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- GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
- Washington, DC 20405
-
-
- FIRMR BULLETIN C-12
-
- TO: Heads of Federal agencies
-
- SUBJECT: Federal Software Exchange Program
-
- 1. Purpose. This bulletin provides information and guidance
- on the Federal Software Exchange Program (FSEP).
-
- 2. Expiration date. This bulletin contains information of a
- continuing nature and will remain in effect until canceled.
-
- 3. Contents.
-
- Topic Paragraph
-
- Related material..........................................4
- Information and assistance................................5
- Definitions...............................................6
- Acronyms..................................................7
- Program description.......................................8
- Agency responsibilities...................................9
- Identification of common-use software...................9a
- Software maintainence...................................9b
- Data....................................................9c
- FSEC responsibilities.....................................10
- Cancellation..............................................11
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- 4. Related material.
-
- FIRMR 201-21.403
-
- 5. Information and assistance. The Department of Commerce,
- National Technical Information Service (NTIS) publishes the
- "Directory of Computer Software" that may ordered from:
-
- Department of Commerce
- NTIS
- 5285 Port Royal Road
- Springfield, VA 22161
-
- Telephone: FTS or (703) 487-4650
-
- Order Number: PB 88-190962
-
- TC 90-1
-
- FEDERAL INFORMATION RESOURCES MANAGEMENT REGULATION
- APPENDIX B
- FIRMR Bulletin C-12
-
-
- 6. Definitions.
-
- "Common-use software" means software that deals with applications
- common to many agencies, that would be useful to other agencies,
- and is written in such a way that minor variations in requirements
- can be accommodated without significant programming effort.
-
- 7. Acronyms.
-
- FIP Federal Information Processing
- FSEC Federal Software Exchange Center
- FSEP Federal Software Exchange Program
- NTIS National Technical Information Service
- OTA Office of Technical Assistance
-
- 8. Program description. The FSEP is applicable to common-use FIP
- software developed or revised by or for Federal agencies. It is
- not applicable to software that is classified or proprietary. It
- is not applicable to software to which the Government does not
- possess full rights of ownership. The FSEP is administered by the
- Department of Commerce's NTIS under an interagency agreement
- between NTIS and GSA's Office of Technical Assistance (OTA). The
- program encourages the sharing of common-use FIP software and
- related documentation. Federal agencies report their common-use
- software to the FSEC. FSEC facilitates Government-wide sharing of
- reported common-use software.
-
- 9. Agency responsibilities.
-
- a. Identification of common-use software. To identify and
- make available common-use FIP software, as required by FIRMR
- 201-21.403, Federal agencies should take the following steps:
-
- (1) Review software within the agency to identify
- common-use software that may be of use to other agencies.
-
- (2) Prepare and submit abstracts of identified common-use
- software to:
-
- Department of Commerce
- NTIS - Federal Software Exchange Center
- 5285 Port Royal Road
- Springfield, VA 22161
-
- (3) Notify FSEC promptly of changes to or problems with
- common-use software previously reported.
-
-
-
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- FIRMR Bulletin C-12
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-
- (4) Make a one-time submission, within 15 days of receipt
- of the FSEC request, of the common-use software and its supporting
- documentation. Sufficient documentation should be provided to
- facilitate implementation by other users. It should contain, as a
- minimum--
-
- (i) A narrative;
-
- (ii) User instructions, which should include program
- interface requirements; system resource requirements; identity of
- the computer on which the software is operational; program
- language; the name, number, and release of the system under which
- the software is operating; applicable data communications interface
- requirements; and applicable error message descriptions with
- recommended corrective actions;
-
- (iii) A logic flowchart to indicate the ease of
- removal or addition of program modules;
-
- (iv) Sample inputs and outputs; and
-
- (v) Program listing of the source and object coding
- as well as available cross-reference listings generated by the
- applicable assembler or compiler.
-
- b. Software maintenance. The submitting agency is not
- responsible to another agency for maintenance of common-use
- software submitted to FSEC.
-
- c. Data. No data files or data bases will be included with
- the common-use software. No private or personal data will
- constitute any portion of the common-use software and supporting
- documentation to be reported and exchanged by FSEC.
-
- 10. FSEC Responsibilities. FSEC's responsibilities include--
-
- a. Maintaining a central library of summary descriptions of
- common-use software, including a complete index of the inventory
- and master copies of requested software and supporting
- documentation;
-
- b. Providing a copy of the requested common-use software and
- supporting documentation, at the published price, to a requesting
- agency;
-
- c. Editing, screening, and compiling agency abstracts of
- common-use software submitted for exchange;
-
-
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- FIRMR Bulletin C-12
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- d. Functioning as a central point of contact with agencies for
- information and dissemination of available common-use software;
-
- e. Helping agencies identify common-use software to satisfy
- their requirements;
-
- f. Helping agencies obtain information concerning technical
- problems with common-use software released through the FSEC by
- referring users to the source of the common-use software; and
-
- g. Notifying agencies of changes to common-use software
- obtained through FSEC.
-
- 11. Cancellation. FIRMR Bulletin 32 is canceled.
-
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- Thomas J. Buckholtz
- Commissioner
- Information Resources
- Management Service
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