MVP pilot plan

Firewood permitting MVP: pilot plan

Background

We recommend starting with a small-scale pilot, targeting minimally complex firewood permitting programs, and then continuing to evolve the product and scaling to more complex firewood programs over time.

Purpose

To test if the application we’ve built gives the public the information they need to plan safe trips to harvest firewood and get enforceable firewood permits without having to travel to a district office.

Objectives

Validate that the application meets user needs and address any bugs or problems The pilot will inform any additional functionality that may be needed and/or bugs that may need to be addressed before we allow additional forests to use the application.

Inform the future of forest product permitting User feedback will inform the next stages of development by identifying what major functions will deliver the most value for the USFS and the public in buying and selling forest product permits. The next release of the application will focus on refining existing functionality and adding functionality that allows interested forests to opt in and quickly be able to offer the online program to their customers.

Inform the TIM modernization roadmap We have peeled firewood permit sales functionality outside of the legacy TIM system. We have created a temporary, new integration between Open Forest and TIM to support administrators’ upwards reporting needs. Feedback from NRM, TIM coordinators, and administrators responsible for upward reporting will inform refinements to future online permitting development and the eventual deprecation of the temporary Open Forest-TIM integration, as well as how this approach may be applied to modernizing the contract and agreements business processes that TIM also supports.

In addition to these high-level objectives, Table 1 describes how we’ll measure the pilot’s success.

Table 1. How we’ll measure the pilot’s success: goals signals and metrics

Goal	Signal	Metrics
Law enforcement feels comfortable enforcing firewood permits sold online	Law enforcement is able to recognize permit validity based on reading self-printed load tags without making contact	Positive feedback from LEOs on post-pilot survey; Fewer citations issued for firewood permit non-compliance
Increased number of forests that want to implement the app	Requests for “next steps” from forests	# of forests requesting next steps; # of forests proceeding in implementation
Increasing demand for the app from the public	The app has returning customers; growth in online permit sales during typically busy months	# of online firewood permit sales per month*; Public feedback positivity rates
USFS staff spend less time processing permit applications	USFS staff have more time to spend on other things	Decrease in % of permit applications completed in person over time*
Forest service tech and tech-adjacent staff are more experienced with modern software development practices	Staff steer vendors to modern practices; the app in production is built to be flexible, adaptable, and secure, and it meets users needs	% compliance with new QASP; % decrease in avg time it takes for GitHub issues to get from ready > done
A first-time firewood permit buyer understands the process as well as if they'd gone into an office	People who’ve never purchased a permit in an office before are buying them online	% of firewood harvesting non-compliant contacts for online sales is no higher than for in-office sales
Essential financial and reporting data are accurately and successfully transferred to correct targets	No questions from FS staff about transactional items; Administrative items are being self administered / edited by FS staff	CDW/gPAS reports are accurate; Rejection rates at transactional levels; FS staff survey re: administrative functions; % of financial system inaccuracies online permit data is no higher than for in-office sales

*May need to adjust for fewer firewood compliance stops and in-office permit sales because of COVID-19.

Pilot scope

We are beginning with 7 pilot forests in regions 1, 2, 8, and 9, to capture regional variability in areas that do and do not currently require load tags. We are planning a phased roll out. The online firewood permitting pilot will roll out in phases to different regions as follows:

• Phase 1 Region 8 and 9 forests: George-Washington Jefferson, Hiawatha, and Chattahoochee-Oconee
• Phase 2 in Region 2 forests: GMUG and Shoshone
• Phase 3 in Region 1 forests: Idaho Panhandle and Flathead

We will run the pilot for a minimum of 3 months in order to collect the data needed to evaluate the pilot’s success (see Table 1). During that time, the product team can continue to refine the application and begin work on the second major release.

Primary criteria for phase 1 pilot forests

• have no limit or a high seasonal limit on firewood
• don't currently require load tags for firewood
• have limited timber sale activity and therefore fewer areas that may be restricted to firewood harvesting
• are enthusiastic about participating

Secondary criteria

• have a long firewood season (permits are good for one year)
• have clear firewood content (e.g. guidelines, maps) available

Pilot launch criteria

Launching the pilot is contingent on 3 key factors:

The application is consistent with the current Open Forest ATO It is not expected that the firewood permitting application will need its own ATO as it is an extension of the existing Open Forest application and is designed and developed within the bounds of that ATO.

The end to end application is in production The application is designed as an online option for firewood harvesters to get enforceable firewood permits, helpful information, and other required documents so that they can safely and legally harvest firewood from a national forest. Key functionality includes:

1. The ability to choose desired permit type from a list of pilot forests
2. Information on firewood harvesting specific to that forest
3. Log in / authorization
4. Permit order form
5. Permittees are required to read and accept permit conditions
6. Online payment processing
7. Order confirmation
8. A printable permit, conditions, and load tags can be printed from the web and are emailed to the permit purchaser

The application has resilient product leadership and ongoing funding from within the USFS Product Owners work at a tactical level, providing day-to-day prioritization, guidance, and decision making, and serve as a proxy for end users. It’s crucial to the application’s success that the product owner:

1. Is allocated to work on the project for the duration of the engagement (.5 FTE at a minimum; 1 FTE is ideal)
2. Feel comfortable asking the team about ongoing work
3. Prioritize the backlog of work
4. Provide direction in GitHub stories
5. Review design documents and evaluate the tradeoffs in various solution options
6. Review stories as they move into “awaiting acceptance”

Milestones

• Establish launch dates
• Begin marketing the application - 💥 We are here!
• Pre-pilot training for frontliners, LEOs, and administrators
• Launch the pilot
• Pilot period
• Pilot Evaluation

Participating forests can expect to:

• Identify a main Point of Contact who can
  • Serve as a subject matter expert on their forest’s firewood program for 6 months during the development of the application
  • Attend a kick-off meeting
  • Get access to the “staging” site to review content as it’s developed
  • Set aside ~2 hours/week to meet with the team to provide feedback and attend sprint reviews (maybe more in months 2-3, slowing to maybe less than 1 hour/week in following months)
  • Help the team identify additional subject matter experts, content reviewers, and usability test participants as needed
  • Serve as an ambassador for the project on your forest
• Frontliners will receive an introduction to the system to help them troubleshoot questions from permit purchasers
• Law enforcement officers will receive instruction on enforcing permits issued online
• Administrators will receive instruction on how online sales are reported