New Data Management Strategy Positions the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for Streamlined Operations

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1 DataDiagnostic Customer Success SITKA CASE STUDY: New Data Management Strategy Positions the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for Streamlined Operations DataDiagnostic is a detailed assessment of current data management practices and systems Established in 1902, the Bureau of Reclamation is best known for the dams, power plants, and canals it constructed in the 17 Western The Bureau of Reclamation is a contemporary water management agency with a Strategic Plan outlining a variety of programs, initiatives, and activities that will help the Western States, Native American Tribes, and others meet new water needs and balance the multitude of competing water uses across the West. States. These water projects led to homesteading and promoted the economic development across the West. The Bureau has constructed more than 600 dams and reservoirs, including the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River and the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River. Today, the Bureau is a contemporary water management agency with a strategic plan covering numerous programs, initiatives, and activities that support the Western States, Native American Tribes, and others to address water needs such as hydropower electricity and irrigation while balancing the multitude of competing water uses. To fulfill

2 water delivery obligations, water conservation, and water recycling and reuse, they must find new ways to bring together the various interests while addressing the competing needs of our limited water supply. This case study focuses on the Columbia and Snake River Salmon Recovery Office (CSRO), a Bureau sub-program that works to improve and restore salmonid habitat impacted by the operation and maintenance of Federal dam facilities as part of the Columbia River Federal Hydropower System (FCRPS) Endangered Species Act (ESA) consultation with NOAA Fisheries. These efforts include the design of specific habitat features for various life stages of salmonids in various Columbia Basin tributary streams and rivers. THE CHALLENGE The Bureau collaborates with its primary partners Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and the US Army Corps of Engineers to provide periodic reports to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) required as part of the ESA process for Pacific Northwest salmon and steelhead populations. The Bureau has a significant role when it comes to improvements to tributary habitats used for spawning and juvenile-rearing upstream of the Columbia and Snake Rivers hydroelectric power dams. Trying to satisfy a wide range of needs and regional interests has led to large-scale, complex programs that account for hundreds of millions of dollars spent annually. These federal programs have faced repeated litigation and required the Bureau to provide technical support for the Department of Justice for two decades. Periodic reports by the Bureau and its partners are therefore critical for communicating how public funds are spent and sharing accomplishments benefiting the ESA-listed species. Simple tasks like adding a field to their Access database to support a new reporting need might take days and often broke existing report links and structure. Prior to enlisting Sitka, the CSRO was plagued with several issues stemming from outgrowing their existing reporting tools and difficulty keeping their underlying project information accurate and current. For example, simple tasks like adding a field to their Access database to support a new reporting need might take days and often broke existing report links and structure. Since working with these tools was so difficult, staff created their own sets of spreadsheets to track things like project status, budget, and accomplishments. This led to a divergence of project management practices, which inspired an initiative to create formal Project Initiation Forms, Project Charters, and Project Management Plans. While well intentioned, each of these documents were siloed caches of often duplicative project information. Even updating a project s title or description required, some would say, super-human diligence.

3 With an eye towards streamlining data management processes to improve the positive impact of its efforts, the Bureau elected to bring in a team of data experts to conduct a complete analysis of its existing practices and tools and suggest some new strategies. The review also included summarizing external data management practices and systems, such as BPA s cbfish.org an interactive website that Sitka built. THE SOLUTION To start things off, the Bureau chose to take a step back and review the full picture of how the CSRO managed all its information to identify key areas for improvement. The review primarily focused on data quality and operational efficiencies. In September of 2014, Sitka was hired to conduct this detailed assessment. To identify key areas for improvement, the Bureau chose to take a step back and review the full picture of how the CSRO managed all its information. DATA PEOPLE DATA MANAGEMENT STRATEGY WORKFLOW SYSTEMS Sitka s DataDiagnostic service includes a close review of the people and data involved as well as existing workflows and systems. The Engagement Each DataDiagnostic Sitka performs begins with the people. The ones who create, update, and interact with the data. During the first kick-off meeting, the Sitka team met with habitat managers, habitat engineers, program analysts, project coordinators, contract managers, and the regional director to whiteboard out all the existing workflows. For the Bureau, this included: Annual budgeting cycles Project selection A User and Task Analysis is a technique for learning what users really need, not by asking them what they want, but by understanding what they are trying to accomplish. Project reviews Metrics reporting

