Requirements
These are the requirements for the system that replaces ICM and MIS. Each one says what the system must do, how to check it, and which law, policy or design parameter it comes from.
- 643 requirements across five categories
- 270/270 policy obligations traced to a requirement
- 3,689 provisions of children and family law and policy read, each with a recorded outcome
- 21/21 design parameters carried by at least one requirement
- 13 trade-offs set out, 6 still waiting on a ministry ruling
Where the requirements come from
Sources are ranked, and the ranking settles any conflict between them. Where a procedure says one thing and policy says another, the requirement follows policy and the procedure is recorded as a defect for the ministry to fix.
- Legislation The Employment and Assistance Acts and their regulations, privacy, records and human rights law. For children and families: the Child, Family and Community Service Act, the Adoption Act and the federal Act on Indigenous children, youth and families. Overrides everything else.
- Policy The BCEA Policy and Procedure Manual: 126 pages, 270 obligations, 297 rules, 138 time limits. For children and families: the policy chapters, standards and practice directives of the Ministry of Children and Family Development. Overrides every procedure, job aid and spreadsheet.
- Practice Procedures, job aids and spreadsheets that show how the work is done today. Evidence of current practice. Never the authority for a requirement.
What they cover
Each category has its own page. Every requirement opens to show its description, the checks that prove it is met, and the reasons it exists.
- 25 Business What the ministry needs the new system to achieve, and how success is measured. 24 must · 1 should
- 481 Functional What the system must do, from a first application to an appeal and from a report about a child to an adoption order, grouped by capability. 444 must · 34 should · 3 won't
- 64 Quality How well it must do it: availability, recovery, security, privacy, accessibility and more. 60 must · 4 should
- 42 Integrations Every outside system it must exchange information with, and on what terms. 28 must · 14 should
- 31 Data How facts are recorded, kept, destroyed and moved from the legacy systems. 30 must · 1 should
When they are needed
The architecture delivers the system in ten modules, each in use before the next is funded. This chart counts the functional requirements by the module in which each is first needed. The foundations module carries the most, because some things cannot be added once the first record, rule or payment exists.
- 115 M0 Foundations
- 10 M1 Read access and client index
- 4 M2 Notices and correspondence
- 9 M3 Documents and capture
- 8 M4 Work management
- 9 M5 Decisions and rules
- 14 M6 Payments and recovery
- 6 M7 Reconsideration and appeal
- 18 M8 Employment and disability assistance
- 284 M9 Child protection
How each requirement is written
- It can be checked. Every requirement carries acceptance criteria written as "given, when, then", so a tester can say whether it passes.
- It says where it comes from. Each one lists the policy obligations it meets and the design parameters that test it, and links to them.
- It holds no dollar amounts or day counts. Those change, so they live once in the rules register with their policy source and effective date. A requirement names the rule; the register holds the value.
- It does not copy today's system. Where the current system calculates something other than what policy states, the requirement follows policy.
What is still open
Some requirements depend on decisions nobody has made yet: rulings on conflicts inside policy, the records schedules, and several architecture decisions. The trade-offs page sets out each conflict, how it was resolved or who must resolve it, and the dependencies and risks that go with them.
The requirements for children and family services were added in version 1.6. Each was written from the passage of law or policy it rests on. Nobody at the ministry has reviewed them yet. Those for mental health, integrated teams and youth justice are marked conditional, because nobody has decided whether the new system covers that work.
Source: requirements specification, version 1.6, a draft. Words with a special meaning link to the glossary.