Coastal Zone Administration System
Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources
Ireland

The Problem

The Coastal Zone Division ensures that Ireland's coastal zone is used in a sustainable way to the best advantage of the Irish People from an economic, aquacultural, leisure, social and environmental perspective. Within the Coastal Zone Administration System (CoZAS), one can search and apply for applications and licences for Foreshore, Aquaculture or Dumping at Sea using our online service.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The CoZAS system provides many business advantages to the CZMD. One of the first advantages is the efficiencies brought about as a result of the system’s deployment which allows the CZMD officers to concentrate their efforts on value-adding business issues. The system enables faster and more accurate information retrieval and supports more informed decision making. CoZAS also allows the division to be proactive in its anticipation of the events scheduled over the course of an application/license lifecycle.

The incorporation of a public-facing Internet layer as part of the CoZAS system’s offerings allows for a certain degree of self-service on the part of the public in cases where they wish to inquire about coastal zone developments. This aspect addresses the European and national Government mandates (as laid down by the Information Society Commission) in the area of the provision of e-Government services. Finally, the system provides support in processing applications and licences in areas that are key revenue-generators for the Department.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
· September 2004 – project commencement
· Q1 2005 – prototype signed off
· October 2005: Release 01 – CoZAS INTRAnet
· Q1 2006: CoZAS INTERnet
· Q42006: CoZAS with interactive intranet mapping and GIS

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (hereafter DCMNR, or, the Department) has undertaken a programme to revitalize its information services, by providing a host of new fully integrated systems for the benefit of the Department and its customers alike.

As part of this ICT Strategy, the Department identified the Coastal Zone Management Division (CZMD) as a priority. The CZMD is comprised of three sections: Foreshore Leasing and Licensing, Aquaculture Licensing and Dumping At Sea Permitting.

The CZMD had not yet had the opportunity to work with the Department’s Information Services Division (ISD) with the specific goal of addressing the gap between the CZMD’s business processes and the available technologies. Previously, ISD has assembled and integrated the following offerings:

- Internet
- GeoSpatial software (i.e. digital maps and mapping capabilities)
- Custom-built reusable components
o Document Handling
o Customer Information
o Business Process Management
o Payment Processing
- Software Architecture Framework (i.e. standardised system building methodology)
- Enterprise Relational Database Management System
- Corporate Data Model
- In-house expertise

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The project deliverables include:
- An integrated CZMD System that includes a public-facing website functionality to facilitate the provision of e-Services, and includes:
o CZMD common functionality (e.g. case management, consultations)
o Foreshore-specific functionality
o Aquaculture-specific functionality
o Dumping At Sea-specific functionality
o Internal (i.e. back-office) functionality accessible from intranet
o Internet accessibility via website accessible to customers and general public
o Integrated common components
o CZMD-specific GIS layers (e.g. foreshore map, coastal zone developments, etc.)
- A Database (including logical entity relationship diagrams, a physical manifestation of these [in the form of database tables])
- Legacy Data Migration
- User Documentation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The strategy that was adopted in order to complete this project from the analysis phase through to system delivery was based on the Dynamic System Development Methodology (DSDM) [3]. This strategy mandates the following behaviours:

- Cooperative partnership between CZMD and ISD
- The exclusive use of in-house resources
- The implementation of pre-built common components

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
An integrated system that includes a public-facing website functionality to facilitate the provision of e-Services (http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Marine/Coastal+Zone+Management/Forms+and+Downloads/) and includes:
- CZMD common functionality (e.g. case management, consultations)
- Foreshore-specific functionality
- Aquaculture-specific functionality
- Dumping At Sea-specific functionality
- Internal (i.e. back-office) functionality accessible from intranet
- Internet accessibility via website accessible to customers and general public
- Integrated common components
- CZMD-specific GIS layers (e.g. foreshore map, coastal zone developments, etc.)

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The CoZAS project yielded a number of process improvements, and also new additional components, that have been re-used in other initiatives within the DCMNR.

Key process improvements that have subsequently been leveraged in other successful projects include:
· DSDM (Dynamic systems development methodology) – this places emphasis on the prioritisation of requirements with the users, using the “MoSCoW” (Must, Should, Could, Won’t) method of prioritisation
· Prototyping – a full scale static prototype was signed off by the users prior to development. The prototype allowed the users to understand better (than compared to documentation, for example) the expected delivery of the project
· Timeboxing – this concept allowed the delivery of improvements as and when they had been developed and tested by the users, meaning that the benefits of such new functionality were delivered quicker to users (than would be the case using a “big bang” approach at the end of, say, the Waterfall methodology.

Key functionality that is being re-used include:
· The continued re-use of the J2EE framework in other projects, and a rich set of components built thereon
· The creation of a simplified, generic, method of applying online on the internet for permissions that are granted by the DCMNR
· An improved document management component, enabling users to store and directly link the various supporting documentation that is ongoing with the consideration and granting of a licence
· The ability to track public submissions, and expert recommendations and other forms of consultation that were gone through in consideration of the application.
· An accessible tool, to novice users, to allow capture and editing of geographical areas on digital mapping that can be linked directly to an application/licence, in turn allowing users and senior management to visualise using background mapping the potential environmental impact of the application and licence in the coastal area and its neighbouring activities

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Key Lessons learned include:
· The coaching of users to prioritise their requirements, using the “MoSCoW” (Must, Should, Could, Won’t) method of prioritisation, allowed the users to understand the need to do so, so as to meet the resource availability and also achieve outputs earlier along the project timescale
· The provision of a full scale static prototype was far more meaningful to users and allowed them to understand what would be delivered, than for example, complex technical specification documents that had previously been used in other projects
· The moderation of expectations of what could realistically be achieved through automated data migration was a particular challenge. An important lesson was learned by the users in terms of coaching that manual migration and grooming is also typically needed, in conjunction with an automated set of steps. The users embraced this hybrid approach, meaning the data was of better overall quality in the production system.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources
Institution Type:   Government Department  
Contact Person:   Colleen Markland
Title:   Programme Support Officer  
Telephone/ Fax:   353 1 678 2000
Institution's / Project's Website:   353 1 678 2449
E-mail:   colleen.markland@dcmnr.irlgov.ie  
Address:   29/31 Adelaide Road
Postal Code:   2
City:   Dublin
State/Province:  
Country:   Ireland

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