Business requirements
Fourteen outcomes the new system must deliver. Each says why it matters, how success is measured, and which functional and quality requirements deliver it.
Each business requirement names its drivers, the parameters that test it, and the functional and non-functional requirements that deliver it. Success criteria can be measured. Where no baseline exists yet, the criterion says who will set it.
Showing 25 of 25
Business requirements 25
BR-001 Must
Entitlement is decided correctly, as policy states it
Every decision applies the statute and the policy rules in force for the period it covers, as policy states them.Description
Every decision applies the statute and the policy rules in force for the period it covers, as policy states them. No worker should have to adjust a result by hand to reach the entitlement policy sets.
Rationale
A benefits system that calculates something other than the stated entitlement pays people wrongly, at scale. Policy states at least one entitlement the current system does not calculate. Today the gap is closed only when a worker notices it and adjusts the amount by hand OBLG-C1. A specification copied from the legacy system would carry that underpayment forward. The rules also have no single current date: the supplement rules alone carry 54 different effective dates OBLG-C3. Being correct means applying the right version of each rule to each period.
Success Criteria
- Shadow comparison meets its exit criteria for every class of difference, across three monthly payment cycles in a row, on a group of clients whose cases are as complex as the real caseload. There are zero unresolved defects in the new system before any group of clients moves (FR-095).
- Every rule a decision applies is named in its record by rule identifier and version, and every rule in the register carries a policy citation and effective date (FR-090, FR-091).
- The entitlements that need manual adjustment today are calculated by the rules with no manual step. Test cases in the rules test suite prove it.
Drivers
DRV-01, DRV-09, DRV-10
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy and Program Design
BR-002 Must
Every decision can be defended years after it is made
Any decision can be reproduced, explained and disclosed for as long as it can be reconsidered, appealed, reviewed or requested under access legislation.Description
Any decision can be reproduced, explained and disclosed for as long as it can be reconsidered, appealed, reviewed or requested under access legislation. That means what was decided, on what facts, under which rules, and what the client was told.
Rationale
A tribunal asks what the ministry decided, on what basis, and what the client was told, and it often asks years later. A decision can only be reproduced if the calculation depends on nothing but its inputs, and if those inputs and outputs are stored in full when the decision is made TA-C3. A record that points to a running system is not evidence.
Success Criteria
- For a randomly chosen adverse decision, the rule, the fact and where it came from, the reasons as issued, and the deadline to challenge that was stated can all be rebuilt from stored records alone, with no running system and no person involved (TA §C.8.5 test).
- The replay horizon, and how decisions older than it will be evidenced, are set out in writing before the first live decision (FR-008).
- The appeal record for any decision can be put together, and severed, on demand (FR-058, FR-078).
Drivers
DRV-02, DRV-03, DRV-11 (aim 1)
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
Chief Architect, with the Reconsideration and Administrative Fairness Unit
BR-003 Must
Clients can always challenge a decision, and are told truthfully how
A client may ask for reconsideration of any communication, at any time, and the request is always recorded.Description
A client may ask for reconsideration of any communication, at any time, and the request is always recorded. The client is told accurately whether a decision can be reconsidered or appealed, and where. Statutory deadlines are tracked by the system, and the ministry's own lateness never costs the client.
Rationale
Policy gives an unconditional right to ask for reconsideration. An independent unit decides whether reconsideration is available; the worker who sent the communication does not OBLG-C4. Whether a decision can be challenged differs by entitlement and by variant, and cannot be worked out from the parent program PRIN-C2. A missed statutory deadline changes what the client is owed PRIN-C1.
Success Criteria
- No reconsideration request is refused at the point of contact on any channel, and every one is recorded with the date and channel it arrived on (FR-055).
- Every entitlement and variant records its statutory basis, whether it can be reconsidered, whether it can be appealed, and to which body. The rights text in every notice is generated from those values (FR-092, FR-063).
- Every breach of a statutory deadline is detected and recorded automatically, and its effect on entitlement is applied without anyone asking (FR-061).
