Completion Summary as of June 10, 2009

This is a project completion summary for the Fisheries Information System (FIS) Electronic Reporting (ER) e-signature project. The project charter states:

The purpose of this project is to establish an approved process for implementing eSignatures for use with electronic reporting systems. This project will review the requirements of the Agency's eSignatures policy (32-110) and procedural directive (32-110-01), evaluate alternative methods and procedures, and develop a standard approach for implementing eSignatures for electronic reporting. This project is a planning, design, and plan approval exercise, and this project is not a system development process resulting in implemented production systems. Of course a development process (and/or procurement) is eventually intended, but it is not part of this phase.

The FIS ER E-signature project was operational from June of 2008 through June of 2009. During the active period project collaboration was facilitated by this wiki space. As a final deliverable of the project, this wiki space has been re-oriented to provide guidance and structure to future e-signature initiatives. While the focus has been changed, most of the original content has been preserved under the assumption that the guidance and structure may be most useful when seen in the context of our project activities. In a few places the original documents have been edited to change present or future tense to past tense, or to annotate original deliberations with the benefit of hindsight. But mostly the original content has been left in place as it was drafted during the project, and, the refocusing for future relevance is primarily concerned with providing the roadmap, checklist and examples of deliverables sections.

This wiki contains the deliverables for this project. Rather than deliver a paper project completion report, completion is being marked by publication of this document on the wiki. However, this wiki is not necessarily static. It will be maintained under the assumption that each NMFS e-signature implementation must be individually vetted through the Agency's e-signatures policy (32-110) and procedural directive (32-110-01). Ongoing maintenance of this site should make it possible for e-signature projects to leverage experience from other practitioners and jump-start a new e-signature initiative.

This e-signature project has satisfied its stated success criteria:

• 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. And at least one of the pilots has transitioned into a production implementation, and in that case formal approval may be pending minor editorial polishing.
  
  
• 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.
  

Another notable deliverable was the presentation to our parent committee, the FIS Electronic Reporting Professional Specialty Group, on February 10, 2009.