Just been told by a reputable source that JPAC "are not talking to anyone as JPA is down"! Isn't that the time they SHOULD be taking calls?

SBG

Still waiting . . .
 

Have just got off the phone to JPAC - they are saying the server is down and there is nothing they can do at present.

IS IT ME??????

Maybe we should write the following letters . . .

Dear PSF,

Come back, all is forgiven!

Dear Air Force Board,

What were you thinking of?

You must be ****ing joking, surely?
 

So one server goes down and that's it, game over, all pay matters on hold? No mirrored servers, independant power supplies, hot-swappable etc?

Someone should get a grip, and fast. No civilian business would survive for long with this approach to IT.

Good news at last - my BSA payment is in! Apparently there were 200 personnel who weren't paid their BSA as of this morning.....to all those - I sympathise!

SBG

Well I just found this little jewel sitting in my inbox when i arrived at work today. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence

lol - was just trying to post this and the pprune server was too busy!

Have you heard the one about users only being allowed to access JPA in the afternoon while they sort it out...?

Ironic, really, but whilst attempting to Log On to PPRuNe to add my anger to this thread (3 hours wasted this afternoon trying to claim expenses:{ ) when I receive this message from PPRuNe:

The server is too busy at the moment. Please try again later.

5 attempts and I'm here but now I'm going home!:)

FW

Just as well the Noo Labour Rental Air Farce is getting smaller by the minute. By the time they've fixed JPA to cope with the current number, the RAF will be so small that one person will be able to run the entire payroll on a Sincalir Spectrum :ok:

Website Overwhelmed
 

This is all a bit too familiar.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3270377.stm

"Details of the way a website carrying the 1901 census was "overwhelmed" by demand have emerged in a report from the National Audit Office.

The site had to be withdrawn five days after its launch in 2002 after visits from around 1.2 million users an hour.

The site was reopened seven months later and now caters for between 8,000 and 10,000 internet users every day."

Question. Who was the contractor that setup that website?

Answer. QinetiQ

I hope we've got our expected usage levels for JPA correct!

Re: #120. Well, SPG, sounds like a good excuse to pop a letter in the post to any old unit, advising them that you intend to bu**er orf on gardening leave and to contact you when someone figures out where you are, where you are supposed to be and when!

I suggest that might have been overlooked, along with things like log-ons and bank holidays...

Although...

So maybe some people will be able to log-on during daytime in the near future!

I am glad I got out before this debacle!

Why not temporarily return to the tried-and-tested method of paper and ink? Scribble on a memo pad "Boss, can I have some leave?" and keep the response. Lo and behold, "authorised absence" in 5 minutes or so.

Farrier. OK I'll bite! Somewhat disingenuous! Senior Responsible Officer for JPA = AMP. AMP is an...................Engineer!!

IIRC AFB actually comprises 12 members, 5 politicians, 1 civil servant and 6 RAF personnel.

Mind you I have had my password for over a week now and still have not made it TO, let alone past the login screen!!

Sorry Jess, not possible. Called allowances today to ask if I can submit claim on good old paper 1771 as I have no JPA logon/passsword yet. No, was the answer, they have been told paper is dead, long live JPA. They also told me I am amongst the many hundreds in a rapidly sinking boat.

Later read that JPA is closing from 1700 tonight to all but the HR people (shineys) for 24 to 48 hours so that they can sort the payroll as they think the system won't be able to cope otherwise.

I would like to have a small wager that those responsible for this mess, not the ones managing it now, but the ones who have already moved on, will already have been commended/promoted for their sterling work. W@nkers !

S_H

Safety....
Not strictly true as paper forms do still exist. For expenses , I believe it is JPA Form 016 that you submit to your HR Admin, then they will consolidate all the Unit claims onto a JPA Form 016A and send it to the JPAC EC for entry onto JPA and subsequent payment.
All JPA Paper forms are available on the AFPAA Info Centre, under documentation. You can print them off and have your own secret cache!! :ok:

Nope - and they wouldn't have "big-banged" it either, not for a mission-critical system like this (and before anyone thinks this isn't mission critical, where is morale going to go if they don't rescue this farce shortly (ie if we don't get paid)? Then again - can it go lower?)

This should have been live trialled for at least 2 months, which is a pain in the butt running 2 systems side-by-side but at least proves that it works properly instead of just doing a flashy demonstration to an IPT which probably hasn't got a clue what it's looking at anyway. Personally I had no doubt it would be a farce when I was doing the training - one of the bits of the emergency contact form (most of you won't have got that far yet!!!) asks "Is this contact your NOK?". A yes or no answer indicated by a tick or check box or something you would have thought? Nope - you have to click the little torch icon, type a * in the search box and then select the answer from the presented lsit which is either a ......... YES OR NO! Some bl**dy poorly trained techno geek showing off by using all the HCI tools at his disposal whether its appropriate or not. I had a vain hope that this was just a developmental software glitch which would be picked up by a moderately skilled tester, but no, silly me I thought they'd actually user test the software - how naive. And if you think that's a tiny little issue - wait until you get to try to fill in your posting preferences - it will take you all day just to trawl through the multiple screens full of options. I gave up after going through 5 screens and I hadn't even hit a RAF posting yet (Army comes before RAF in the alphabet - geddit?).:rolleyes:

The HCI on this project is pants. Poorly designed, user unfriendly and, as usual, we haven't invested in sufficient network bandwidth to cope with the demand.:*

Think yourselves lucky if you have never managed to log on yet - your nightmares have not yet started.:(

Cheers GW i'll take a look at that.

