Background: The Federal Emergency Management Agency - a former independent agency that became part of the new Department of Homeland Security in March 2003 - is tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from and mitigating against disasters. FEMA can trace its beginnings to the Congressional Act of 1803.
President Carter's 1979 executive order merged many of the separate disaster-related responsibilities into a new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
In March 2003, FEMA joined 22 other federal agencies, programs and offices in becoming the Department of Homeland Security. The new department, headed by Secretary Tom Ridge, brought a coordinated approach to national security from emergencies and disasters - both natural and man-made. Today, FEMA is one of four major branches of DHS. About 2,500 full-time employees in the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate are supplemented by more than 5,000 stand-by disaster reservists.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as part of their reorganization within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is in the process of realigning their business processes, application functionality, and interfaces to facilitate the ability to interoperate within the DHS community of organizations and the Department of Defense (DOD). As this reorganization progresses, the boundaries between DHS and DOD, and their respective mission areas, will continue to blur until they become a shared information resource that will benefit both DHS and DOD.
After several years of coordination, FEMA and the JITC established an interagency agreement in September 2004. It’s approval within FEMA and DHS was based on a competitive analysis of alternatives, which included all 22 DHS component agencies, commercial vendors, and several DoD components. DHS was sold on this agreement based on rate structures and the capability of this organization.
Specifically, the FEMA requires the ability of their tactical communications and command and control capabilities to be interoperable with those of the DOD. This interoperability must be supported through re-engineering of existing capabilities, evaluation for adoption of existing DOD system/capabilities, testing of interfaces within a testbed environment, operational testing, and during exercises such as Distributed Interoperability Communication Exercise, NORTHCOM sponsored exercise events, and Combined Warfighter Interoperability Demonstrations. Additional efforts within this tasking will include information assurance product and system testing, cooperative research, development and technology insertion of existing, new, and advanced concepts, technologies and systems, and utilization of JITC knowledge’s and capabilities supporting distributed testing requirements.
JITC provides the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) support for Certification and Accreditation on systems supported by FEMA. Support to include DITSCAP, System Security Authorization Agreement Development, Security Testing, Documentation Review, Test Plan development, Identification and Inclusion of DOD and National Security Requirements and Other services directed by FEMA PMO on a full time basis.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The Joint Interoperability Test Command, Washington Operations Division (JITC, WOD) will establish a Central Test Facility (CTF) for FEMA. The CTF will provide a state-of-the-art platform to perform comprehensive and independent testing of FEMA applications in a simulated operational environment that closely emulates FEMA’s production environment within FEMA Headquarters, regions, fixed facilities and Disaster Field Offices (DFO’s). Example systems and applications to be tested are: Integrate Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), National Emergency Management Information System (NEMIS), Logistics Information Management System (LIMS), Personnel Resources Information Systems Mart (PRISM), Fire Grants, E-GOV initiatives, Geographic Information System (GIS), and Wide Area Network (WAN) components and upgrades.
The CTF will become an integral part of the risk mitigation program for IT within FEMA. The CTF’s objectives are:
- Provide risk assessment as part of the decision making process for determining the effectiveness and maturity of IT products, with documented conclusions based on objective evaluations.
- Ensure reliable products are delivered to users
- Ensure compliance with OMB circular A-130 and NICAP mandates for security requirements and application development
- Resolve interoperability issues prior to fielding
- Minimize impact on FEMA production systems and daily operations
- Avoid costs incurred by fixing problems after systems are fielded
- Provide realistic evaluations of prototype applications and technologies
The CTF is composed of two parts, the facility itself, and the testing regimen that supports a rigorous, effective test program. The CTF physical plant must model the current and projected information processing, storage, and transmission production environment existent at FEMA Headquarters, fixed facilities, Disaster Field Office’s (DFO’s) and regional installations. The test program must include the following activities:
- System and User Acceptance Testing
- Information Assurance Testing
- Performance Assessment
- Prototype and Functional Evaluation of Applications and Candidate
- Technologies/Products
- Evaluations of New Systems and Automated Test Methods
- Technology Integration/Migration
- Hotline support to resolve problems identified
