User Requirement Specification (URS) for the development of an integrated Environmental Programme Management System (EPMS) for the Branch: Environmental Programmes for management of programme and project administration related to the branch’s environmental programmes.
Contents
Approval 3
1. Introduction 4
1.1 Purpose 4
1.2 Audience 4
1.3 Objectives 4
1.4 Background 4
2. Current system situation 4
3. Justification 5
4. Concept of Operations 6
4.1 Goal and Objectives 6
4.2 High Level Process 6
4.3 Business Functionality 7
4.4 Business Value Proposition 7
4.5 Support Environment 8
4.6 Acceptance Criteria 8
4.7 Concept Design 8
4.8 Development and Implementation Approach 9
Approval
Designation / Name / Signature / Date /National Department of Environmental Affairs: Chief Advisor: ICT Special Projects / Mr Kamal Pillay
Document Drafter: SITA Senior Enterprise Architect / Mr Nick Johnson
1. Introduction
1.1 Purpose
The purpose of the document is to specify the high level user requirements for the development of a system for managing the operational and management functions of the Environmental Programme mandated to the Branch: Environmental Programmes (Branch: EP) within the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA).
1.2 Audience
The intended audience of this document includes all the DEA stakeholders engaged with planning, management and monitoring of Branch: Environmental Programme projects and activities as well as potential service providers giving consideration to responding to a tender to be published regarding development of the specified system.
1.3 Objectives
The objectives of this specification document are to:
· Present a high level concept design of a system to ensure integrated programme and project management to enhance Branch Environmental Programmes activities.
· Present the functional characteristics to be
· Present the scope of activities required to complete the detailed design, development, testing and implementation of the proposed system.
1.4 Background
The Environmental Programmes (Branch: EP) DEA is also responsible for giving practical effect to the regulatory framework by identifying, funding and managing environmental programmes in all areas of environmental concern and in accordance to national priorities.
The major thrust of the Branch EP programmes are in the form of projects that are initiated through requests in the form of project applications by a broad range of institutions. Applications can only be submitted to DEA through facilitation of and in coordination with the relevant local authority associated with the specific geographic area of environmental focus.
There are currently approximately 590 projects encompassed by the EPIP and NRM managed programmes and these projects are partially managed through the use of several purpose built computer applications.
2. Current system situation
The Branch EP is utilising various systems outlined below for monitoring and reporting of EPWP projects, these systems are managed by the Chief Directorate: Information Management and Sector Coordination and are used by the two implementation Chief Directorates within the branch.
Chief Directorate: Natural Resource Management (CD:NRM)
Water Information Management System (WIMS): A Client-Server based legacy system for the management of Working for Water Projects.
Fire Information Management System (FIMS): An online system that was rolled out in the 2013/14 financial year for the management of the Working on Fire projects.
Eco Furniture Programme Management System (EFPMS): An online application that is being developed on the WIMS backbone and is being interlinked with FIMS, it is expected of this application to be rolled out by June 2014.
Chief Directorate: Environmental Protection and Infrastructure Programme (CD: EPIP)
EPIP Project Management System (PMS I): An on-line legacy system that is being phased-out but still utilised for reference purposes and for the conclusion of historical projects that were not migrated into the replacement system (PMS II), (i.e. Projects that had an end date before 31 July 2012.). This system is configured to link with an internal server for approval and reporting purposes only.
EPIP Project Management System (PMS II): A replacement project management system for the overall monitoring, management and reporting of EPIP projects, this system was also rolled out in the 2013/2014 financial year.
The above systems were developed, supported and maintained by three different service providers. In 2015 the maintenance of the relevant systems were consolidated into a single maintenance contract. It is the objective of current activities within the Branch to identify the desirability and viability of developing a single management system to meet the demands of all implementation functionality within the Branch.
Current process and information analysis work being done within the Branch has already highlighted a number of issues pertinent to formulating the design for an efficient management system for use by both chief directorates in the branch. A high level summary of the issues are as follows;
· Extracting consolidated reports especially ad hoc reports are laborious and extremely time consuming.
· All system changes, even small ones have to be submitted to the system maintenance contractor at a cost.
· Good characteristics present in some systems are not replicated on others.
· There is no data standard common to all systems in place.
· There is no functional interface between any of the systems
3. Justification
The current challenges facing the Branch : EP is mandated with the responsibilities as listed below.
Provide strategic leadership and overall management services to the Environmental Programs Branch regarding the following functions;
· Co-ordinate research, planning, quality assurance, and establishment and review of norms and standards for the programmes funded by the branch
· Co-ordinate the environment and culture sector of the EPWP, reporting, and provide monitoring and evaluation and information management systems support to the programmes funded by the branch.
· Manage the implementation of the Branch’s programmes in the Inland regions (Free State, Gauteng, North-West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga).
· Manage the implementation of the Branch’s programmes in the Coastal regions (Northern Cape, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal) as well as the nationally co-ordinated programmes.
· Ensure strategic leadership and overall management for Bio-Security Control.
· Coordinate the Branch administration services.
· Ensure the coordination and project management of the National Greening initiative.
The currently utilised systems have diverse levels of functionality and data detail regarding project activities and officials rely on an increasing number of off-line support ‘systems’ in the form of spreadsheets and other available documents to meet their decision making and reporting responsibilities. A disproportionate amount of time is being spent to consolidate information kept by different systems with volumes of manually captured additional information in order to satisfy standard as well as ad-hoc reporting requirements.
Effective content control is inhibited by the time consuming nature of making use of information derived from diverse systems.
The growing backlog of system change requests is testimony of the impending ‘End of System Life’ stage in varying degrees of the currently utilised systems.
