SDWIS PRIME UPDATE: April 2019
Since the last update…
A lot has happened since we last checked in, so I would encourage anyone interested in getting up to speed on the project to review the webinars and materials linked below.
The project team took some time following the December/January government shutdown to get things back in order through most of February. We had a great All Things SDWIS call at the end of February to review the project status to date – you can watch a recording of that webinar HERE. In March, the project team presented to the ASDWA membership during our Member Meeting in Old Town, then again to the broader SDWIS community during the March All Things SDWIS call, which can be reviewed HERE. During the April All Things SDWIS call, we had a short project update and extensive demo of CY19 R1 – a video capture, along with supporting materials, can be viewed HERE.
Impacts of the Government Shutdown
Fortunately, good planning was on our side, as the SDWIS Prime contractor (Attain) was funded to continue working throughout the shutdown. From a development perspective, I think the impacts were far less than if that funding had not yet been secured and development stopped entirely. The EPA project team was furloughed, so there was some set back on that end. It seems we’re back on track and charging forward full speed at this point, so I wouldn’t highlight any setbacks of note.
SDWIS Prime Governance Updates
We added three new state representatives to the SDWIS Advisory Board this month; Mike Means of Washington, Dan Symonik of Minnesota, and Darrin Polhemus of California.
We also learned that Brianna Knoppow, who was the project lead on SDWIS Prime user documentation and the CMDP helpdesk, is currently on detail. Brianna’s CMDP helpdesk role is being backfilled by Towana Dorsey of the Infrastructure Branch; supplementing Towana’s SDWIS Prime helpdesk role. In response to Brianna’s departure, a workgroup [consisting of UAT members] has come together to pick up on the SDWIS Prime user documentation work that Brianna initiated.
Successful UAT/Pilot States Meeting at Attain
The Prime UAT/Pilot states met in March at Attain’s offices in DC for a planning session for CY19 Release 3 (R3) to determine requirements and prioritization for the next round of development work, with special focus on transition requirements from the three pilot states (Utah, Connecticut, and Indiana) that are initial adoption candidates for the first half of 2020. The result of the four-day planning meeting was a list of priorities that reflected transition requirements from pilot states, as well as on-going development and operations support for CMDP, data migration, business rules engine (BRE), and improving the SDWIS Prime application functionality and performance. Based on the requirements and prioritization established by the group, the contractor provided EPA with a rough order of magnitude estimate in April for the proposed workload. This package, along with EPA’s prioritization for CY19R3, was presented to the SDWIS Advisory Board on May 2, 2019 for their review and input.
CMDP Updates
ASDWA has created a peer-to-peer help forum for CMDP users in pre- or post-production. This is an excellent resource to assist states with addressing common implementation issues, in the absence of more official technical support channels. If you are a CMDP state and are not yet hooked into this resource, please contact Anthony at ASDWA.
On April 23rd, the Data Management Advisory Committee (DMAC) sponsored a Best Practices webinar focused on CMDP State Experiences. The webinar featured presentations from Alaska and Montana on their experiences moving to production with CMDP. A video capture, along with supporting materials [including Alaska’s reference guides] can be found HERE.
Community Engagement [for non-pilot states] Update
ASDWA and EPA held a webinar on Dec 17 to walk non-pilot states through the software and provided instructions for collecting community feedback via ASDWA’s UserVoice. The feedback collected will be periodically reviewed by the pilot states/UAT to ensure that nothing is slipping through the cracks. Additionally, non-pilot users can submit technical issues through EPA’s Zendesk for more immediate support [[user access, etc.]. Detailed information, including a video recording of the webinar, has been posted to the SDWIS User Community of ASDWA.org.
ASDWA would like to encourage states to participate in this important effort. If you have not tested the software, or had trouble doing so, please contact Anthony at ASDWA to see if we can resolve those issues.
Data Management Users Conference (DMUC) Planning Update
Registration is open for the 2019 Data Management Users Conference (DMUC), which is scheduled for July 23-25 at the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown in Atlanta, GA. Note, there will be no Monday training held this year.
If you would like to review and submit comments on our agenda, please visit the ASDWA UserVoice for DMUC Agenda Planning to vote for things you want to see, comment on proposed topics, or add topics we may have missed.
Documentation Workgroup Meeting Scheduled
As mentioned, a group of states have convened to take up the task of creating documentation and supporting guidance materials for SDWIS Prime. This new SDWIS Prime Documentation Workgroup will meet in DC from May 13 – 16, 2019. The group is planning to present on their progress at the 2019 DMUC.
