FREP Information Management System

FREP Information Management System

(FREP IMS)

FREP IMS Communiqué 2.0

December 15, 2005

A)Key Messages

B)Introduction

C)Recent Accomplishments

D)Upcoming Events

E)Communications

F)FREP IMS Working Group

A)Key Messages

• FREP has struck a working group to implement a computer application (FREP IMS) to manage field information collected for Resource Stewardship Monitoring. The working group consists of staff from Forest Practices Branch, Research Branch, Information Management Group, Operations Division, and other key ministries
• The initial scope includes the two resource monitoring checklists: Riparian and Stand Level Biodiversity. Checklists for the remaining values will be developed, tested and implemented over a number of years
• Target implementation for this computer application based on the first two checklists is March 2007
• Communication is key to the success of any application development, and this communiqué is part of the FREP IMS project communication framework. Project updates will be communicated regularly and there will be many opportunities for feedback.
• Over 50 district and regional staff attended provincial sessions to gather and document user requirements for the design of the new application.
• Recently, a requirement validation session was held with a smaller selection of district and regional staff.
• Application development will be based on a consistent business process guided by the 7 steps of the System Development Lifecycle (planning, initiation, analysis, design, development, implementation, and post implementation). Currently, FREP IMS is in the analysis step of development.

B)Introduction

The purpose of the FRPA Resource Evaluation Program (FREP) is to determine if forest and range policies and practices in British Columbia are achieving government’s objectives for FRPA resource values, with a priority on environmental parameters and consideration for social and economic parameters where appropriate. To help realize this, the FREP IMS Working Group was formed to provide guidance toward development and implementation of a province-wide information management system that will be used by a wide variety of stakeholders in the Program. At first release, the system’s database will store data and provide the capacity to analyze and report out on checklist data, collected in the field by district staff.

Currently, the main portion of the Requirements Gathering Phase is complete. The Working Group greatly appreciates the time that many district staff volunteered to offer their suggestions for the new system. Although there remains a lot more work to do, the support of district staff is a very important and significant step to successful project completion.

C)Recent Accomplishments

In October, the FREP IMS Working Group held sessions in districts in the Northern Interior, Southern Interior and Coast Forest Regions to collect system requirements from the potential users of the system. The report “Ideas for Review by Potential Users”, drafted by the FREP IMS Working Group, was used to guide the sessions. The report was intended to generate ideas and discussion on how technology might be applied to support the core process of resource stewardship monitoring. All sessions were a great success and the Working Group appreciates the time attendees volunteered to provide feedback and contribute to the ultimate success of the system.

On December 8th and 9th, the Working Group held a requirements validation session with a smaller group of the staff who attended the October sessions. This was successful at re-affirming many of the requirements and at identifying a few new ones.

D)Upcoming Events

Early in 2006, Frank Barber will be presenting at the Regional Management Team (RMT) meetings and at the regional Resource Stewardship Monitoring (RSM) meetings. In the 2-day "Resource Stewardship Monitoring, Yearly Review and Continuous Improvement" session scheduled in Victoria on February 28th and March 1st, 2006, the working group plans to hold a final debriefing session of the results of the 2-day session in December. Feedback collected at this time will be incorporated into a final Requirements Gathering Report and submitted for sign-off by the Project Sponsor, Ralph Archibald.

By March 31, a Request for Proposal (RFP) will be prepared based on the Requirements Gathering Report. The successful contractor will build, test and implement this system, under the guidance of the Working Group. Figure 2 shows the overall timing of the development, testing and implementation of this system (first two checklists only).

Figure 2:

E)Communication

Please visit the FREP IMS website at or contact Frank Barber, FREP IMS lead, (Frank.Barber@.gov.bc.ca) for more information.

F)FREP IMS Working Group

Frank Barber / 387-8910 /
John Gallimore / 356-6986 /
Shirley Mah / 356-2180 /
Thomas Chen / 387-8013 /
Richard Thompson / 356-5467 /
Denis Collins / 751-7121 /
Sue Elo / 882-8879 /
Jim Dunkley / 751-7352 /
Mike Pelchat / 992-4477 /
Christina Mardell / 956-5089 /
Agathe Bernard / 692-2267 /
Alanya Smith / 387-8922 /