Vision: An applications development infrastructure that provides integrated, consistent applications to Service Centers and partners of USDA.

Mission: The Applications Integration and Standards Team’s mission is to develop common standards and guidelines for Service Center applications and coordinate the integration of independently developed SCI applications to provide seamless delivery of goods and services to the Service Center.

Goals: The AIST has two primary goals: 1) Integration of SCIT applications and 2) Development and implementation of standards.

Integration of SCIT applications: Integrate "core" applications by the end of the Fiscal Year 1999. The AIST will analyze and define the scope of the "core" project. Continue to identify and resolve integration issues among current and future SCIT applications.

Standards: Identify and implement policies, standards, guidelines, templates, and best practices that facilitate application development.

Objectives: The Applications Integration and Standards team will define an infrastructure that provides integrated, consistent application development. The following objectives are to be achieved.

• Reduce redundancy and promote commonality among applications by identify, creating, and sharing common components
• Maximize the repetitive use of reliable items (e.g., components)
• Promote one-stop shopping by creating a common look and feel among applications through development interface standards including user navigation to Service Center applications
• Enhance and improve customer convenience through seamless delivery of goods and services
• Reduce bottlenecks in development by identifying project dependencies and high risk areas
• Reduce development time by developing standards, guidelines, templates, and best practices for deliverables throughout the development life cycle
• Reduce burden on service center personnel by "packaging" applications and providing consolidated implementation, including training
• Provide an integrated source of customer, land, and program information by analyzing the data elements required by applications
• Reduce database establishment and maintenance costs by creating one enterprise database architecture versus independent project databases
• Simplify and standardize the application development process by employing a common project management methodology
• Reduce occurrence of nonstandard implementation of hardware and software environments and stovepipe development efforts.
• Facilitate the placement of applications and data on the Service Center architecture