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TIPS & TRICKS FOR THE
OMB 300 DOCUMENTS
We're looking at the mechanics of
dealing with OMB 300 documents in this issue of our newsletter. Most of
our work focuses on strategy, tactics, and procedures for the IT
capital programming and management process, but we all get involved in
wrestling with some nitty-gritty mechanics that can be a real headache
and slow down productivity. We would like to share some of these tips
and tricks, and hope you find them useful.
The Document Environment
Agencies send Exhibit 300 documents
to OMB in XML format. The intermediary tools
are usually part of commercial applications software packages for
managing Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC) information
such as ProSight, eCPIC, and WorkLenz. Since most mortals in government
and contractor offices generally use everyday software products such as
Microsoft Office (especially Word and Excel), there are always issues
like:
- How do I get my MS Office documents
into the CPIC application software?
- How do I get the information out of
the CPIC application software and back into Microsoft Office or similar
products, where I maintain my ongoing documentation?
XML is great for large-scale,
standardized information sharing and publishing, but it's still a bit
funky for everyday use back in the end-user's office. The CPIC software
makers try to make the interface as gentle as practicable-such as
providing output in PDF and HTML formats, and sometimes in Word.
Jumping between the different
formats currently has a number of hurdles, and the following tips and
tricks are a few of the ways we have found to surmount these problems.
From Word to CPIC Software
Saving Word Documents as
Text.
MS Word documents saved as normal
.DOC files contain formatting codes that may appear in your XML or HTML
document as ~, ?, or ! codes (or other garbage). One way to avoid this
problem is to first save your paragraphs as plain text. Just use File,
Save As, and select TXT. Paste from the .TXT file into our CPIC
software, and check to see if you need to touch up word wrap.
Using Microsoft's Word
Count.
Given the text constraints in the new version of the OMB 300, we made a
lot of use of the word count function in MS Word, which is available
from the Tool menu. This counts characters as well as words. If you do
this, you will need to use the summary that counts spaces, as does the
OMB 300 format. One additional tip: XML will count any invisible
formatting codes, which take space, and these are not counted by Word.
As a general rule of thumb, an OMB 300 block for "long text" is 2,500
characters including spaces, but it is better to deduct about 4 percent
for hidden Word codes, bringing the count in Word closer to 2,400
characters.
You can avoid extra Word format
codes by keeping the text as simple as possible in Word, and this is a
good idea, because many of the codes become garbage in XML and must be
manually removed. If you have text that is already highly formatted,
copy it, and then Paste Special, using the option for unformatted text.
The Art of the Short Story. Providing
meaningful explanations and descriptions in the new OMB text blocks is
a challenge, particularly for the 500-character "medium text" blocks.
Part of the new art of a successful OMB 300 is to boil down your
message to a few key-point phrases, sort of like a politician running
for office on 30-second video clips and radio sound bytes. An important
point, however, is that the OMB 300 reviewers do connect these snippets
and expect a coherent story for the OMB 300 as a whole. It all has to
add up, snippet by snippet.
Taming the Gremlins in
HTML-to-Word Conversions.
Fixing Dirty HTML Output. CPIC
applications generally provide an option of exporting output to HTML,
but the resulting .HTM files can sometimes be downright weird. We ran
one Exhibit 300 .HTM document through HTML
TIDY, which identified 508 errors of noncompliance with W3
standards for HTML. Another document generated by a later version of
the same CPIC software package generated an astonishing 5,518 errors in
TIDY!
One new product of interest that
we're still testing is a European "HTML-to-RTF" program, a product of SautinSoft which sells for under $40 at
current Euro-to-Dollar rates. There is a free trial version, but the
paid version does rudimentary conversion of the OMB 300 tables as well.
In the past, we have been attempting to clean up dirty HTML by
importing it into Word and then doing a "save as" RTF files. We've even
messed with putting it in WordPerfect as a means of getting at the
unneeded codes.
PDF Formats
Using PDF Formats. Another path is using
the PDF output as a bridge for returning to the Microsoft Office
environment. Our solution was to use ScanSoft® (now called PDF
Converter3 at http://www.nuance.com/),
converting the several PDF versions of the same document into Microsoft
Word. The data tables are readily pasted and reformatted for Excel,
though you must add the formulas, if you need them.
Comparing PDF Documents. We
must sometime works with Exhibit 300 documents in PDF format. One
problem is how to track changes between PDF versions of the OMB 300 and
feeder forms. That is, we may want to see exactly what has changed
between the June 30 and July 31 versions of the same document. Version
7 of Acrobat Professional includes a function that compares versions of
PDF files. Go to the Document menu, and select Compare.
However, we have been
using Acrobat Standard edition that writes PDF files but does not
include the compare feature. As a work-around, we used the ScanSoft
software to convert each of the PDF versions to Word. From there we
used the Tools option for Compare documents. The result can be a new
Word file with the changes highlighted in red (like Track Changes).
DO LIST
As the dust settles from the
September 11th delivery of Exhibit 300s to OMB, you will
need to review your Do List. These may be some of the items on your
list:
- Update your portfolio and project
documentation based on the information in the OMB 300
- Brief your Integrated Project Team
about the OMB 300 and the project's status
- Begin planning how you will achieve
your EVMS targets, and take corrective action right away if your
variance is greater than 10%
- Make sure you have a process in
place for documenting and tracking your performance measures
- Include the latest OMB 300
requirements in your Integrated Baseline Reviews (IBRs) with contractors
- Prepare for the November and
December OMB "passback" of the 300s, making sure you've completed any
promised milestones and correcting identified weaknesses
- Update your project and portfolio
management plans
- Get on with the job of delivering
excellent IT services for stakeholders.
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