Application Design Background Brief

Introduction

The mission of the NSW SES is to save lives and protect communities. As part of a commitment to excellence, the operational process is under constant evaluation and refinement. An identified area of improvement is the availability of SES members. Currently the availability of members to attend operational activities (rescues, call centre, community events, etc.) are managed at various levels (unit commands) within the organisation. This project is to unify the process of collecting member availability for all activities within the SES. A unified model of member availability allows the SES to improve its operational awareness and direct resources more efficiently. This project will provide for a better understanding of the NSW SES member workforce availability and capability. It was agreed that by producing an in-house, open sourced application by using volunteer developers and staff members it would allow us to more closely meet the organisational requirements. It is expected that this project will provide a “portal like” view of all NSW SES volunteers’ and staff’s availability for supporting incidents and events at any one time along with highlighting their current capability with currency to perform the required emergency response / request for assistance. The member availability and capacity management solution will include a smartphone / tablet app, in which members can easily nominate their availability, or specified members can enter availability on behalf of others, for immediate response jobs, non-rescue type response jobs and Out of Area Deployment (Extended Availability which can include interstate deployments.) In scope is also the ability for Incident Management Team (IMT) staff and team leaders to use the above member availability to create entire teams for deployment from within the NSW SES Operational Management System, “beacon”. Attributes of members should be visible within the solution to include detailed member capability and currency (based on State Rescue Board (SRB) Requirements), including levels of training. E.g. Road Crash Rescue (RCR) - Stabilisation, Airbags etc. This functionality will enable more efficient utilisation and mobilisation of our volunteer workforce, and will also inform training needs and planning.

2. Personas

   2.1 What is a persona? A persona is a narrative user profile that serves to embody a collection of particular behaviours and attributes. The persona provides an aggregate identity that, along with other members of a persona set, can serve to represent the key needs and behaviours of an entire audience.

   2.2 User Types These are some example of the different user types that scenarios may be applied to:

Availability Providers: All NSW SES members (Volunteer/Staff) that fulfil various roles for the agency based on their training and capability. A user is expected to provide their availability as necessary by the agency. A user can have a number of contact methods (SMS, Email, Push Notification or Phone) including a single preferred method of contact. Availability Requestors: Are members that collate and coordinate the availability and allocation of resources as necessary. They may be administrators who manage content for availability. They may be referred to as Resource Planners. Availability Reporters: These members shall interact with the availability data to understand what the current the capacity is based on the current situation or request. The level of detail will vary depending on their position within the organisation, for example, the Commissioner may want to know capacity state-wide, whilst a unit controller may want to know at a “local” level.

3. Groups

   3.1 Background A “group” is a term used to logically associate members together. No limits are set on what one can be created for, some examples include • groups can be geographical (members of a SES Unit e.g. Kiama) • functional (members all qualified in a skill e.g., RCR) • Purpose (members all a part of a working group or roster e.g. State Operations Centre Staff) Groups will bind members together so the NSW SES can direct resources as required. This allows for targeted requests for availability for local resources as opposed to broader requests for out of area deployment. Groups can also exist without capabilities.

   3.2 Definitions Availability: Availability is the term given to a member at a point in time used to understand if they can perform NSW SES activities. Members can have different types of availability depending on the context of their capability i.e. a member could be available for Rescue response but not for lower priority flood / storm jobs. Availability Group: A “Group” is a term used to define a number of people that are located, gathered or classed together from an availability perspective. It specifies the type of activity (or capability) that the group could perform. It may be as specific as one role, or even the whole unit, based on the operational need of the local unit. NSW SES Member: A “Member” is a NSW SES member (Volunteer/Staff) that fulfils multiple roles during operational activity based on their training, capability and availability. A member can have a number of contact methods (SMS, Email, Push Notification or Phone) including a single preferred method of contact. Capability: A ‘Capability’ is the term used to determine the extent of someone’s or something’s ability. Examples of capabilities and skills that NSW SES Members can attain include:

