0. eCPIC Training: ITDB Monthly Validations Quick Guide
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1. Table of Contents (click on an error to jump to that slide)
Overview & Best Practices
Projects Section Errors
Project Life Cycle Cost is Less Than Total Activities’ Cost
Activity Planned Completion Date Cannot Be After Project Planned Completion Date
Project Activity OMB ID Does Not Exist
Each Active Project Must Have 3 Risks
Project Risk is Closed and Needs a Revise Investment Operation
Performance Metrics Section Errors
Performance Metric Is Closed and Needs a Revise Investment Operation
Same Date of Actual Results Cannot Be Submitted More Than Once
Missing Performance Metric(s) for a Specific Metric Category

2. Table of Contents, continued (click on an error to jump to that slide)
Operational Risks Section Errors
Investment must have 3 or more active operational risks when IT Portfolio OandM CY Agency Funding is greater than 0.
Investment Details Section Errors
The Investment Description appears it may be cutoff. Please ensure the description ends in a punctuation character.
IPT Contact Information Related Errors
IT Dashboard Submission Process Errors
This investment requires a baseline change, but no Baseline Change [Comment/Date/Type] has been entered for this investment.
Updating project is not allowed as part of corrections with reason code ‘Correction – Metrics Only.’
Project activity actual [start/completion date, total cost] cannot be updated without revise using correction reason code.
Investment Owner Has Not Certified That This Investment is Current

3. Overview
This guide provides troubleshooting steps and potential resolutions for some of the most common IT Dashboard (ITDB) monthly validation errors.
The monthly validation error language that you see in eCPIC comes from the IT Dashboard, and sometimes the same error can have multiple meanings. This guide is not an exhaustive list of common errors, but merely provides potential solutions and best practices for addressing some of the more common validation errors.

4. General Best Practice #1
In general, the following 5 Best Practices provide you with a good starting point in identifying the cause of any monthly validation error:
Best Practice #1: View what updates are being made to the investment in the ‘Detailed Validation Report’.
Validation Details: After clicking ‘Execute Comparison’ to run a monthly validation, select the ‘Click here to view Full Investment IT Dashboard Update Details’ link, which can be found below the investment’s name. 1

5. General Best Practice #1, continued
Investment Updates: This table lists any updates that are being made to existing data fields. The table references OMB IDs when applicable, and compares what is currently on the IT Dashboard with what is now in eCPIC and will replace the old value.
Additions/Deletions/Info: Lists any new data that has been added in eCPIC and is not currently on the IT Dashboard, as well as anything being removed from the IT Dashboard.
Rebaseline Details: This table displays the information that has been entered into the three Rebaseline Fields within eCPIC.
Validation Errors: This table displays any validation errors for the investment.
Validation Warnings: This table displays any validation warnings for the investment. Warnings differ from errors in that you can still submit updates for an investment with existing warnings. 2 4 5 3 6

6. General Best Practice #1, continued
If the validation error references a specific OMB ID or table, checking what specific investment updates or additions/deletions are being made to that particular field will often allow you to identify the cause of the error.
In the example to the right, we see a validation error that a ‘Release Every 6 Months Comment’ is required for a project with OMB ID 552. In the ‘Investment Updates’ table, we find the referenced OMB ID (552) and see that the Comment on the IT Dashboard is ‘Project Complete’, but that comment field is now blank within eCPIC.

7. General Best Practices #2-5
Best Practice #2: Based on the field/OMB ID referenced in the validation error itself, navigate to the appropriate field within a process in eCPIC, and check for anything unusual. (For example, if the error states that every Project requires 3 risks, and references OMB ID 12345, go to the risks table and ensure that there are at least 3 open, synchronized risks aligned to the project with OMB ID
Best Practice #3: Once you’ve identified a certain section that is causing the validation error, isolate the monthly update by selecting only that section before hitting ‘Execute Comparison’. This will allow you to narrow down the investment’s updates in the ‘Detailed Comparison Report’ to only the updates that are potentially causing this particular error.
Best Practice #4: Utilize the IT Dashboard Submission Instructions document to verify the requirements for a referenced field. Also, this document contains a table of validation errors, with some of the errors explained in greater detail in this table. The BY16 version of this document can be found at the following link on OMB’s MAX Wiki site:
Best Practice #5: Check the investments’ previous revisions to see what changes have been made since the last time a revision was taken. Also check the IT Dashboard Data Feed to compare what is in eCPIC with what is currently on the IT Dashboard.

