GOVERNANCE AND DELIVERY
ORIGINAL SITUATION
A Property Vegetation Plan (PVP) is a voluntary, legally binding agreement between a landholder and the NSW Local Land Services (LLS). It may have been obtained for a number of reasons, including to obtain native vegetation clearing approval and to secure any offsets associated with that clearing. The Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) supported the LLS in the delivery of PVPs under the Native Vegetation Act 2003.
The IT systems that were used for dealing with PVPs were being hosted on the Service First network, which was scheduled to be shut down by September 30, 2015. Accordingly, the PVP Interim Tools Project was established to eliminate dependency on the Service First network for PVP management.
The project objectives included:
1. Development of new biometric, threatened species, invasive native species, land and soil capability assessment tools
2. Development of a new tool within the Land Management Database (LMDB) to allow for spatial capture of PVP assessments and attribution of key PVP data
3. Configuration of the Integrated Resource Information System (IRIS) to allow native vegetation enquiries and PVP requests to be recorded
4. Creation of a public register to facilitate statutory reporting of approved PVPs under the Native Vegetation Act 2003
DELIVERED SOLUTION
IMA was responsible for the project management of the end to end delivery of this project, which included development, functional testing, user acceptance testing, and operational readiness.
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1. Project governance and delivery in line with the PRINCE2 project management methodology.
2. Procurement of services in accordance with the OEH Procurement Manual and NSW Government Procurement Policy Framework.
3. Close collaboration with the project sponsor, delivery team, external vendors, and business users across agencies and different regions.
4. Test management including the documentation of the test strategy, coordination of face to face user acceptance testing, prioritisation, escalation of defects and reporting of test status.
5. Change management including the facilitation of operational readiness and the establishment of business and technical support.
BENEFITS DELIVERED
In a span of 5 months, a suite of new tools and systems which replaced those on the Service First network were successfully deployed without any issues in Production. Support arrangements for the ongoing operation of the tools were established. A new end to end business process for PVP administration, assessment, client management, and spatial recording was implemented and rolled out across all LLS regions in NSW.
According to the end users, the new tools allowed for easier and faster development of PVPs. In the new tools, there was less chance of system errors that occurred under previous tools, especially in regards to spatial mapping. It was simple to run hypothetical cases, which made it easier to advise landholders of their options.
The PVP Interim Tools project filled an immediate gap in legislative responsibility and functionality. It enabled the continuation of PVP management as required by the Native Vegetation Act 2003, until the Act was repealed on August 25, 2017.