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The Information Processes Group (IPG) of the Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology (ICST) was created in 1981 and is responsible for, among other things, the development of methodologies for assessing the costs and benefits of Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). Almost immediately, it became apparent that existing cost benefit methodologies were inadequate to the purposepartly because they were based on "rhetorical", or idealized, models of the Federal ADP environment* and did not take into account the multiplicity of operational variations among the agencies, the complex interactions among the components of data processing system management and operations (see Figure I-l), or the sometimes extreme difference between the way things are and the way things ought to be. In other words, existing methodologies are sufficient for "ball park" estimates, butparticularly in cases where anticipated costs and benefits are less than enormous-the expected margin-of-error is unacceptably large. In order to reduce the margin-of-error, the IPG embarked on a program to describe more accurately the Federal ADP environment. Using functional flow diagrams as the basic tool for description, we hope eventually to have a realistic model of the Federal ADP environment. This report on Data Processing Operations marks the completion of Phase I of the program. Phase II, which covers Software Applications Development, is currently underway. The bulk of the work on this project was done by Dr. Marco Fiorello and Mr, Peter Eirich of Fiorello, Shaw and Associates, working with Aurora Associates, Inc. The methodological framework was developed by Peg Kay of ICST. Like most of the IPG projects, results were obtained and validated through considerable interaction with personnel from other Federal agencies. In this case, the comments and suggestions from the other agencies led to a complete rethinking and revision of the report before the final draft was completed. We are particularly grateful to personnel from the Department of Energy, HUD, the Department of Justice, the FCC, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the FTC, and NASA for helping to shape the product. Simultaneously with this attempt to improve the qualitative descriptions, the IPG looked for ways to improve the analysis of statistics concerning the Federal ADP inventory. The first product of that effort was the automation of the General Services Administration (GSA) data base. The first compilation and analysis based on the automated data base was completed in June 1982. As segments of the qualitative descriptive models are completed, it is our intention to apply the quantitative analyses to them and gradually to improve the accuracy of our cost benefit projections. Another serious barrier to accurate cost-benefit projections is the absence of reliable base-line data. This series of reports does not address that issue. iii While this program is primarily directed toward the improvement of ICST' s products, it is clear that the descriptive models being...