BPA Fish and Wildlife FY 1997 Proposal

Section 1. Administrative
Section 2. Narrative
Section 3. Budget

see CBFWA and BPA funding recommendations

Section 1. Administrative

Title of project
Communication and Program Information Sharing Tool

BPA project number   5504600

Business name of agency, institution or organization requesting funding
ICF Kaiser International, Inc.

Sponsor type   WA-Consultant

Proposal contact person or principal investigator

BPA technical contact   , EWP

Biological opinion ID   

NWPPC Program number   

Short description
Design, develop, and implement a groupware-based information management tool to facilitate communication, collaboration and coordination of the Fish and Wildlife Program. With this central access point for all program information, participants could more effectively interact with others both inside and outside the organization.

Project start year   1997    End year   

Start of operation and/or maintenance   1998

Project development phase   Planning, Implementation

Section 2. Narrative

Related projects
It is a tool for integrating information from all fish and wildlife projects.

Project history

Biological results achieved

Annual reports and technical papers

Management implications

Specific measureable objectives
1) Develop better communications within and beyond the Fish and Wildlife Program.

2) Provide an improved mechanism through which activities are documented, tracked, and disseminated amongst team members and other Fish and Wildlife Program participants.

3) Reduce the time and cost associated with conducting Fish and Wildlife Program business by creating a high-speed paperless environment that provides users with on-demand electronic reference materials, up-to-date program and policy information, just-in-time verification and validation of program information, and connectivity to the internet and it’s resources (i.e., NOAA/NMFS, Fish & Wildlife Service, state environmental information, etc.) to facilitate research initiatives.

4) Increased information sharing and synergy of ideas.

Testable hypothesis
That increased accessibility of Fish and Wildlife Program information will create improved Fish and Wildlife Program performance. It will also lead to improved public involvement in, and understanding of, the Fish and Wildlife Program.

Underlying assumptions or critical constraints
As a systems oriented project, this initiative assumes that the Fish and Wildlife Program: 1) uses or intents to use computers to facilitate their everyday program and business activities; 2) has or intends to use a Local Area Network (LAN) or modem-based communications amongst program participants; and, 3) is interested in employing computer technology to reduce their overall operating costs, reducing the amount of time associated with collecting, analyzing, and publishing the results of research initiatives; and 4) increasing the productivity of the Fish and Wildlife Program.

Methods
ICF Kaiser proposes to use Lotus Notes version 4 as the Groupware delivery platform. This service environment provides a rich set of applications development tools through which the Fish and Wildlife Program solutions will be deployed. ICF Kaiser will use their in-house Lotus Notes application development team’s expertise to provide the Fish and Wildlife Program the best possible development, training, and support service. Should ICF Kaiser encounter problems that the team can not resolve, ICF Kaiser will draw upon the expertise of Lotus Development Corporation, ICF Kaiser’s business partner, to resolve these technical issues. ICF Kaiser will employ the built-in Lotus Notes Replication (file/data transfer) services to both facilitate communication and collaboration of key project issues with the Fish and Wildlife Program project team, and deploy any developed applications to their Lotus Notes server. ICF Kaiser will conduct meetings, development sessions, and training on-site, on an as needed basis.

Brief schedule of activities
1) Project initiation “kick-off” and planning meeting.

2) Analysis of existing computing environment, and development of a recommendations and implementation paper.

3) Joint applications development sessions with Fish and Wildlife Program users to understand and document needs, development of a needs analysis paper.

4) Acquisition and installation of groupware software (i.e., Lotus Notes).

5) Training of potential System Administrator of Lotus Notes environment.

6) Design and development of custom applications (an iterative process of development using working prototypes would be employed during this process to ensure that user needs are fully addressed)

7) Development of a user’s manual and training materials.

8) Conduct on-site training of end-user on how to use both Lotus Notes and custom applications.

9) Conduct regular end-user/administrator support and help desk activities.

10) Provide additional ad hoc programming, installation, and maintenance in support of Fish and Wildlife Program’s activities.

Biological need
Increase efficiency and performance in meeting Program objectives.

Critical uncertainties
None

Summary of expected outcome
A highly productive collaborative environment that will save substantially more time and money in Fish and Wildlife Program productivity than the cost to implement and operate this proposed project..

Dependencies/opportunities for cooperation
ICF Kaiser has worked for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) over the past seven years on various information management and decision support systems development efforts. These efforts have included the design, development and role-out of several Lotus Notes-based applications to facilitate the strategic planning process, team oriented issues, and regulatory workflow management. These efforts have directly resulted in cost savings, improved staff productivity, better communication and collaboration within NMFS headquarters and with Regional offices and Fishery Centers. Current efforts with NMFS Budget and Planning offices will lead to wider use and acceptance of group oriented applications focusing on improving NMFS’ communication, collaboration and coordination of business processes dealing with marine mammal and fishery management. ICF Kaiser also has assisted NMFS in the development of several reports and presentations to Congress addressing issues relating to marine mammal protection, fisheries management, species recovery plans, budget and planning, performance measures, etc. Integration of the NMFS and Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program activities could lead to synergistic savings and improvements.

The use of groupware technology at NMFS represents a shift in the way they conduct their business. With a reduction in their FY 96 and 97 budgets, NMFS is being forced to perform more tasks with fewer FTE’s. It has been demonstrated that group oriented applications are enabling NMFS to address the issues associated with the work that has to be performed, rather than how to actually perform the administrative tasks associated with communicating, collaborating and coordinating the business processes amongst the various geographically disparate groups that make up their organization.

Risks
None

Monitoring activity
Savings and performance enhancement gains versus the cost to implement and operate the system.

Section 3. Budget

* For most projects, Authorized is the amount recommended by CBFWA and the Council. Planned is amount currently allocated. Contracted is the amount obligated to date of printout.

Funding recommendations

CBFWA funding review group   System Policy

Recommendation    Tier 3 - do not fund