Networked Electronic and Manual QA of Conversion Data
This manual proofreading effort was initially painful in that it required tons of paper to move through our office space. The solution was to provide our manual QA vendor with network connectivity and a FAME workstation to facilitate plotting in-house. Due primarily to this connectivity, the manual QA vendor and UtiliCorp are able to develop innovative techniques to streamline and automate the manual QA process.
UtiliCorp QA Plan
UtiliCorp’s QA plan for the conversion requires the participation of FAME end users in final acceptance or rejection of the data. This participation is critical to the success of the project, as the end users know the most about their data and will be responsible for upkeep of the maps once conversion is complete. However, participation by end users at the beginning of the FAME rollout was challenging on all fronts – from training to network connectivity to system administration.
The FAME project initial rollout has 114 end users at sites in 48 towns in eight states. The first site requiring network connectivity for viewing converted data was in northern Minnesota and suffered delays because the telecom service provider couldn’t place lines until ground thawed in the spring. Once lines were laid, it was full-tilt construction season and the Construction Coordinator had no time for map proofreading. It is anticipated that end users at the middle or end of the rollout will not be exposed to so much uncertainty in acquisition of their hardware or network lines. However, there will probably continue to be the scheduling problem that all Construction Coordinators want their data to be delivered in the dead of winter.
Prior to the end user rollout, FAME had established network connectivity between FAME offices in Kansas City, the application development vendor in Austin, the data server in Omaha and the conversion vendor in Indianapolis. An early connection was made to the application developer, to provide remote development capability. As a result, UtiliCorp staff developed technical expertise in the desired network configuration. The process of the subsequent connections benefited from the early knowledge and UtiliCorp was able to provide full technical support for the connections. We found it substantially less confksing to take charge of all network issues, rather than sharing these issues with the connecting side staff.
The UtiliCorp QA plan outlines the acceptance process for converted data. Data must pass electronic QA, manual QA, end user spot checks, FAME staff spot checks and move to acceptance by the end users and the UtiliCorp Conversion Coordinator. The overall goals of the QA plan are: detect systematic conversion errors early, identify all possible problems with the conversion and expedite acceptance of conversion packets. The general QA flow of a delivered work packet is from electronic check to manual check, with spot checks occurring throughout the work flow.
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