Database Development Tech Team Proposal

(Amended to conform to Technical Team proposal format approved by consensus agreement by Planning Unit on March 22, 2000)

To: Planning Unit Members

From: Initiating Governments and Staff Team

Date: April 13, 2000

 

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The staff team of the Initiating Governments propose that a Database Development Technical Team be formed. A comprehensive database for the Watershed Management Project is necessary to facilitate data accessibility to project participants, compatibility between existing data, and accuracy of data generated in the future as well as to comply with the grant contract with Department of Ecology. The draft revised Scope of Work (Draft 12, 2/18/00) identifies in Section 2.5 that Data Management is essential to the successful completion of the Watershed Management Project. Database development is an essential component of data management. In addition, a condition of the grant received from the Department of Ecology specifies that the database generated by the project be compatible with Ecology’s Environmental Information Management System database.

A Database Management Technical Team will assess the scope of work necessary to establish and maintain a database for the Watershed Management Project, estimate the associated costs, and draft a schedule for setting up the database.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of forming a Database Development Technical Team are to:

  • provide timely communication between contracted consultants and staff, to minimize delays and ensure oversight of the technical work

  • coordinate scheduling of document or work product review, comment submission and incorporation with contractors

  • make information available from the community and local governments to contractors

  • provide a central contact point for questions from staff working under contract and from members of the Caucuses and Staff Team

  • coordinate and facilitate data transfer to and from the central project database

  • review and summarize comments produced by the Staff Team and Planning Unit regarding draft technical documents, to be submitted to contractors for incorporation into updated documents.

WORK PRODUCTS

The Database Development Technical Team will produce and distribute information that facilitates the completion and availability of the technical work products produced by contractors and consultants. This information is envisioned to be in the form of:

  1. schedules for completion of technical work tasks, and comment submission produced and distributed by the technical team.

  2. budgets for tech team work products and activities.

  3. distribution of draft document releases, and associated schedule for comments to documents.

  4. summarize significant information in draft documents for public distribution.

  5. review, compile and summarize comments submitted regarding distributed documents for Planning Unit and Staff Team review, and for incorporation by contractors into final documents.

  6. project information summaries distributed on a quarterly basis to the Staff Team, Planning Unit, and the general public.

  7. evaluate and facilitate changes to existing contracts with technical consultants.

  8. coordinate with water rights review team, PIE team, Water Quantity, Water Quality, Instream Flow, Habitat, and other technical teams to develop methods and scope of work for the development and maintenance of a WRIA 1 Project database, including:

    1. A comprehensive list of project data categories
    2. A schedule and budget for Database Development for funding approval from the Initiating Governments including:
      1. database hardware and software needs
      2. method of accomplishing the creation and maintenance of the database

        3. c. Database management policies for approval by the Initiating Governments and Watershed Planning Unit, including:

            1. data format, assembly, handling and entry
            2. data verification, and reliability ranking
            3. quality assurance and quality control
            4. data access

SCHEDULE

1/26/2000 Data Development Tech Team Proposal Submitted to Planning Unit

2/23/2000 Planning Unit decision on revised proposal for Tech Team formation

2/28/2000 Revised proposal submitted to Initiating Governments for approval

3/1/2000 Technical Team Formation (preliminary, subject to IG and PU approval),

meetings weekly

3/1/2000 Technical Team Structure and Functioning procedures adopted to conform to Initiating Governments and Planning Unit’s changes to initial proposal

4/1/2000 Draft of General Outline of Data Development Tasks and Resources for construction and operation of the Database, and a general budget for the first year of operation submitted to Staff Team (Work Product #2)

5/1/2000 Draft of Data Management policies submitted to Staff Team (Work Product #3)

5/1/2000(?) Finalization and/or implementation of approved work products

The schedule of work tasks and updates, and budget for the technical team will be proposed by the working Technical Team, and approved by Planning Unit and Initiating Governments.

PROGRESS REPORTS

Quarterly reports will be submitted to the Staff Team and Planning Unit in draft format, comments will be solicited within a 2-week period, and revisions incorporated within 1 week. A final report will be released to the public within 1 month of the review of the draft. Quarterly reports will include: summaries data collected, data analysis, and modeling tasks, updates on schedule and budget of ongoing database management work, changes to work plans or contracts originally approved and coordination with other technical work conducted for Watershed Management and Habitat Restoration activities.

Proposals for resource acquisitions deemed necessary by the tech team to function effectively will be forwarded to the Staff Team weekly. In addition, recommendations regarding database policies and procedures will be reported by team participants weekly to the Staff Team, and monthly to the Planning Unit.

STAFFING

Technical Teams will generally be composed of representatives from the Initiating Governments and the Planning Unit or their designees, and other technical experts identified by the Planning Unit. Technical team members will commit to meeting weekly for up to 4 hours. Additional time commitments will be required for reviewing technical information produced by contractors, composing quarterly reports and updates, reviewing and responding to comments to technical documents, and communicating with Project Staff and contractors. Participation on the tech team will require familiarity with or training in database and information management systems.

BUDGET

Participation in the technical team at this time is voluntary or is being funded through the organizations that provide staff to the team. A budget for operations and communications, and any associated resource acquisitions will be developed by the technical team and submitted to the Staff Team, Planning Unit and Administrative Decision-makers.