8. Projects Section Errors

9. Project Life Cycle Cost is Less Than Total Activities’ Cost
Validation Error:
Project Life Cycle Cost is Less Than Total Activities’ Cost
Background:
This validation error informs the user that the total cost of a project is less than the total cost of its’ activities. Per OMB guidance, a project’s total cost must always be greater than or equal to the sum of its activities’ costs.
Location in eCPIC to Analyze/Address the Validation Error:
Process: Major IT Business Case Detail
Section: Section B: Project Plan and Execution Data
Subsection: Projects and Project Activities

10. Project Life Cycle Cost is Less Than Total Activities’ Cost
Validation Error:
Project Life Cycle Cost is Less Than Total Activities’ Cost
Potential Troubleshooting Steps:
Identify which project the validation error is referring to by comparing the project’s cost in the error (above, the cost is ) with the costs of the investment’s projects within eCPIC in the Projects table.
Once you’ve identified this project, it should be relatively straightforward to add up the total cost of the activities and ensure that this total is less than the total project cost.
Remember that any activities aligned to a project will be included in the calculation; if the total of activities looks excessively high or low, ensure that there are no duplicate activities, or that all of the project’s activities are still aligned to that project within the Project Activities table.
View the project’s data on the IT Dashboard to confirm that there are no other activities that are still active on the IT Dashboard, but were manually deleted at some point from eCPIC without first being properly removed from the IT Dashboard.
Preventive Measure: To avoid this error, ensure that when adding new activities for a project, the total cost of all activities remains under the total project cost.

11. Validation Error:
Activity Planned Completion Date Cannot Be After Project Planned Completion Date
Background: Per OMB Guidance, all project activities’ lifecycles must fall within their Project’s start and end dates. This warning informs the user that an activity’s planned completion date is after the project’s planned completion date.
Location in eCPIC to Analyze/Address the Validation Error:
Process: Major IT Business Case Detail
Section: Section B: Project Plan and Execution Data
Subsection: Projects and Project Activities
Potential Troubleshooting Steps:
Use the referenced dates in the error ( and above) to help identify which activity and project are causing the error. Ensure that the activity’s planned completion date occurs before the project’s planned completion date.

12. Project Activity OMB ID Does Not Exist
Validation Error:
Project Activity OMB ID Does Not Exist
Background:
This validation error informs the user that the IT Dashboard is not recognizing an OMB ID (in the example above, the activity with OMB ID 62583) for a specific Project Activity. Any data field with an OMB ID in eCPIC should already exist on the IT Dashboard.
Location in eCPIC to Analyze/Address the Validation Error:
Process: Major IT Business Case Detail
Section: Project Plan and Execution Data
Subsection: Project Activities

13. Project Activity OMB ID Does Not Exist
Validation Error:
Project Activity OMB ID Does Not Exist
Potential Troubleshooting Steps:
Check the IT Dashboard Data Feed to ensure that the referenced activity is on the IT Dashboard.
If it is on the IT Dashboard, ensure that the OMB ID is aligned to the same activity on the IT Dashboard that it is aligned to within eCPIC.
If it is not on the IT Dashboard, it may have been previously removed from the IT Dashboard. If you would like this activity to remain on the IT Dashboard, you need to submit it as a new activity by blanking out the OMB ID so that it receives a new OMB ID.
If you do not want this activity on the IT Dashboard, set the activity to ‘Omit Synchronization’ within eCPIC.
Preventive Measure: Ensure that users are properly removing Project Activities from the IT Dashboard. Once an activity is set to ‘Remove from Dashboard’ and that update is pushed, the activity will automatically be set to ‘Omit Synchronization’, and the OMB ID will be removed from the activity’s row.

14. Each Active Project Must Have 3 Risks
Validation Error:
Each Active Project Must Have 3 Risks
Background:
This validation error informs the user that a specific project has less than 3 open, synchronized risks on the IT Dashboard.
Per OMB’s BY16 guidance, each active project is required to maintain 3 open risks on the IT Dashboard.
The (in the above screenshot) is referencing the specific OMB ID of the Project that needs to be addressed.
Location in eCPIC to Analyze/Address the Validation Error:
Process: Major IT Business Case
Section: Section B: Project Plan and Execution
Subsections: Project Execution Risks

