 07:54
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I think the secret of all this goobledegook is that the stars don't understand what they are told. Rather than ask or try and re-write in plain English, thus proving they don't know, they simply reiterate what they have been told.
A recurrent theme, from what I've observed.

Apparent lack of knowledge = weakness. Instead transmit, up until you get to very high level, whereupon you just go on visits.
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Old 5th Dec 2008, 09:03
  #122 (permalink)  
 
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PN I agree with you on this:
Odium, no it isn't. Atlas are removing perfectly good 19 inch and larger VGA VDU and replacing them with 17 inch DVI VDU. Then, if you want a 19 inch you have to make a business case to buy a new 19 inch display.
The connector isn't the problem, the contract spec is. You can get 17" and 19" VDU's with DVI &/or VGA connectors. On a technical note the VGA connectors mean that the PC video card will have a Digital to Analogue convertor, the signal will be transported to the monitor as analogue, and the monitor will then be converting the Analogue back to Digital so the image can be displayed, DVI just cuts out the need for the two conversions (the idea being to help maintain signal quality and system reliability-less to go wrong). VGA was great when we were using CRT monitors, but now the vast majority are LCD, DVI is a more sensible choice. However most monitor manufacturers still ship with both VGA and DVI inputs.

It seems to me that people are (quite rightly) hacked off because they are losing 19" screens in favour of 17" ones. This is a loss in capability, screen estate is a major factor in efficient working for those who spend all day in front of a PC.

Finally Dallas and PN I must violently agree with you concerning the 'knowledge' of some of our seniors, it seems the words of Trenchard have long been forgotten:

“Technical knowledge will, inter alia, qualify an officer for selection for high command”
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Old 5th Dec 2008, 12:23
  #123 (permalink)  
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Originally Posted by 8-15fromOdium
the words of Trenchard have long been forgotten:

“Technical knowledge will, inter alia, qualify an officer for selection for high command”
The corollary is 'broadbrush' or as our pongo friends would say, big hands, small map.
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Old 13th Dec 2008, 09:27
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Christmas looms and the earlier flurry of DII activity seems to have stalled. I gather that (from snippets gleaned in the mess) the future home of military air transport was never anywhere near ready to accept the new system. A series of compromises have been agreed by both sides to avoid contractual penalties. It seems the installation of IT into empty buildings was a 'quick win' for both sides; ie, no delay penalty for the MoD and a huge payment triggered for ATLAS.

Absolute madness. At the sharp end, we seem no nearer to getting what we actually need. The Sqns have been warned to expect to have to down (IT) tools for 48 hours to facilitate the installation of the system. BOCS is still a concern and it seems the whole shooting match may decant to Wiltshire (how will that work?) to avoid the legacy payments ATLAS demand. I may also have to sell a kidney to fund a DII laptop, (possibly both if I wish to use it whilst 'mobile'). How on earth can these costs be justified?

On the support side, already the CIS staff seem to have been thinned out, smacks of another short sighted knee jerk reaction to change, pretty much like the JPA TG17 situation.

Are ATLAS providing for the A400 and FSTA projects when they start to mature? God forbid.
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Old 15th Jan 2009, 10:49
  #125 (permalink)  
 
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MoD 'relying on outdated systems'

Public Accounts Committee have reported on DII, BBC report here. Full PAC report here. It doesn't make good reading - I was amused by para 16 on page 15:
The Department monitors the performance of DII using indicators measured by ATLAS. At the time of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report, ATLAS was not measuring all of indicators as specified in the contract. The Department can abate its monthly payment charge to ATLAS if indicators are not measured according to the contract, and if users experience poor availability or performance of DII. It has not exercised its right to penalise ATLAS where indicators have not been measured or have been measured manually. It has also not recorded where it has foregone abatements to use in commercial negotiations with ATLAS. The Department confirmed that all performance indicators are now being measured although some continue to be measured manually rather than electronically, and said that the results show the DII system was performing well.
So, in short, ATLAS are marking their own homework.
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Old 15th Jan 2009, 12:01
  #126 (permalink)  
 
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PIs are listed within the process statement. IIRC, to create a new account should be done within hours, to create up to 20 accounts within 24 hrs and so on.

Early on these PI were not know to either the customer or the worker. When it was pointed out they moved the goal posts and said the clock started when they opened up the work stream (ie saw the task).

When it was pointed out that the task had been acknowledged in minutes and was now 2-3 weeks over due they had another get-out-of-jail card. the work said "Awaiting user input" but they never told the user that an input was required

Once we got to know where the jokers were and started to hold them to account - at first we had not in-house POC for complaints either - things improved dramatically.

I remain to be convinced yet that they have a firm grasp of the size of the task - 300 000 plus users of whom possibly a third will change roles every year, 10% will leave and 10% will be recruited you have a basic churn of about 750 account changes per day!
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Old 15th Jan 2009, 16:05
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I read this article today and thought it was jolly familiar...

A shared IT system: what could possibly go wrong? | Technology | The Guardian
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Old 15th Jan 2009, 18:36
  #128 (permalink)  
 
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MOD computer system is on track

...but according to the MOD, everything is fine and dandy!

