NMFS E-Signature Project Activities from November 2008 through June 2009

During November of 2008 pilot project business plan drafts were developed for the Hawaii Non-Commercial Bottomfish Logbook, West Coast Federal Fixed Gear eLogbook, and West Coast E-fishticket. (A business plans had previously been drafted for the Hawaii Longline Logbook, and, a business plan for the National Permit System existed prior to this project.)

We met November 12 to begin project wrapup, including understanding of the degree to which our project has met objectives, understanding lessons learned from the experience, and agreement on next steps for the remaining pilot projects. As of November 12 we agreed we had largely achieved project objectives as specified in our charter, i.e.:

• We understand eSignature opportunities and challenges, preferably understanding these in more than one context (for example, in the context of an eLogbook, and in the context of a permit application)
• We have secured approval for our selected solution through an approved Business Plan, including a Justification, Requirements, Risk Assessment, Cost Benefit Analysis, and Implementation Plan Outline
• Our documents provide enough detail to serve as a conceptual design and the basis for a software requirements specification and/or procurement specifications
  However, several of the business plans were still in initial draft stages, none had been formally submitted and approved (although one plan was approved to the extent that an implementation was in production use), and our documents were not organized to provide the best leverage from our lessons learned. We concluded some details regarding next steps for the pilots and agreed that we should meet again.

We met November 19 to brainstorm next steps to achieve maximum leverage from our work, that is, to promote the process the e-signature team used and the related tools, promote the work products (i.e., documenting how to comply with the procedural directive), and identify ways to gain approval of the business plans already created and vetted by the team. At this meeting we outlined a presentation intended to explain what we did and some aspects of how we did it. We also began to discuss refocusing this wiki, transitioning from a site for ongoing collaboration into a guide and resource for future e-signature initiatives.

We made a presentation to our parent committee, the FIS Electronic Reporting Professional Specialty Group, February 10, 2009. The presentation was well received.

Since February work has continued on pilot project business plans. The West Coast E-fishticket business plan, for example, has recently been exported into a Microsoft Word document for finalization and submission for approval. And move recently (today) this wiki has been re-organized and enhanced with the addition of roadmap, checklist and examples of deliverables sections.

As of this reorganization (which is still a work in progress), I believe that this e-signature project will have satisfied its objectives:

• We understand eSignature opportunities and challenges, preferably understanding these in more than one context (for example, in the context of an eLogbook, and in the context of a permit application)
  We performed an e-signature due-diligence and documentation exercise as specified in the the Agency's e-signatures policy (32-110) and procedural directive (32-110-01) for five distinct e-signature pilot projects:
  

1. Hawaii Longline Logbook – substantially complete with an implementation in production use
2. Hawaii Non-Commercial Bottomfish Logbook – substantially complete
3. National Permit System – documented elsewhere, not complete on this site
4. West Coast Federal Fixed Gear eLogbook – in early stages of completion
5. West Coast E-fishticket – substantially complete

• We have secured approval for our selected solution through an approved Business Plan, including a Justification, Requirements, Risk Assessment, Cost Benefit Analysis, and Implementation Plan Outline
  
  I am not positive that any of the pilots have achieved approved status, but, I believe that at least three of the pilots are in a finalization stage where the remaining edits and reviews are managed by the pilot sponsor, so there is no longer a role in these pilots for the interdisciplinary team.
  
  
• Our documents provide enough detail to serve as a conceptual design and the basis for a software requirements specification and/or procurement specifications
  
  This hasn't been tested but I believe it to be a justifiable position.
  

Based on my understanding of our objectives and deliverables, I am drafting a project completion report and I expect this fourth activity report to be the final summary of project activities distributed under our Stakeholder Communication Plan.