NOS Information Management

NOS's Information Management Office (IMO) plays a central role in providing IT infrastructure for NOS and NOS-wide IT governance, which includes strategic planning and policy development.

Automated NOS Employee Appraisal System

NOS Priority: Modernize our IT infrastructure for streamlined, cost-efficient mission support in a hybrid work environment.

The NOS ServiceNow Employee Appraisal System (SEAS) application was developed, tested and deployed in FY 2023 for all 1,100 NOS federal employee performance plans. Benefits of SEAS include better version control of performance plan documents with a central repository of all federal performance plans for better record-keeping purposes. Prior to SEAS implementation, performance plan record keeping was an ad hoc process that included keeping documents on program office shared drives or in Google Drive folders. Additional benefits include database records of supervisor and pay pool manager approval time stamps that can be overseen by NOS corporate HR managers. The application also has the ability to upload performance scores from the Performance Pay System (PPS) system. In collaboration with the NOAA ServiceNow Program Office, NOS is developing process automation applications that benefit all of NOS.

NOS IMO Supports NOAA Administrator in Delivering Blue Economy Keynote at the Esri International User Conference

NOS Priority: Accelerate the growth of the New Blue Economy and Ocean Enterprise

Dr. Rick Spinrad, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator, delivered the vision and value of the New Blue Economy alongside Mimi D’Iorio, environmental scientist with the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. The presentation provided a technical demonstration in the opening plenary session of this global conference that attracted over 20,000 attendees this year. NOS IMO staff provided a key role in supporting the NOAA Administrator and showing the world that by leveraging GIS for the New Blue Economy, NOAA is harnessing the use of ocean mapping, data collection, modeling, prediction, and analysis to realize the potential for individuals, institutions, and organizations to make better choices today and forecast actionable predictions for the future — connecting sea to land to sky. This powerful duo energized a global crowd illustrating how we can use GIS to demonstrate the value of ocean data, helping us make impact-based decisions as we aspire to solve our economic, environmental, and societal challenges. 

NOS IMO Play Key Role Supporting the Department of Commerce (DOC) & NOAA for the 2022 Office of the Inspector General (OIG) Geospatial Data Act (GDA) Audit

NOS Priority: Increase U.S. Coastal Resilience; Accelerate Growth of the Ocean Enterprise and Blue Economy

NOS IMO staff provided direct support to the NOAA Chief Data Officer (CDO) and the DOC Senior Agency Official for Geospatial Information (SAOGI), as well as the DOC CDO as the responsible parties for the OIG GDA Audit. This concludes an almost two-year-long audit, and a major effort from NOAA and Census to update our metadata, our metadata harvesting, and our metadata quality checks over FY 22. Sixteen out of twenty four of NOAA’s National Geospatial Data Assets (NGDAs) are led and managed by NOS programs, and NOS IMO staff coordinated the OIG Audit response across NOAA and in coordination with the U.S. Census Bureau. Key outcomes included input into the following: FGDC Technical Guidance, and the Office of Inspector General Report - The Department Needs to Improve Its Metadata Processes Under the Geospatial Data Act (OIG-22-032-A).

NOS IMO Co-Chairs Development of Documentation to Guide Data Governance for NOAA

NOS Priority: Improve operational efficiency and impact; Accelerate Growth of the Ocean Enterprise and Blue Economy

NOS Data Management co-chaired the team responsible for developing the new NOAA Data Handbook — including subject matter experts from around NOAA and NOS, the Handbook Data Team collaborated through many iterations to consolidate and expand on the Procedural Directives that the Handbook has replaced. This living document provides comprehensive procedures for data lifecycle management, including requirements, metrics, procedures, and best practices across NOAA.