DEFENCE NEWS: 15 JANUARY 2009
Several national newspapers have reported that the Ministry of Defence has spent almost Ł1 billion attempting to upgrade the computer system used across the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII). The House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee (PAC) claims that the MOD conducted 'inadequate research' prior to installing the system and that a 'major miscalculation' has led to months of delays. The DII programme is on track to enable benefits of Ł1.5 billion over 10 years and has already delivered improvements to the operation of existing MOD systems, two early new capabilities to forces in Afghanistan and 'Single Point Of Contact' help desk facilities, providing an improved service to MOD users. MOD Permanent Secretary, Sir Bill Jeffrey, said: "The DII programme is one of the largest in Government. It has taken longer to deliver then we had intended, but it is being rolled out across the Department and is already delivering benefits. We are confident that remaining problems will be overcome, with the help of our commercial partners in the Atlas consortium. We have already overcome some complex challenges, and have learned the lessons of the early stages of the project. As the PAC report notes, the commercial structure of the programme is robust, and costs have been kept within 3% of the original budget."
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Old 15th Jan 2009, 20:20
  #129 (permalink)  
 
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Forget DII I would like to be able to use the normal pc system. By all accounts most units have been infected with a virus. My work PC now has a nice poster on it " Infected do not use" No forecast as to when this virus will be fixed. 90su have been mobilised to go to infected units to sort this mess out.

Anyway makes for a stress free day in the office, looks like an early stack tomorrow.

I wonder how far this virus has spread!!!
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Old 15th Jan 2009, 20:58
  #130 (permalink)  
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A static purple unit in East Anglia was out last week.

Interesting that I heard that by chance on Monday and only in writing in pprune tonight.

Do we know what the virus was? I had a couple about 10 days ago on my home machine. One where you could not opened a drive in My Computer. There was an autorun.inf file that refered to resycle.exe. It infeceted all drives but was easy to delete.
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Old 15th Jan 2009, 21:18
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Maybe they should have bought some Apple Macs instead.
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Old 15th Jan 2009, 22:29
  #132 (permalink)  
 
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It is a worm, not a virus, whatever the difference may be. This snippet came from our IT support chap as he yawned and moaned (they had to work 12 hours yesterday, dontcha know?) his way around the section looking at PC's. Lots of chin scratching and phone calls back to the mothership seeking advice. Even impending meltdown can't instill any urgency into SERCO................................
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Old 16th Jan 2009, 12:28
  #133 (permalink)  
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I would hope no-one who knows will mention what the infection is. Sy, dirty words, etc etc.

The fact of the infection is in the public domain and acknowledged though.
Public Service - Virus hits the Royal Navy and RAF
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Old 6th Aug 2009, 07:16
  #134 (permalink)  
 
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If DII is the F in Future?

Out of a bunker not that far from Watford, grumpy aircrew who came in over the weekend to prepare for DII/F were heard to say:
If DII is the effin' future, where do I get a life?
This reader has proof that it is easier to emigrate to Australia than it is to get your Migration File back from ATLAS.
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Old 6th Aug 2009, 09:23
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This reader has proof that it is easier to emigrate to Australia than it is to get your Migration File back from ATLAS
My unit were a bit clever and decided that we couldn't trust Atlas to save our migration folders and so we saved them all onto discs and then reloaded them. Dii came and by lunchtime we were up and running with all the group folders in the correct place and available to all. I have to say though that Dii is a heap better than NOA was....... colour printers.... scanners.... internet access..... I wouldn't give up my Dii laptop for all the tea...etc
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Old 6th Aug 2009, 09:46
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My unit were a bit clever and decided that we couldn't trust Atlas to save our migration folders and so we saved them all onto discs and then reloaded them
Great for the RESTRICTED system but no so easy for the dark-side...

I lost loads of data never to be seen again
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Old 7th Aug 2009, 09:34
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The rumour mill is working overtime at the moment. Seems that, due to a lack of funding (or rather a lack of control of funding) that ATLAS may not now complete the planned pan-MOD roll-out. Where does that leave us?
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Old 7th Aug 2009, 10:34
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Oh 'F'

For a bitter view on Govt IT waste, try yesterday's The Register. While it leans towards the geek and considers more than just Defence, there is one rant:
And I don't mean the sham of a 'citizen centric' soundbite which actually entails the producer second-guessing what a citizen might want. The public sector needs an information architecture where appropriate information is centralised but fulfilment is localised.
An attempt to decode this for aviators might say: The military sector needs professionals outside the squadron to provide, in a timely manner, all the latest trusted electronic information on sufficent PCs (sorry - User Access Devices) for the crews to plan their missions locally.

What do we potentially lose if DII applies the '80% is sufficient' rule of business and does a runner? We lose a solution to all the deployed user requirements, which we already know will not be delivered in what is left of this decade.

So What? There is so much electronic stuff out there: planning with task & control orders, battlespace management, orders, Int, maps, charts, weather & environment, threat with likely enemy intent, significant activity, own callsigns - locations - movement, freqs and comms stuff. Your fixers also place increasing relience on engineering and asset management stuff for modern aircraft. Isn't this what we need to fulfil our tasks?

How well would DII/F would do this? We are still waiting to see the proposals but there is no alternative.
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Old 27th Dec 2009, 00:58
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Oh dear. I heard today that the contract for the delivery of DII to all remaining MOD sites has been signed off. If this is true (I have my doubts), how on earth can the cost be justified? God help us if this electronic pestilance has been endorsed and is really on the way..................
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Old 27th Dec 2009, 05:58
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C_S - in August you were concerned that it wouldn't get rolled out. Now you are concerned that it will get rolled out.

Would anything make you happy?
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