S_H

Flight Safety Implications
 

Has anybody sat and considered the flight safety implications of such a poor system.
In days gone by the whole idea of Admin Wing and Sqn Execs was to deflect the S*!t and make the whole process of flying an aircraft, whether that be training peacetime or in delivering a weapon in war time a lot simpler without the burden of taking frustrations airborne.
I would take my hat off to the first person who refuses to get airborne due to the stresses of either:

1. Trying to logon
2. Changing Password
3. Altering Next of Kin Details
4. Checking Posting Preferences
5. Submitting Travel Claim
6. Requesting Annual Leave

All that with the possibility that nobody will actually get paid on time this month and the bank manager, building societies and councils will all be demanding a reason why their standing orders and direct debits weren't honoured.
God help those who are trying to get onto JPA from overseas and are actually still doing a job out in Iraq or Afghanistan. Mind you JPA probably doesn't even know where they are anyway!
You never know maybe our lords and masters will give us all extra time away from duties just to cover the time wasted trying to logon etc. The productivity level of the RAF (to use bull management speak), not that we produce any tangible product, must have gone down by at least 50%.

That will be why many people who use this forum have been calling for the RAF to get rid of the blunties, REMFs, etc. Well people listened, the numbers of clerks have been significantly reduced and Admin Wgs are a dying bread on STC stns. And in their place arises JPA! Oh (alongside other reductions such as E2E) and fewer people to do all the !!!!ty jobs that know one wants to do full time.

As for 'tangible product' I would suggest that the number of troops moved to/from/within operational theatres, and number of bad guys coerced/attrited by the delivery of air power (kinetic or otherwise) within those same operational theatres is fairly tangible - and linked to tangible improvements in those theatres that the media choose to ignore because good news doesn't sell.

Climebear

You are so right.

However, my point is how long will it be before the first Incident Report reflects the fact the pilot was so distracted by the lack of pay that he/she failed to see the light aircraft, or was so frustrated pre-flight that he/she missed the fact that the already stretched groundcrew (also frustrated by the fact that their pay had not gone into their bank account) missed something off the turn around checks causing failure of a critical component?

I can't agree more, we have guys living to the line here, married with offspring and they are almost into the poverty belt in deepest darkest south oxfordshire.

Pity them when the pay system lets them down, creditors at their doors faster than a beagle after a fox. Where will their minds be at work, on the job or worrying about the money situation and the strife at home?

Beta Testers unite and keep on phoning our Lords and Masters (via the JPAC) to let them know what we think of this system.

The last 30 months can't come soon enough tbh.

Flight Safety - wasn't there a Jag film once about admin distractions?

I'd love to see the spec for this server system. Anyone got it?

Given the media furore surrounding the attempted/failed introduction of most Govt IT projects, the subject has been surprisingly conspicuous by its absence from the TV and radio (or have I just missed it?).:mad:

STH

The media seem to have other stories to fill the column inches with. Such as the NHS and the non-political party broadcasts.

Interesting that the JPA gods should choose to limit access time to try and sort the problems out. Does anyone think that will work. We will have the same number of users trying to complete JPA tasks in a small window, meaning that availability will be approaching nil (based on performance to date). If the whole thing is really that shakey, why don't they just switch off any access until they get it sorted. Of course, we could then resort to the business continuity fallbacks all of our Units have in place for just this eventuality....:bored:

Just seems pointless giving us access if we will not be able to log on/do anything meaningful because the servers are so slow. Best let the shineys get on with sorting it out...

Still, it's good to know that Govt hasn't lost it's knack of c@cking up IT projects. The RAF has about 40,000 people to track. God help us when the national ID card project goes live, and people do stupid things like moving house or getting married.

286
 

Believe spec for sever was 10 x 386 machines [linked] , had at a bargain price, wonder why? or was it 15 machines?

JPA outside the UK
 

Wow, certainly looks like the new 'son of SAMA' system is a real hit with all the folks back home in Blighty! As I am working in Latin America for the next 2½ years, hopefully it all will be sorted out by the time I return - but then again, maybe not. :confused:

Hang on a minute, with no JPA terminal within 9,000 miles of this place - and no plans to introduce one neither - perhaps I'd better get myself back to the UK sharpish to register somewhere. :sad: Alternatively, I can just imagine the scene at home when I tell the wife that I'm not getting paid until the new all-encompassing computer system recognises me! I'm sure I can count on my army boss to keep me in 'readies', as his hierarchy wisely pulled out of converting all of their pay and admin to JPA for another 12 months.:ok:

Now then, where did I put that redundancy application........

