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VETSNET: Repaying a Special Debt April 2008
The MITRE team is constantly reminded of who it really works for at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA's Washington D.C. headquarters has a constant flow of veterans, many with disabilities stemming from their service, and all depending on the VA to help them make the most of their lives. "You don't have to be down at VA headquarters very long before you see somebody coming in without a limb, or in a wheelchair, or blind," says Rob Jensen, executive director of the healthcare division in MITRE's Center for Enterprise Modernization (CEM). "It brings it home real quickly about why you're there working on a system that these people are counting on." MITRE's work has helped ensure that the system Jensen is referring to—the Veterans Service Network, or VETSNET—will be there for those who have served our nation. For more than two years, MITRE engineers have worked with the VA and private-sector contractors to get more veterans benefits processed and paid through VETSNET, which is designed to improve the processing of veteran's claims. The MITRE group helped the VA revamp its governance and procedural structures so that the agency could accelerate the number of veteran claims being processed in the VETSNET system as soon as possible. And that's exactly what's happened. Last year, roughly 10,000 veterans received their monthly payments through VETSNET. Now, more than 200,000 do. Moreover, VETSNET now processes most new claims for compensation and benefits—97 percent of them as of August 2007, as opposed to 5 percent during 2006. Sometime this spring, the VETSNET project will reach an important milestone: The records of approximately 600,000 veterans will be moved from the current system, the Benefits Delivery Network (BDN), to VETSNET. "That's proof positive that a program that was having serious problems two years ago came back to life and is roaring to a finish," says Jim Inskeep, program manager for MITRE's Department of Defense/VA program. Analysis—Then Action VETSNET has been in development since 1996, when the demands on BDN began to outstrip the 1960s-era technology on which it was based. But progress didn't come easily or quickly; an independent assessment performed in 2005 showed about one-tenth of one percent of all veterans claims were being handled through VETSNET. It was at that point that the VA brought in MITRE to help accelerate the conversion process and the delivery of VETSNET functionality. The MITRE team began its work with an analysis of how the transition to VETSNET had worked up to that point. Among other things, it found the governance model in place sometimes made it harder for software developers and senior policymakers at the VA to talk to each other and coordinate their efforts. It also found the some of the software systems released as part of VETSNET didn't always work as expected. The analysis was quickly followed with action. "We went in with a series of technical and programmatic solutions," says Kevin Waugh, project manager for MITRE's efforts with the Veterans Benefits Administration. "And we stayed with them shoulder-to-shoulder like MITRE does, and took them from the beginning to incremental steps forward." (See "Steps to Success," below.) The new governance model and procedural changes dovetailed with a streamlined process for developing software programs, which were being released at a rate of four per year. At MITRE's recommendation, that number was cut in half. With only two major releases per year, the VA's software developers could test functions at the same time and release them all together, rather than being forced to track multiple features that were in different stages of development. "Once we put all these things in place, they were able to make sound programmatic decisions based on decision-level information and not get bogged down on minutia," Waugh says. MITRE also put into action a process to examine functionality to determine what "done" really meant. During that process, the MITRE/government team was told of a software code developed by the federal government and private contractors that would help meet some of the requirements of the VETSNET system and brought it to management's attention. The new governance structure permitted the decision makers to act on the information. A quick validation test was crafted and plans laid to put the code into production. "We pulled it off the shelf, took a look at it, saw that most of it was well down the path to being complete, and said, 'You should work to release this,'" says Waugh. "And they did, which enabled us to accelerate the anticipated completion date." Getting on Track for 2009 A hearing last September of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs showed just how far the VETSNET program has come. Kim Graves, director of VBA's Office of Business Process Integration, was able to tell lawmakers that things were on track for the complete conversion of approximately 3.5 million active payment records from the VA's current system to VETSNET, with the final stage to be finished by June 2009. She also said MITRE's support has helped foster "a business-focused approach to this complex systems development project [which] has resulted in significant progress over the past 18 months." "MITRE was able to propose some pretty significant changes to the management of VETSNET that were readily accepted because of its expertise and its reputation as an honest broker," says Graves. "It's been borne out by the progress that we've made that having that type of guidance was crucial to our being able to execute this project." For their part, the MITRE team members—who include a veteran of the Marine Corps (Jensen) and the Army (Inskeep)—share the pride of their counterparts at the VA in seeing through a project that affects them personally. Says Inskeep: "It's one of the first times where I've been able to work on a project that has immediate benefit to me and my friends."
—by Russell Woolard Related Information Articles and News
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