FY21 Systems Inventory Questions

[bill-gehrke-hhs]

Two questions related to the Systems Inventory. These are not high priority items at this time.

1. Can you confirm that both Last and Anticipated Major Tech Refresh Dates are optional? Neither has a validation documented. However, while the guidance seems clear that Anticipated is optional, it is less so for the Last date.
2. The data dictionary still shows the versionNumber field as a varchar(10). Looking to confirm that this will be updated to varchar(250) to match the guidance.

Thanks,

Bill

[rydougherty]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for reaching out. Please see the responses to your questions below:

1. OMB is expecting these fields to be filled out for all Products. However, there are currently no planned validations to block submissions without Last and Anticipated Tech Refresh Dates. We will notify you, should that approach change.
2. We will update the versionNumber field within the data dictionary to reflect the guidance change.

[bill-gehrke-hhs]

Thanks. This answers my questions.

[rydougherty]

Hi Bill, I wanted to follow up here and inform you of some recent developments related to your first question. OMB is requesting that the IT Dashboard throw errors if Agencies omit the Last or Anticipated Tech Refresh Dates. We will update the Validations document accordingly.

[bill-gehrke-hhs]

Thanks for the update. While I can understand it for the "Last" date, I do have a concern for the "Next" date. In particular, the guidance indicates "Provide, if applicable...." However, unlike the Expected End of Life date, there is nothing about "N/A" in the guidance for the "Next" date. If it is going to be required, will there be an option to supply "N/A" added?

[rydougherty]

Hi Bill, The IT Dashboard will mandate the node upon "add" operations. We could implement this in one of two ways. (1) Treat a blank Last and Next Refresh Date nodes as "N/A" in the Systems data feed OR (2) Adjust the field types to allow for "N/A" submissions.

We can flag this as a discussion topic for the next vendor meeting.

[bill-gehrke-hhs]

My personal preference would be blank, rather than N/A, but we can support either.

My understanding from the above comment is that, while reporting of the last and next refresh nodes is required from a technical standpoint, both will allow for a blank (or N/A - logistics TBD.) This is an important distinction for users, particularly for the next date, as it may not be available/applicable in some situations and the guidance seems to indicate it is optional. As long as blank or N/A is a reporting option, I do not have a concern with the node itself being required.