• Field – Flood Rescue, Road Crash Rescue, Chainsaw, Flood Boat, Storm Heights • Incident Management Team – State Controller, Deputy Incident Controller, Safety, • Planning – Planning Officer, Management Support, Communications Planning • Intelligence – Intelligence Officer, Situation Analysis, Mapping • Public Information – Public Information Officer, Media, Information & Warnings • Operations – Operations Officer, Air Operations, Strike Team, Division Commander • Logistics – Logistics Officer, Facilities, Catering, Ground Support • Finance – Finance Officer, Accounts

Scenario: A scenario is a sequential description of how a persona accomplishes a task. It describes the user’s interactions with the application, as well as internal workflow processes. The personas and scenarios in this document are not intended to represent all of the NSW SES current business units. Schedule: A ‘Schedule’ is the term used to describe the logical container that holds the availability of members. An Availability Group can contain any number of schedules as needed by the group in response to needs or requirements. Schedules can be perpetual (e.g., RCR schedule for a rescue unit) or fixed in length (e.g., community event or forecast storm).

3.3 Scenarios 

These scenarios have not been split into user specific personas: • Can view and search for a group(s) • Join a group(s) • Remove themselves from a group(s) • View list of members within the group(s) • Can undertake the scenarios of a NSW SES Member • Create group with optional capability tags attached (s) • Delete group(s) • Add members to group(s) • Remove members from group(s) • Request availability from group(s) • Enter / Remove availability for NSW SES Members from group(s)

4. Requests for Availability

   4.1 Background “Requests for Availability” are requests generated by a NSW SES Member such as a Resource Planner to gather availability for a specific activity. Requests for Availability can be specific to a group or a capability for example, availability to deploy out of area for Flood Rescue technicians. The members that receive the request is based on the predetermined groups and the awareness by the requester of who they want to contact – based on the relevant business rules. Requests for Availability are triggers for applicable members to update their availability / unavailability.

   4.2 Definitions Availability: Availability is the term given to a member at a point in time used to understand if they can perform NSW SES activities. Members can have different types of availability based on each group they are a member of. For example, a NSW SES Member can be available for a Flood / Storm group but not available for out of area deployment group. NSW SES Member: A “Member” is a NSW SES member (Volunteer/Staff) that fulfils multiple roles during operational activity based on their training, capability and availability. A member can have a number of contact methods (SMS, Email, Push Notification or Phone) including a single preferred method of contact. Pattern: A pattern is a period of time that can be repeated with an optional end date. It has calendar like functionality for example:

• 9am-5pm weekdays • 5pm-12am weekdays • 12pm-6pm weekends • 6pm-12am weekends

Scenario: A scenario is a sequential description of how a persona accomplishes a task. It describes the user’s interactions with the application, as well as internal workflow processes. The personas and scenarios in this document are not intended to represent all of the NSW SES current business units.

4.3 Scenarios

These scenarios have not been split into user specific personas:

Primary Requirements • Ability to update availability for group(s) with or without a “request” being made • Ability to update other members’ availability by some specific users • Ability to override my own currently entered availability across the board • Ability to generate a requests for availability to a single group • Ability to generate a request for availability for multiple groups • Ability to generate a request for availability not by a group(s) but by capability • Ability to summarise the number of responses vs. requests as well as the availability of the responses • Ability to drill down to individual member availability • Ability to search for and view current requests for availability which may have been pre filtered • Ability to copy / re use a request for availability for recurring activities

Secondary Requirements • Submit one time availability for a group(s) they are a member of
• Submit an availability pattern for a group(s) they are a member of
• Submit multiple availability patterns for a group(s) they are a member of • Apply an existing availability pattern to multiple groups they are a member of • Alter an availability pattern for a single occurrence without breaking the ongoing pattern • Delete an availability pattern • Add a note against an availability pattern and or single occurrence • Ability to create patterns for other members to use • Ability to save patterns for a member to use themselves at a later date

4.4 Additional Requirements	

Please consider the following requirements throughout the UX design process: • Consideration for a new name to replace ‘Requests for Availability’, the abbreviation RFA is referred to as Requests for Assistance and widely used throughout the NSW SES • A product name for the Availability App