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Executive Summary
River Forecast
Center (RFC) Development ManagementDonna Page - Office of Hydrologic Development
18 December,
2001
A presentation on RFC Development
Management was made to the Science and Technology subcommittee of the
NWS Corporate Board to raise awareness of its mission and projects, report
on the status of this new activity, and ask for continued support to build
on its successes.
The mission of the RFC Development
Manager (RDM) is to manage the science and software development among
the RFCs to ensure the efficient use of NWS resources to support the Hydrologic
Services Program. As part of the Office of Hydrologic Development, the
RDM must rely on regional management support to accomplish this mission.
Activities for the RDM may be
identified by the OCWWS/Region Hydrologic Service Division (HSD) Hydrology
Requirements Process, the Developing and Sharing Local Applications Process,
or Enterprise-wide issues brought to the RDM attention by headquarters offices.
Projects are managed by
forming project teams with targeted charters. Team representatives are from
the RFCs, Region Headquarters, National Headquarters (OHD, OCWWS, OST, etc.),
or NCEP as appropriate. Work is coordinated mainly through conference calls
although face-to-face meetings are sometimes required. The RDM coordinates,
tracks, and reports on progress for each team. Reporting is done through
quarterly reports, the OHD monthly report to the NWS Directory, and team
postings on the RDM website.
The status of the original
teams started in FY2001 is:
Site Specific Hydrologic Model
- delivered application to AWIPS for Build 5.1.2 - 6/01
Sharing Local Applications
- delivered Developing and Sharing Local Applications Process - 9/01
RFC River Forecast Verification
- produced final report - 11/01
RFC Archive Database Design
- produced requirements and design documents - 11/01
The RDM activity had a successful
first year. The teams tackled some of the toughest long-standing issues
in the NWS hydrologic community and came to agreements on first steps and
pathways for improvement. The FY2002 projects include the RFC Archive Database
Implementation Team to carry out the plan recommended by the design team
(above) and deliver it to AWIPS. Successful deployment of the RFC Archive
Database in AWIPS depends on an unfunded request submitted to the CFO for
consideration by the NWS Corporate Board. Details of this unfunded request
will be briefed at the Corporate Board meeting in February, 2002.
To continue with this successful
program, we ask for continued NWS Corporate Board support. Some of the challenges
associated with the culture change still facing RDM include commitment of
resources (both time and money), more effective communication, remote collaboration,
appropriate level of accountability with minimal bureaucracy, and measuring
benefits.
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