15. Each Active Project Must Have 3 Risks
Validation Error:
Each Active Project Must Have 3 Risks
Potential Troubleshooting Steps:
Ensure that there are 3 open risks that are set to ‘Synchronize’ and are aligned to the project referenced in the error by its OMB ID (11743 above). When a project’s name changes, the link breaks between the project and its corresponding risks, so you may need to go back into the Risks table and realign the risks to their corresponding project.
Verify that the referenced project is set to ‘Synchronize’. If the project is set to ‘Omit Synchronization’, any updates being made in the Risks table for risks aligned to the project will not be sent across with the update.
Check the IT Dashboard Data Feed to ensure that there are already 3 open risks for the referenced project on the Dashboard. If there are less than 3 open risks, you will need to isolate your monthly update to adding only the new risks to the IT Dashboard. After this update is sent, you should then be able to send across any other updates.
Check the ‘Detailed Validation Report’: If the risks for this project are existing risks, ensure that they are not being removed. If they are new risks, ensure that they are included in the ‘Additions’ section.
Preventive Measure: To avoid this validation error, always ensure that there are at least 3 open, synchronized project risks for each project. If you are removing risks, make sure that new risks have been added before removing old risks, so that 3 open risks always remain on the IT Dashboard.

16. Project Risk is Closed and Needs a Revise Investment Operation
Validation Error:
Project Risk is Closed and Needs a Revise Investment Operation
Background:
This validation error informs the user that a risk has been closed, but an update has been submitted for the risk. Per OMB guidance, only open risks can be edited. You can identify which risk the error is referring to through the OMB ID displayed (35045 above).
Location in eCPIC to Analyze/Address the Validation Error:
Process: Major IT Business Case Detail
Section: Project Plan and Execution Data
Subsection: Project Execution Risks

17. Project Risk is Closed and Needs a Revise Investment Operation
Validation Error:
Project Risk is Closed and Needs a Revise Investment Operation
Potential Troubleshooting Steps:
If a risk has been closed, it can only be edited after it has been re-opened. So, check what updates are being made to the risk through the Detailed Validation Report. You’ll know which risk is being referred to by the OMB ID referenced in the error (OMB ID above).
If you would like to keep the updates, you’ll first need to send an update re-opening the risk in a separate operation. After that update has been pushed, you’ll then be able to submit updates to the risk to the IT Dashboard.
Preventive Measure: To avoid this error, only close a Risk when you are sure that there will be no further updates to it. Note that you cannot remove a closed risk from the IT Dashboard, so if you close a risk you’ll need to re-open it to remove the risk from the IT Dashboard.

18. Performance Metrics Errors

19. Performance Metric Is Closed and Needs a Revise Investment Operation
Validation Error:
Performance Metric Is Closed and Needs a Revise Investment Operation
Background:
This validation error informs the user that a performance metric has been closed, but an update has been submitted for the metric.
Per OMB guidance, only open performance metrics can be edited.
Location in eCPIC to Analyze/Address the Validation Error:
Process: Major IT Business Case
Section: Section C: Operational Data
Subsection: Operational Performance

20. Performance Metric Is Closed and Needs a Revise Investment Operation
Validation Error:
Performance Metric Is Closed and Needs a Revise Investment Operation
Potential Troubleshooting Steps:
If a metric has been closed, it can only be edited after it has been re-opened. So, check what updates are being made to the metric through the Detailed Validation Report. You’ll know which metric is being referred to by the OMB ID referenced in the error (OMB ID 9091 above).
If you would like to keep the updates, you need to first send an update re-opening the metric in a separate operation. Re-opening a metric will require a rebaseline. After that update has been pushed, you’ll then be able to submit updates to the metric.
Note that for closed metrics, you cannot edit the metric itself OR submit new actuals for that closed metric, so if you are attempting to submit new actuals, you will also need to re-open the corresponding metric.
Preventive Measure: To avoid this error, only close a metric when you are sure that there will be no further updates to it, and that no other actuals will be reported for the metric.

21. Same Date of Actual Results Cannot Be Submitted More Than Once
Validation Error:
Same Date of Actual Results Cannot Be Submitted More Than Once
Background:
This validation error informs the user that a performance metric actual is being submitted to the IT Dashboard for a given date and metric that has already been submitted.
Per OMB Guidance, an actual can only be submitted once for a given date and performance metric.
Location in eCPIC to Analyze/Address the Validation Error:
Process: Major IT Business Case Detail
Section: Section C: Operational Data
Subsection: Operational Performance

