Strategic Air & Space Basing Enterprise Repository (SABER)
Current technology for USAF Strategic Basing process does not adequately support the SAF-IEIB organization and actually contributes to inefficiencies in the process. SAF IEIB organization needs digitization of the Basing Process through consolidated data capture, audit trails, and automated reporting
As businesses continue to adapt and change, basing processes change to match the times. To move from a paper based structure to a digital one will bring forth challenges that we can call process adaptations or “growing pains”. To digitize a process all aspects of the process need to be accounted for. Understanding the origination of the process and expected outcomes and deliveries is the first step.
When you start to dig into the process more you start looking at all major milestones, minor milestones, known deviations the process can take, and most importantly the business logic that guides the process at every step and turn. In the current ecosystem of business it can be a struggle to move efficiently and accurately through some of these processes, leaving those who manage these processes left in piles of paperwork and increasing their chances of missing something or having to circle back. The modernization of a process through digital enhancement is no small task but the resulting software product will enhance the quality and consistency of tasks the user groups will produce.
What We Delivered
Using current technologies, SABER was created as a web application that would help the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Energy, Installations, and Environment (SAF/IE) team digitize their Strategic Air & Space Basing Enterprise Process. To accomplish this goal the Omni Federal team followed the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) to be able to have the agility and requirement outlines to deliver the product.
This started with countless ideation sessions, where Omni Federal and SAF/IE would sit down to build up a knowledge base on the Strategic Air & Space Basing process. From these meetings Omni Federal was able to encapsulate and define the process SAF/IE follows to achieve the proper outputs they utilize in their day to day responsibilities. From the framing and discovery process we were able to craft low fidelity design prototypes to visualize and communicate the application as well as deepening the understanding of the process we were partnering to build.
From these meetings Omni Federal would iteratively tweak and tune the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for the initial go live of the application. WIth the MVP as the guiding light and our four primary User Personas Omni Federal started the development process. Operating in Sprints on a 2 week cadence delivering incrementally until the MVP was ready to go live.
Impact
SABER went live in January of 2022. The roll out for the SAF/IE team and associated military personnel gave us insight to how the onboarding process was that we built. As more users started interacting with the application Omni Federal and SAF/IE would convene twice a week to discuss bugs, changes, and start planning enhancements and post launch features to better encompass the new normal SABER brought to the process.
As actions have started moving through the process and SABER was the holder of all the information the products output of a slide deck to inform associated parties of the process was being generated and utilized. This is where some fine tuning of the application and collaboration to guide our next steps came into play. The teams were able to have the presentation output mirror that of the presentations that came from the old system, while also allowing tedious tasks to be automated into making charts and presenting data. Saving time while still delivering all the data in full.
The Bright Future
As Omni Federal and SAF/IE continue their joint effort to enhance and build upon SABER they are meeting weekly to guide the iterative process. With an inclusion of a data and visual update to encompass survey data collected by groups involved in the basing process the team will move towards the next feature to allow SAF/IE to internally communicate about their tasks in the process. The Omni Federal team utilizes weekly customer meetings to create alignment and clarity on the course of the project roadmap.
Through an exercise of “buying a feature” the SAF/IE team was empowered to make actionable recommendations on where the application should be improved and enhanced to better support the basing process, while being able to see the roadmap develop based on their desires. From this the roadmap is outlined to include error handling to address a discovered problem by users who are learning the basing process. The inclusion of this will allow for users to be able to service themselves in their interactions with the application. The roadmap also has admin control over provided data and templates for the users to interact with and deliver portions of the process in a uniform manner. As the product will grow and mature Omni Federal will continue to be a partner and leverage its knowledge of SDLC.
Keeping our core value of “Doing right by the customer” to continuously deliver with agility at the forefront of this project.