Product roadmap

Online firewood permitting product roadmap

This is a high-level overview. A more detailed roadmap can be found here. As with all agile product roadmaps, this is subject to change. The team revisits and adjusts the roadmap every month.

Product Vision

Firewood permitting vision: We are building a convenient, interactive online service to give 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.

---

Release: MVP

Goals:

• We've launched a pilot firewood permitting system that can handle online firewood permits in three pilot regions. Head here to read more about our pilot plan.

Pilot assumptions:

• No (or very high) seasonal cord limit
• no load tag required
• limited restrictions on where to cut (e.g., low sale activity)

Metrics:

• Permit purchasers can interact with the site in a public-facing environment
• We have sold at least one permit via the online system

Key features:

As a member of the public (permittee), I can:

• find areas where I can legally cut wood
• choose a permit specific to the product I want and the forest in which I intend to get it
• verify my identity
• be directed to pay.gov to pay for my permit
• print a permit and load tag myself so that I can avoid visiting a Forest Service office
• receive instructions about where and to appropriately affix my printed load tag so that law enforcement officers can see it from a distance
• receive a set of rules and guidance on how and where to safely harvest firewood in the forest I pick

As a law enforcement officer (LEO) or forest protection officer (FPO), I can:

• determine that a wood harvester has a valid permit for my forest and verify that they have agreed to forest-specific instructions on the permit
• see a printed load tag attached to the public member’s load and know whether each customer has a valid permit for my forest on a given day

As a forest service employee, I can:

• view purchase details for permits bought online so that I can help online customers who call with questions about their purchase
  • NOTE: Open Forest will not store permit data as part of the firewood permitting MVP. Permit data will be securely batched on a nightly basis in .csv format for frontliners and admins to access. Open Forest becoming a system of record so that it can store permit data and support more robust reporting functionality is key to the next major release, but will not be part of the MVP. We’ve documented trade offs associated with this decision here.

As a special forest products manager, I can:

• have funds from online sales distributed to the right place
• get information on species, product, unit of measure, and volume sold online for official upward reporting
• retrieve the number of permits that were issued online

Risks:

• The impact of introducing load tags in areas that don't currently use them is a bit unknown. We know LEOs want them, but the public will have to adjust their current way of working.

Key integrations/technical milestones:

• FPFS
• POSS
• Pay.gov
• Login.gov
• TIM-NRM (temporary for MVP; will be deprecated before phase 3 roll out)

---

Release 2: Scale up + reporting

Goals:

• Members of public, frontline FS employees, and FS Law Enforcement officers who want to purchase/offer online firewood permits and load tags are able to opt in

Metrics:

• We have sold at least one fraud-resistant permit via the online system (this one may change)
• Administrators have a unified reporting interface
• FS and contract team can evolve the product with limited 18F help
• Forests have a self-service on-boarding experience and a way to editing and upload content

Key features:

• As a permit purchaser, I need to get a permit that I cannot duplicate or re-use without going into an office so that I can't commit fraud.
• As a frontliner, I need to be able to look up online purchases so that I can determine if a customer or their household has maxed out their permit for the year.
• As an administrator, I need an online permitting system to stop and flag fraudulent purchasers who would not have been issued a permit if they visited the FS office so that I can prevent misuse of forest resources. (NOTE: this will require that Open Forest becomes a system of record)
• As an LEO, I need to know that a permittee's permit is authentic so that I can know they're not committing fraud

Key integrations/technical milestones:

• USFS admins have an integrated reporting interface
• Open Forest becomes a system of record (i.e. has a SORN) and can store permittee information to better meet frontliner and administrator reporting needs
• EDW/CDW
• Deprecate TIM-NRM connection

Risks:

• Time to amend existing ATO and whether it is needed is unknown
• Time to get a SORN for Open Forest is unknown

---

Release 3: Refinement + TIM sunset

Goals:

• Firewood permitting workflow happens entirely outside of TIM
• 18F successfully transitions off the product team

Metrics:

• We've sold at least one permit without relying on TIM
• FS and contract team evolve the product without 18F help

Key features:

• As a permit purchaser, I need a way to check that where I intend to get wood is allowed before I purchase a permit, so that I that I can determine whether a firewood permit is right for me and so that I don’t unintentionally break the law.
• As a permit purchaser, I need a secure, online way to determine whether I already have an account so that I don’t create a duplicate record/registration.

Risks:

• Some of the complexity involved with untangling permitting from TIM will remain unknown until we actually begin doing it.