During the past three decades, the Department of Education has created  many disparate information systems to support these various student  financial aid programs. As part of the COD process, XML is being used to consolidate multiple  legacy record formats previously used by schools to submit data on the  Pell Grant and Direct Loan programs. Progress in Implementing the COD Process, but Critical Work Remains, and Benefits and Lessons Learned Are Not Being Tracked

FSA has made progress in implementing the new COD process. As a prerequisite to implementing COD, in late  October 2001, FSA deployed its middleware solution in an EAI “bus”—an  IT infrastructure that uses middleware to access data from disparate  systems, transform the data formats as necessary, and route the data to  the appropriate requesting systems, thus enabling data exchange among disparate systems. The COD system replaces the Direct Loan  Origination System and the Recipient Financial Management System, and  it currently processes files for all schools participating in the Pell Grant  and Direct Loan programs. Development and implementation of the common record. Using XML,  FSA developed and began implementing a common record that schools  can use to submit student financial aid data to the COD system. First, FSA is behind schedule in  implementing the basic COD system. However, as illustrated in table 1, at this time FSA has only some of the  data necessary to determine whether it is achieving all expected benefits. FSA has recognized the importance of generating lessons learned in  certain areas. However, by relying on such an ad hoc process, FSA lacks assurance that  it has captured and disseminated all key lessons learned related to  schools’ implementation of the common record and could overlook  important improvements that could be made. As a result, schools may  encounter problems that could have been avoided or mitigated had they  known of other schools’ experiences. Recommendations

To determine the extent to which the new COD process is achieving  expected results related to customer satisfaction and financial integrity,  we recommend that you direct FSA’s Chief Operating Officer to  expeditiously develop metrics and baseline data to measure these benefits  and develop a tracking process to assess the extent to which the expected  results are being achieved. 2. 3. 4. Instead,  this report notes that the implementation is not yet complete. We modified this report to reflect that FSA plans to include lessons  learned in a planned update to its school testing guide. While this is a  positive step, it does not replace the need for mechanisms to  continuously capture and disseminate acquired knowledge as schools  implement the common record.
Why GAO Did This Study

To address system problems and other long-standing management weaknesses, in 1998, the Congress created a discrete unit within the Department of Education, the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA). This office subsequently adopted a new approach to systems integration using middleware (a type of software that can allow an application to access data residing in different databases) and Extensible Markup Language (XML)--a flexible, nonproprietary set of standards that is intended to make it easier to identify, integrate, and process information widely dispersed among systems and organizations. FSA's first use of this approach is the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) process for the Direct Loan, Pell Grant, and campus-based programs. GAO initiated a follow-up review to assess FSA's progress in implementing this process.

What GAO Found

FSA has made progress in implementing the COD process. Specifically, it has implemented (1) a new information technology infrastructure that uses middleware to enable data exchange among disparate systems; (2) the initial version of the basic COD system, which replaces two existing systems and is being used by schools participating in the Pell Grant and Direct Loan programs; (3) middleware into existing systems to support the COD process; and (4) a common record based on XML that schools can use to submit student financial data for the Pell Grant and Direct Loan programs. However, the implementation of the COD process is behind schedule, and its ultimate success hinges on FSA's completing critical work, including addressing serious postimplementation operational problems, and having thousands of postsecondary schools implement the common record. Further, there are important elements to managing any information technology investment that FSA has not yet completed: Determining whether expected benefits are being achieved. FSA has only some of the metrics, baseline data, and tracking processes necessary to determine whether it is achieving all expected benefits. Tracking lessons learned. FSA has relied on an ad hoc approach for gathering and disseminating lessons learned related to schools' implementation of the common record. To address this issue, FSA plans to include lessons learned as part of an update to its school testing guide. However, this does not replace the need for an ongoing mechanism to capture and disseminate lessons learned, without which schools may encounter problems that could have been avoided or mitigated.