22. Same Date of Actual Results Cannot Be Submitted More Than Once
Validation Error:
Same Date of Actual Results Cannot Be Submitted More Than Once
Potential Troubleshooting Steps:
Check within the investment’s Performance Metrics Actuals table for the referenced date (6/30/2013 above) to ensure that there are not duplicate actuals being sent with the same date that are aligned to the same metric.
Also check the IT Dashboard Data Feed for what is currently on the IT Dashboard. It’s possible that a performance metric actual with this date was previously sent, then deleted out of eCPIC.
Finally, check that no OMB IDs have been deleted from eCPIC; If an old actual is missing its OMB ID, the IT Dashboard will view it as a new actual even though it may have been previously submitted to the IT Dashboard. Run the ‘Align OMB ID’ function in the OMB Submission Module to ensure that OMB IDs are properly aligned.
Preventive Measure: To avoid this error, ensure that when adding new actuals data, you are adding actuals as new rows in the Performance Metrics Actuals table rather than editing existing rows. This will ensure that old actuals are not accidentally removed from eCPIC or the IT Dashboard, and that new actuals receive a unique OMB ID upon submission.

23. Missing Performance Metric(s) for a Specific Metric Category
Validation Error:
Missing Performance Metric(s) for a Specific Metric Category
Background: Per OMB Guidance, for any investment with CY O&M spending, a minimum of five Performance Metrics must be reported, across three areas: Customer Satisfaction (minimum of 3 metrics), Strategic and Business Results (minimum of 1 metric), and Financial Performance (minimum of 1 metric).
Location in eCPIC to Analyze/Address the Validation Error:
Process: Major IT Business Case Detail
Section: Section C: Operational Data
Subsection: Operational Performance
Potential Troubleshooting Steps:
If the investment has CY O&M spending, check whether the requirements in the ‘Background’ section above are satisfied: Navigate to the Operational Performance subsection and ensure that the required metrics are included in the Operational Performance table, and are all set to ‘Synchronize’.
If the investment should not have CY O&M spending, double check in the Lifecycle Costs table that there is no reported O&M spending for the investment.

24. Operational Risks Errors

25. Validation Error:
Investment must have 3 or more active operational risks when IT Portfolio OandM CY Agency Funding is greater than 0
Background: Per OMB Guidance, if an investment has CY O&M funding, it needs to have at least 3 active operational risks on the IT Dashboard.
Location in eCPIC to Analyze/Address the Validation Error:
Process: Major IT Business Case Detail
Sections: Section B:Project Plan and Execution Data; and Section C: Operational Data
Subsections: Project Execution Risks and Operational Risk
Potential Troubleshooting Steps:
If the investment has CY O&M funding, navigate to the Risks table and ensure that there are 3 open, synchronized risks denoted as ‘Operational’ risks.
If the investment should not have CY O&M funding, check the Lifecycle Costs table to ensure that there is no O&M funding for the Current Year.

26. Investment Details Errors

27. Validation Error:
The Investment Description appears it may be cutoff. Please ensure the description ends in a punctuation character.
Background:
This validation error informs the user that the Investment Description has been cutoff.
Per OMB Guidance, the Investment Description must end in a period, question mark, or exclamation point.
Location in eCPIC to Analyze/Address the Validation Error:
Process: Major IT Business Case
Section: Section A: General Information
Subsection: Descriptive Information
Troubleshooting Steps:
Navigate to the ‘Descriptive Information’ subsection within the ‘General Information’ section of the ‘Major IT Business Case’ process, and ensure that the ‘OMB Short Description’ field ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation point.

28. Validation Error:
IPT Contact Information Related Errors
Background:
This validation error informs the user that an IPT Member Role is no longer aligned to its proper OMB ID. Once a role is sent to the IT Dashboard, it must remain with its assigned OMB ID.
For example, the error above informs us that for the row in the IPT Contact Information table with OMB ID 3603, the IPT Role must be ‘Information Technology Specialist’, since that was the Role that was initially given this OMB ID.
Per OMB Guidance, the following IPT Contact Roles are required: IT PM, Business Process Owner or SME, Contracting Specialist, IT Specialist, and IT Security Specialist.
Location in eCPIC to Analyze/Address the Validation Error:
Process: Major IT Business Case
Section: Section B: Investment Detail
Subsection: Investment Detail

29. Validation Error:
IPT Contact Information Related Errors
Potential Troubleshooting Steps:
View the Detailed Validation Report to identify what data in the IPT Contact Table is being changed.
Check the IT Dashboard Data Feed, and ensure that the OMB ID/Contact Role pairings are the same within eCPIC as they are on the IT Dashboard. In the example error above, the IPT Contact Role was swapped for two contacts, but the OMB IDs that were paired with those roles were not changed accordingly.
Make sure that contact information is provided for all of the required IPT Roles (IT PM, Business Process Owner or SME, Contracting Specialist, IT Specialist, IT Security Specialist)
NOTE: For the IPT Contact Role of ‘Other’, the ‘Title’ also gets aligned to the OMB ID. So, for any ‘Other’ IPT Roles, you will not be able to edit the ‘Title’ once the contact has been sent to the IT Dashboard. If the ‘Title’ changes for a contact, you will want to create a new row with the new ‘Title’, which will receive a new OMB ID upon submission.
Preventive Measure: To avoid this validation error, edit the IPT Contact table through in-line editing, by changing the contact information, but leaving the IPT Role and OMB ID unchanged.

