Duties

Last week I briefly touched on a few details about my new job, but I didn't actually say what my responsibilities would be.  Let's fix that.

CAS Severn (CAS is pronounced as one word, "Cass," and stands for "Computer Applications Specialists") has a contract with the United States Government to create a computer program to reduce wasteful spending within Medicare.  I can go into more detail, but I'm not sure what I can or cannot share - I signed a lengthy nondisclosure agreement - but I think what I've laid out is vague enough that I should be fine.  This program is one of the ways President Obama is fulfilling his promise to free up money to pay for the Affordable Care Act.  I must admit, being apart of a company that will help to reduce the amount of money that the government bleeds on a daily basis makes me feel really good: it's something to be proud of.

Where I fit into this whole thing is that I will be writing the user manual for the program that is still being coded.  I've been spending a lot of my time while at work reading up on what we have so far, as well as looking at the requirements set by Medicare, in order to familiarize myself with the project.  It's really dry, desert-like even, but that's no surprise.  I'll mostly be taking data from the programmers and plugging it into a template, while still keeping it as readable as possible, which is the real challenge of the project.  On top of writing the user manual, I'll also be doing product testing to make sure that the program does what it's supposed, but that won't be for quite some time.  I may also give some presentations to help train some of the users in the new program once it's rolled out.

I just realized that I have a pretty vital role in a major project that will have a significant, positive impact on a well-established government program.  Holy wow, that's amazing.  This really is the time to prove to the professional world that I've got what it takes.  I'm ready and I'm excited.