Operationalizing Your Interoperability Project

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Operationalizing Your Interoperability Project

• Dan Hawkins

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This Session

• Whats all this needs analysis stuff?
• Is there really any need for a user committee
  before implementation?
• What have prior grantees learned and suggested to
  assure project success?

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Jason and Gary Input from the User Committee
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p. 8
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p. 65
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p. 81
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p. 139
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Jason and Gary Functional Requirements
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Operationalizing

• Assess current business processes
• Assess the interoperability baseline
• Define interagency business processes
• Define the current technology environment
• Fix the (newly) obvious problems
• Describe how current technology is used to
  accomplish work

p. 83
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Operationalizing

• Determine Stakeholder Needs
• Goal 1 Capture operational needs
• Goal 2 Open lines of communications
• Goal 3 Get invested stakeholders
• Develop General System Requirements
• Define general functional requirements
• Organizational Operational Technical
• Define general interface and integration
  requirements
• Create a conceptual design

p. 89
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Jason and Gary Acceptance Testing
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COPS Leadership
National Interoperability Summit May 24 - 25,
2006 Austin, Texas

• Co-sponsored by DOJ DHS
• Approximately 150 persons representing
  interagency communications projects from state,
  local, and federal government.

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COPS Leadership

• National Interoperability Summit
• May 24 - 25, 2006 Austin, Texas

• Challenges, lessons learned, best practices,
• and recommendations on
• Establishing governance structures and agreements
• Analyzing and documenting operational needs
• Project planning and management
• Procurement, contracting, and vendor management
• Implementation, operations, and performance
  measurement

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NIS Analyzing and documenting operational needs

• Problem Statements

• Communications is a function of operations not
  the other way around, which leads to problems
  with understanding, prioritizing, and
  communicating needs.
• Technical solutions are often sold to agencies
  before needs are defined. Vendors distort them.
• The goal of interoperability is ill-defined and
  situationally determined, making needs analysis
  difficult. Varying needs across jurisdictions
  disciplines requiring compromise on needs.
• Interoperability needs have been defined in
  technical terms, not operational ones.

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NIS Analyzing and documenting operational needs

• Lessons Learned/Best Practices

LL Use operational commanders to identify
operational needs. BP Use ICS incident action
planning and management principles in needs
statements. LL Command staff dont often
understand end-user requirements. BP Use
end-user scenario statements to describe
operational needs.
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NIS Analyzing and documenting operational needs

• Lessons Learned/Best Practices

LL A marketing plan sets a strategy for needs
and documents priorities. BP Use a marketing
plan to obtain funding. LL We can be blinded by
the past through tunnel vision or seeing current
needs through past solutions. BP Consider
alternatives and alternative means of
presenting needs.
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NIS Analyzing and documenting operational needs

• Lessons Learned/Best Practices

LL How we do it on the little ones determines
how we perform on the big ones. BP Train,
exercise, and perform on a daily basis as we
would on the big one.
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NIS Analyzing and documenting operational needs

• Recommendations/Resources

• Provide funding that can be used for front-end
  and continuing needs analysis.
• Fund projects based upon a showing of documented
  operational needs.
• Create a portal with tools for understanding and
  documenting needs online, web-based, Turbo Tax
  approach. Make a portal that shows how other
  agencies have met needs, helping others to
  further understand their own needs.
• Dont let vendors define your operational needs
  Do it yourself! (DIY)

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NIS Proceedings

• For more information on the National
  Interoperability Summit, see the proceedings
  posted on SEARCHs web site
• http//www.search.org/events/news/2006summit.asp

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Mission Critical