Meet August 2009 Employee and Team Member of the Month
Rufus Washington
Office of the Deputy Under Secretary
Employee of the Month
August, 2009
Rufus Washington helped to lead the migration of Commerce Business Systems (CBS) to Web technology. He represented NOAA's interests in the Commerce Department project and adapted NOAA's plans as the strategy changed over time from its inception in August 2005. Washington’s team of database administrators gained expertise with the various components of the new configuration, installed the new software as delivered by NOAA and DOC developers, and supported innumerable test cycles. They conducted three mock migrations in advance of implementation. During this time, Washington and his colleagues continued to support the system’s daily operations. Washington also developed an hour-by-hour schedule, which guided the execution for all participants. His plan, combined with the experience gained during the mock migrations, minimized downtime and disruption for users. In fact, Washington’s team turned over their production work to the testing team two days ahead of schedule.
NOAA Satellite and Information Service
Team Member of the Month
August, 2009
Mike Kimberling is an indispensable member of the GOES-R Program team. He leveraged his knowledge and previous experience as a program director for a large government ground system development to guide and support NOAA through the GOES-R ground segment acquisition. Kimberling led the Gold Team that is responsible for developing the GOES-R specifications. Starting almost from scratch, the team developed the requirements, specifications and contract statement of work for one of NOAA’s largest acquisitions. Their work required analyzing lessons learned from previous NOAA and NASA projects. It was an enormous challenge to ensure that the ground segment would meet the mission requirements while maintaining affordability. Kimberling’s experience, leadership and professionalism ensured that the ground segment’s project requirements, planning documents and statement of work were of high quality and developed on time.