ZIMS 1 Release Date - March 1, 2010

by Nate Flesness

We have set March 1, 2010 as the official release date for ZIMS 1 (Animal Management for Zoos and Aquariums). After a summer of intensive planning and a pilot project with A-1 Technology in Gurgaon, India, we have now formally engaged A-1 as the vendor. The project ramp-up work begins October 13th which means most of the ISIS ZIMS project team will spend the next few weeks in India.

I wish it was easier to explain briefly how much skill and thoughtfulness we have driving this project now that was absent earlier. There are two broad reasons. First, our earlier arrangement provided great financial protection (we received all of your money back) but the processes used were far too indirect and layered for developing such a unique and specialized application. It was like driving a car in freeway traffic by sending emails to the driver’s boss’s boss. Going forward ISIS has complete, hands-on project control, so this issue is now resolved.

Second, we found five hundred volunteers wonderful for developing data standards and specifying ZIMS functional requirements, and the dedication shown by all of them is truly remarkable. But it turned out that a group that size was too unwieldy for doing screen designs. (Imagine designing your next exhibit with a committee of 500.) The work done by the community remains the very center of ZIMS – nothing has been lost and we are referring to it daily as we move forward. But our new process will organize all of that input in a far more streamlined way.

ZIMS Release 1 will be built in seven highly disciplined bursts of work called sprints. Each sprint begins with two weeks of planning, followed by up to four weeks of execution (code writing) and one week of testing. Each sprint is time-boxed, which is a way of saying that we have carefully planned the work to meet the deadline and if we encounter unforeseen challenges, some functionality will be put off for a later release rather than delay the release. While some details of the sprint plan below may change, the deadline for Release 1 will not change.

Release 1 will be tested for several weeks by early adopter institutions beginning Dec 21, 2009. It will begin deployment March 1, 2010 –rolling out first to the 143 institutions that have invested funds in ZIMS.

ZIMS Release 1: Animal Management for Zoos and Aquariums
Sprint Timeline


Sprint 1: Institution
Begin Date: 13-Oct-08
Key Functionality: Institution administration including contact methods, staff, and ISIS Membership data and User Administration including roles and access rights

Sprint 2: Taxonomy
Begin Date: 22-Dec-08
Key Functionality: Taxonomic hierarchy, local synonyms, and taxon-related rules

Sprint 3: Enclosures/Tanks and Life Support Systems
Begin Date: 16-Feb-09
Key Functionality: Enclosure/Tank hierarchy, enclosure/tank characteristics, enclosure/tank observations, and life support components

Sprint 4: Animal Husbandry
Begin Date: 13-Apr-09
Key Functionality: Accessioning of individuals and groups, identifiers, transponders, morphometrics and measurement types (e.g. live animal weight, shell length)

Sprint 5: Animal Management
Begin Date: 8-Jun-09
Key Functionality: Animal observations, census, death/disposition, group split/merge, quarantine, contraception

Sprint 6: Complex Transactions
Begin Date: 3-Aug-09
Key Functionality: External transfers, pedigree, role/team responsibilities, and inventory reconciliation

Sprint 7: System Functionality
Begin Date: 28-Sep-09
Key Functionality: ARKS/ZIMS Data migration, data fragmentation, and data quality metrics

User Acceptance Testing of ZIMS Release 1: Begin 21-Dec-2009

ISIS engages “Super SMEs” for ZIMS Release 1

By Doug Verduzco
ZIMS Chief Architect

In the original ZIMS development process, we gathered invaluable input on data standards and specific functional requirements from five hundred volunteers, and they did a phenomenal job. In the new development process, we continue that direct input by people who will be using ZIMS.

To that end ISIS has engaged six experts from the zoo and aquarium field who will be spending weeks at a time in India with the developers who are writing ZIMS code. These six subject matter experts (SMEs) will be making many of the moment-to-moment decisions on what each ZIMS screen must capture in an intelligent way, and what functions it should provide to fully serve you. Their business expertise will be shaped by professional “User Interface Design” experts to make sure that ZIMS screens are easy to use and intuitive. This is our priority: to create a powerful application that is easy to use.

It’s important to the success of the ZIMS project that ISIS will be able to make decisions quickly and that is why we now have direct oversight of the project. Rather than even the smallest decisions getting tied up in layers of bureaucracy, ISIS will be able to make and communicate every decision, large or small, within hours so that work can remain on the fastest track possible.
The intrepid folks listed below will be spending time in their home towns, at the ISIS office in Minnesota, and in India making sure that ZIMS Release 1 is of superior quality. The Release 1 Super SMEs are:

Adrienne Miller (Registrar, Audubon Institute)
Duncan Bolton (Curator, Birdworld, Surry, United Kingdom)
Jason Crichton (Director of Husbandry & Facilities, South Carolina Aquarium)
Laurie Bingaman Lackey (Technical Advisor, SPARKS Expert, Giraffe Studbook Keeper)
Lynn McDuffie, (Registrar, Disney’s Animal Kingdom)
Tim Carpenter (Curator of Fish and Invertebrates, Seattle Aquarium)

ISIS Supports MedARKS

by Elisabeth Hunt
ISIS Director of Training and Technical Support

At the AZA conference last week I was surprised to hear this: “Some folks are trying to re-platform MedARKS from DOS to Windows and ISIS has been unwilling to help.” For those who don’t speak software language, re-platforming could potentially solve some of the issues in MedARKS because the issues come from the older DOS program's efforts to "talk" to the newer Windows programs that most of us use today. However, right now all of this is in the realm of “potential.” Right now no one knows for sure if re-platforming MedARKS would be a viable short-term solution. That’s what people are trying to find out.

Rumors are always a shorthand version of truth so let me give you the actual story. ISIS is delighted that Paul Shoop at Smithsonian National Zoological Park and others are taking the lead in imagining solutions to challenges with MedARKS while ZIMS is in development. None of us wanted ZIMS to be delayed as it has been.

We gave Paul the MedARKS source code so he can evaluate whether re-platforming is a viable short-term solution. But ZIMS is back at full-throttle-forward and right now and ISIS is unable to divert staff resources from ZIMS to join in this effort to find out if it’s feasible to re-platform MedARKS.

By feasible, I mean the time and dollars it will take to get the job done. Indeed, if the assessment reveals that re-platforming MedARKS is feasible – if it will take a reasonably short time and a reasonably small amount of money - ISIS will be the first to celebrate and we will support that work in any way we are able.

Finally, please remember that we support MedARKS! If you have a problem with MedARKS, contact ISIS Tech Support! We are here to solve your issues with ARKS, MedARKS and SPARKS! Email us at support@isis.org