30. IT Dashboard Submission Process Errors

31. Validation Error:
This investment requires a baseline change, but no Baseline Change [Comment/Date/Type] has been entered for this investment.
Background:
Per OMB Guidance, updates to certain fields require filling out three Rebaseline Fields to provide justification for the changes being made.
This series of validation errors inform the user that the scope of changes being made to the investment necessitate a rebaseline, but the Rebaseline Fields (Comment, Change Date, Change Type) have not been filled out properly.
Location in eCPIC to Analyze/Address the Validation Error:
Process: IT Dashboard Submission
Section: Rebaseline Information
Subsection: Rebaseline Information
Note: Shown above, ‘Error 1840’ and ‘Error 1824’ are IT Dashboard errors that are also caused by missing rebaseline information.

32. Validation Error:
This investment requires a baseline change, but no Baseline Change [Comment/Date/Type] has been entered for this investment.
Potential Troubleshooting Steps:
Fill in the 3 fields required for a baseline change, which by default are included in the ‘IT Dashboard Submission’ process, in the ‘Rebaseline Information’ section.
Check the Detailed Validation Report for a list of updates being made to determine which update is flagging the rebaseline. You can use the ‘Warnings’ message to determine which updates to which section are flagging
the rebaseline (in the screenshot on the right, the warning informs us that the rebaseline is due to updates to the ‘Projects’ section).
Preventive Measure: To avoid this validation error, review OMB’s guidance on what types of updates require a rebaseline operation. When you are making an update to a field that OMB denotes as ‘baselined’, any changes to this field will require a rebaseline operation, and will need these rebaseline fields to be filled out.

33. Incorrect Rebaseline Type Selected
Validation Error:
Incorrect Rebaseline Type Selected
Background:
This validation error informs the user that an incorrect rebaseline type has been selected in relation to the scope of the updates being made to the investment.
Location in eCPIC to Analyze/Address the Validation Error:
Process: IT Dashboard Submission
Section: Rebaseline Information
Subsection: Rebaseline Information

34. Incorrect Rebaseline Type Selected
Validation Error:
Incorrect Rebaseline Type Selected
Potential Troubleshooting Steps:
Identify which updates are requiring a rebaseline using the ‘Detailed Validation Report’. In the example above, there are project updates requiring a rebaseline (such as an update to a project name), but the Rebaseline Type selected is a ‘Correction- Metrics Only’, which is only valid for updates to metrics data.
See OMB guidance for a complete list of which updates should be aligned with which Rebaseline Types, and also reach out to your OMB Desk Officer for more specific guidance on what Rebaseline Types are appropriate for different types of updates.
Preventive Measure: To avoid this validation error, run a monthly validation and check the ‘Warning’ messages to identify updates in which sections that are requiring a rebaseline. Also check the ‘updates’ section of the ‘Detailed Validation Report’, and determine which of these changes require a rebaseline, and which Rebaseline Type corresponds to those changes.

35. Investment Owner Has Not Certified That This Investment is Current
Validation Error:
Investment Owner Has Not Certified That This Investment is Current
Background:
This validation error informs the user that the ‘Is Current’ checkbox has not been checked by the investment owner certifying that the investment has been reviewed/updated in the last month. Per OMB Guidance, this checkbox must be selected each month before submission, and each time an update is pushed to the IT Dashboard, this box becomes unchecked and must be re-selected before submitting another monthly update.
Location in eCPIC to Analyze/Address the Validation Error:
Process: IT Dashboard Submission
Section: Initiative Definition
Subsection: Initiative Definition
Potential Troubleshooting Steps:
Check in the ‘Initiative Definition’ section of the ‘IT Dashboard Submission’ process that this checkbox has been selected.
Preventive Measure: This checkbox becomes automatically unchecked each time a monthly update is sent to the IT Dashboard, so once an update has been pushed, this box must be re-checked in order to submit another update.