The beginning phase of the project was a system evaluation. The goal was to provide decision makers with a comprehensive understanding of the beginning status quo of the program. This would help avoid wasting resources on system components that were already functioning at a high-level.

The system evaluation was followed by a search for existing software that could be customized to meet project needs and goals. The project planners then explored the possibility of consolidating all the information systems onto a single platform to achieve integration and common access. However, the implementation of consolidation was judged to be too costly and time-consuming, and so was rejected as impractical. In order to retain the value of existing legacy systems and infrastructure investments, the planners chose to use middleware as a more effective approach. They required the middleware software to be based on open standards and to extend existing IT investments. The plan also included replacing and upgrading out-of-date hardware and ensuring that the hardware is capable of supporting the new applications and customized software. Continuous staff training was included as a key requirement.