And some parts of it have been reduced to nil. At a secret admin hideoute in SW England, the old IT was turned off on 6 Mar. Its now 19 Apr and we still haven't been able to resume activity. That JPA egg-timer is begining to get on my nerves...:sad:...:{

Private Eye predicted problems with JPA when it was announced that the project would be run by EDS.

By the way Almost Done Beagles hunt hares Fox hounds hunt foxes:)

Ah the joys of posting while under the influence of ignorance:}

Having just left under the last tranche of redundancies, it heartens me to know I left just in time to avoid what I knew was coming. Having been a shiney for 19 years and moving from tried and tested paper and ink to exactly the same problems when SAMA came online that we, ne you have now.

Part of the reason I left to do real HR was that the Govt procurement process is the difining reason why every IT system and indeed every system is flawed and out of date at the moment they "flick the switch".

SAMA, SEMA, CHoTs (door stopper), EMIS, TAFMIS to name a few.

Just one thing bothers me and that is I hope my redundancy package is sorted and paid into my account as now i'm out, i won't get a username and password to check my details are correct.

Write to your MPs. It is a constitutional right, and correspondence should be confidential (it has always been in my experience). Ask them to ask a question during defence questions or PM's questions. Suggest some appropriate wording as a guide!

Actually, Jess, another constitutional right which the individual has, is to request a meeting with his or her Member of Parliament, at the House of Commons (be aware that MP's are elected representatives/servants of the electorate and that there is an absolute right of access). I have made such requests in the distant past, have always received very courteous replies and have invariably been granted meetings at the Commons, the tone of which has usually been most genial.

Whilst you will not change the world at a stroke, your MP will inevitably be affected in some way by what is said face-to-face, even if only to a limited degree, but he or she will certainly be affected by the fact of your getting off your backside and taking the trouble to personally and trenchantly enunciate your view on a subject of some considerable importance (such as JPA). A letter to an MP can easily be filed and forgotten, after a minion has sent out a two line BS reply.

If enough service voters take this course of action and it is picked up by the press, a national scandal may result (heaven forbid) and unfavourable comparisons made between the superb handling of the commercial sector’s vast IT projects (think high street banks, building societies etc) and the pathetically slipshod, incompetent handling of similar government projects.

Remember also that a very large number of “New Labour” MP’s are no longer in thrall to Bliar and his coterie and would be absolutely delighted to make trouble for the slippery little ba****d through the device of an Early Day Motion, which would firmly put the cat amongst the pigeons.

It’s called democracy in action.

Address and MP contacts here

Just spoke to my Desk Officer.... posted at last. 'Just logon to JPA and goto the workflow....' 'Erm, Sir, can't logon to JPA at the moment, in fact, having spoken to Mil Admin, I'll be lucky if I can logon tomorrow'

'Trust me TBK you are posted'.......'arrrrrggggghhhhh, I hate it when the desky says trust me'

When I could logon to JPA, they had halved my service and given me only 11 days accumlated seprated service instead of near 300!

Happy days

TBK

Arggh!
 

Quote from the JPA gurus:

The operating plan for JPA will be as follows:

20 Apr 06 – there will be no Self-service User access. Professional Users may continue to use the system.

21 Apr 06 – the staggered entry plan that was conducted today will be repeated tomorrow. That is, the following Professional Users may gain access from the following times:

0700 Career Manager
0730 Unit HR Admin
0800 JPAC EC
0830 Arrivals Clk
0900 Family Accommodation
0930 Single Accommodation
1000 Terminations
1030 JPA Expenses

Self Service Users will be notified when they may access the system. This will be done from the Operations Room via unit Chf Clks.

These access restrictions are to allow essential system performance testing to continue.

end quote


System Performance Testing !!!


Bit late in the day to be testing don't you think?

Maybe, over time, we could set up a whole department of individuals to operate JPA. They could work Mon-Fri 8-5 with Wednesday afternoons for sport. People who still could not log-on to JPA could go and visit this department, seeing a member of staff responsible for their surname.

We could call it...Personnel Flight Services or PFS for short...

Fcuk me - if I haven't just found a wheel to reinvent...

Get your hands off that idea, Dallas, the GEMS is mine!!;)

cheers,

GW

Choxaway---

Why are you e-mailing from just off the coast of Accra?

BUT...

At least the pay run worked!! I do however feel they're a little premature standing down the old systems just yet. After all, the money hasn't actually hit our banks has it.

On another note entirely. Has anybody else noticed that the logo at the top of the bulletin screens on the JPA-online noticeboard application looks like a bent and broken drawing pin - sums up the entire JPA experience!

I note HP have also claimed that it ain't their hardware so it must be the ORACLE software. Reading past the spin, could this actually mean HP have confirmed that the hardware they have supplied is running to spec - we just didn't buy enough (or powerful enough) hardware to run this processing intensive application:* . I also note they did their testing when NO SELF-SERVICE or HR PEOPLE WERE ALLOWED TO LOG IN!!! Great testing strategy - do it when the load is at its lowest and you'll look really good when the IPT people come to see how its going.:E

Standby for the next exciting service bulletin tomorrow when ORACLE say it ain't their software so it must be the users/hardware/phase of the moon.