4. User Requirements Summary
4.1 Goal and Objectives
The Branch: EP is responsible for identifying and ensuring implementation of programmes that employ Expanded Public Works Programmes (EPWP) principles to contribute towards addressing unemployment in line with the “decent employment through inclusive economic growth” outcome, by working with communities to identify local opportunities that will benefit the communities.
The proposed EPMS will have the following functional goal;
To provide an efficient and reliable data processing system in support of the entire value chain of Branch: EP functional activities and responsibilities. In providing this support the EPMS will have the following high level operational objectives;
· Contribute to optimising efficiency of branch activities.
· Ensure accurate and reliable record keeping of branch activities.
· Provide efficient and reliable access to the system for all categories of valid system users from project applicants to DEA top management.
· Provide an efficient and accurate data validation capability especially with regard to beneficiary identification and financial transactions related to project payments.
· Provide accurate and reliable data to the DEA enterprise wide management information and business intelligence framework.
· Provide a system which can react efficiently to changing requirements and operational prescripts.
4.2 High Level Process
The EPMS will support the primary as well as secondary activities related to the following high level process stream;
· Assimilation of relevant information and inputs in determining the strategic, functional and financial priorities of environmental programmes.
· Allocation of budget to the identified priority issues and focus areas.
· Calling for project proposals and applications.
· Evaluation and identification of viable projects.
· Planning of projects.
· Implementation, management and monitoring of projects.
o Appointment of project beneficiaries
o Training of beneficiaries
o Timesheet management related to project activities
o Project planning
· Reporting on projects’ status and outcomes.
4.3 Business Functionality
The EPMS project will be a priority initiative led by the National Department of Environmental Affairs to modernise the management of environmental programmes through technology.
The EPS solution will provide the following high-level business system functionality:
· Efficient role player management (Project Owners, Implementers, Contractors, Beneficiaries);
· Efficient management of project details. Details of all projects evaluated, approved in progress, completed, and payment details;
· On-line verification of the validity of beneficiary identification data against the most appropriate available data source;
· Comprehensive programme management by means of web-based, on-line access to update and maintain details and activities relevant to programme management;
· Efficient Project Inspection management: support for inspections, inspection reports and other quality assurance activities;
· Management of uploaded supporting documentation in an integrated document repository;
· Payment control and tracking, including credit card payments and on-line payments, and reporting for the purposes of payment reconciliation;
· Case management to record offences and non-compliance, and the eventual resolution or outcome of such violations;
· Efficient utilisation of Treasury suppliers database;
· Integrated project planning and implementation tools;
· Integration with office automation tools such as e-mail, workflow, messaging and scheduling;
· Enhanced capability to report in respect of EPWP to Department of Public works;
· Integration of programme management data with DEA data warehouse;
· Efficient access for DEA management to environmental programme data and reporting
· Integrated support data such as species register and norms data;
4.4 Business Value Proposition
Standardising programme and project management across both Chief Directorates facilitates maintaining efficient and accurate data management and management reporting to all role players. Incorporation of appropriate checks and balances enhances DEA’s capability to ensure legal and operational conformance to relevant prescripts.
The EPMS solution will aid in the following:
Management of environmental assets
The design and implementation of appropriate business rules in the system will ensure that there is a common understanding and implementation of regulations across all functional focus areas in the branch. This standardised view of all programme projects will enhance decision making in terms of managing environmental assets and processes.
Management of Beneficiary Empowerment
Central to the objectives of the environmental programmes is the concept of ensuring benefit to participating communities and community based organisations. Accurate record keeping of benefit delivery through effective beneficiary management will ensure fair and equitable access to benefit derived from the projects of the various programmes.
Monitoring and Evaluation
The EPMS will enhance the Branch EP’s ability to monitor the functional efficiency, cost effectiveness as well as the environmental and social impact of the funded programmes.
Interdepartmental data sharing
EPS will promote more efficient coordination and data sharing with external role players as well as critical government partners within the environmental and social cluster. More efficient provision of prescribed information to the Department of Public works related to the Extended Public Works Programme as well as data validation with the Department of Home Affairs role will also be enhanced.
4.5 Support Environment
The solution will be formally supported directly and through facilitation with appropriate service providers by the Chief Directorate: Information Management and Sector Coordination (IMSC) as well as the IT section of DEA. This includes a well-structured and formal environment, processes, methodologies and standards with service level agreements.
4.6 Acceptance Criteria
The solution will support business functions and processes of environmental programme management. Comprehensive system requirements will be specified in user requirements statements (URS) and form the basis for development and solution implementation acceptance.
4.7 Concept Design
The conceptual design of a system to meet the project and programme management needs of the Branch: EP is referenced against a high level concept process comprising a sequence of activities/events relevant to the entire life cycle of activities that take place in projects that form part of the branch’s programme. This sequence is depicted in the diagram below. Please take note that this concept diagram will develop some more as clarity on proposed system design characteristics matures during the current process and Information system project.
Emanating from the sequence depicted in the diagram above as well as information and insights gained from the ongoing process and information project a high level functional relationship diagram has been formulated. This diagram depicts the main characteristics required from the system. Detailed formulation of the dynamics and information relevant to each element of the diagram will be done in the comprehensive user requirement statements to be developed.
4.8 Development and Implementation Approach
The technical system design will be aimed at utilising a Rapid Application Development (RAD) approach.
RAD approaches emphasize the necessity of adjusting requirements in reaction to knowledge gained as the project progresses. This causes RAD to use prototypes in addition to design specifications.
Approaches to rapid development include Agile methods and the spiral model. RAD is especially well suited (although not limited to) developing software that is driven by user interface requirements.
By utilising RAD it becomes possible to identify a cohesive development sequence strategy and to proceed with developing the core functionality of the proposed system incrementally using the opportunity to include addition or unforeseen functional requirements into the design as the need is identified.