4 Photo from the User and The above workflow diagram illustrates the existing processes and control points for managing projects within the CSRO program. After the diagramming was complete, the next step captured all the various vehicles paper, spreadsheets, databases, annual reports, project fact sheets, and other electronic documents the Bureau uses to collect, store, and summarize content for sharing with NOAA and other partners. Sitka analyzed and classified each component by criticality and frequency. Task Analysis cardsorting exercise with CSRO staff. Based on the findings from the above exercises, Sitka experts interviewed ~10 staff members from the CSRO. From these interviews, Sitka identified 16 distinct program roles that interact with the systems and data in unique ways. To simplify the early discovery and design process, these 16 roles were consolidated down to the following four personas: 1. Project Implementer 2. Program Tracker 3. Program Manager 4. Program Monitor Personas serve as archetypes for system design and information architecture. Sitka has found that a solid grounding in people leads to systems that users are drawn to and want to use. The 16 distinct program roles were consolidated down to four personas. An important component of each DataDiagnostic is outlining the essential goals and key tasks for each persona. The essential goals identified in this project ranged from ensure project information is up-to-date, accurate, and easily accessible to demonstrate CSRO meets or exceeds BiOp obligations. Key tasks included: Update key project dates Take project photos Outline details and track progress Participate in long-term planning

5 The Outcome At the end of the three-month engagement, Sitka officially presented their findings. One of the final deliverables was a map of existing workflows along with a recommended high-level data model and an alternatives analysis. Sitka delivered all this in a broadsheet, a highly visual and succinct description of the practices and routines of capturing data, structuring information, and sharing knowledge. For this effort, the final broadsheet outlined the multitude of data systems and files used today to store and share project/program information. A broadsheet is a highly visual and succinct description of the practices and routines of capturing data, structuring information, and sharing knowledge. The above diagram shows the CSRO s Habitat Program workflow with the multitude of data sources. It was a serious epiphany moment when we saw the view of our workflows with the overlay of all the data types generated and managed throughout the year! stated Jude Trapani, CSRO Habitat Coordinator for the US Bureau of Reclamation. Sitka helped us identify inefficiencies and unnecessary overlap in our current tracking and reporting processes. NEXT STEPS After receiving the data management strategy recommendation from Sitka, the Bureau coordinated with internal initiatives and prioritized data management improvements. Grounding their strategy in people and processes felt right and gave the Bureau the confidence and comfort to move forward. It turned out that investing in data management wasn t as daunting as they first thought! Sitka helped us identify inefficiencies and unnecessary overlap in our current tracking and reporting processes. Jude Trapani, CSRO Habitat Coordinator, US Bureau of Reclamation

6 LESSONS LEARNED Start with a review of your current processes by an unbiased party: The CSRO benefited by enlisting Sitka to conduct a detailed assessment. Sitka did not play a role in setting up the existing processes and systems; therefore, their findings were bias-free. Enlist help from an organization that is familiar with your industry: Since Sitka had played a key role in the development of cbfish.org and the Columbia Habitat Monitoring Program, they were already industry experts. Analyze before you buy: Starting with a DataDiagnostic, CSRO is better positioned to select the solution that will best serve their current and future needs. GET STARTED For organizations interested in getting a detailed assessment of their current data management practices and systems, please contact us at or sales@sitkatech.com For more information, please visit: Sitka Technology Group 920 SW 6th Avenue, Suite 111, Portland, OR sales@sitkatech.com Sitka Technology Group is the leading provider of enterprise-level software solutions to streamline and power the acquisition, management, and visualization of field data for environmental conservation efforts. Copyright 2017 Sitka Technology Group. Sitka and the Sitka logo are registered trademarks of Sitka Technology Group. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.