Drivers
DRV-02, DRV-09
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
BR-004 Must
Public money moves only under control, and people are paid even when the system fails
Every payment passes through one defined issuance point.Description
Every payment passes through one defined issuance point. Separation of duties is enforced in the software. Payment runs never pay twice and can resume after a failure. Payments are reconciled daily against the corporate financial system in a three-way check. A planned, rehearsed emergency payment route exists before the first payment.
Rationale
A benefits system that calculates correctly but does not pay has failed completely. A single issuance point that is described but never specified cannot be built. If each program family builds its own link to the payment system, the controls exist once per program and are audited once per program TA-C4. Rolling back to the old system does not keep payments flowing: a client's rent is due on a date TA-C5.
Success Criteria
- The five acceptance criteria for the issuance point in TA §C.6.8 pass before the first live payment (FR-042).
- No payment is made outside a run, and there are no unexplained reconciliation breaks at month-end (FR-043, FR-045).
- Emergency payment is exercised, at a load-tested share of a program's caseload, before M6 ends (FR-047).
Drivers
DRV-07, DRV-10, DRV-11 (aims 13, 14)
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
Executive Financial Officer
BR-005 Must
Debt is raised fairly, and can be reversed in bulk
An overpayment is calculated as the difference between two decision records.Description
An overpayment is calculated as the difference between two decision records. It is classified by what changed in the evidence, and raised only after a person decides it. Automatic raising is capped per cycle. Overpayments that share one cause are reviewed together as a group. A batch of overpayments can be reversed in one step, and any money already recovered is returned automatically.
Rationale
Another jurisdiction ran a debt-raising program that was found unlawful. It raised debts automatically from averaged income data and made recipients prove they did not owe. The controls against that failure are cheap to build only before any debts exist TA-C6. Whether a debt can be recovered depends on what the ministry knew and when, and only the evidence record captures that.
Success Criteria
- No overpayment is raised without a recorded human decision-maker for each component (FR-052).
- Every overpayment component is classified from the type of evidence change and the party at fault that caused it (FR-051).
- A raised batch can be reversed in one step, with recovery reversed and corrected notices issued. This is shown in testing before the first live decision (FR-052).
Drivers
DRV-01, DRV-02, DRV-07
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
Executive Financial Officer, with the Overpayment & Recovery business owner
BR-006 Must
Information is collected, used and disclosed lawfully by design
The system collects only what it needs.Description
The system collects only what it needs. It discloses only where a legal basis is recorded. It enforces limits on how information may be used, wherever the information goes. It severs records before release, handles correction requests across every place the information is held, and can answer "whose information was accessed, by whom, and when" with a query.
Rationale
The original design had no part responsible for how the ministry manages the information it holds. About 15% of obligations had no part of the system to own them MAP-C1, and every unowned intake obligation was about managing information NOTE3-C1. Policy bars information the ministry holds lawfully from particular uses, in five different ways PRIN-C3. Severing works phrase by phrase inside free-text notes OBLG-C5.
Success Criteria
- Every disclosure record names the recipient, the legal basis and the agreement. No access decision is made from any source other than the agreement registry (FR-077, FR-085).
- Every barred use is blocked by default at the point of use, and each blocked attempt is recorded as an event (FR-080).
- The people affected by a privacy breach can be listed by a query (NFR-C-001).
Drivers
DRV-03, DRV-08
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
Ministry Privacy Officer
BR-007 Must
Records can be disposed of lawfully in a store that never overwrites
Before the first live event is written, the ministry decides for each kind of fact how long it is kept and how it is disposed of.Description
Before the first live event is written, the ministry decides for each kind of fact how long it is kept and how it is disposed of. That includes the disposal method, the published list of what survives disposal, who holds the encryption keys, and what happens when a replay reaches a disposed fact. The ministry can then meet its disposal duties without destroying its financial and control records.
Rationale
A store that only ever adds records conflicts with a legal duty to destroy them. Settling that conflict after the first event means rebuilding the store. The authority for disposal comes from the Information Management Act and the ARCS/ORCS schedules, not from the policy manual OBLG-C2.
Success Criteria
- Every kind of fact has a disposal method before the first live event (DR-004).
- After a test disposal, financial control totals still reconcile to the same values as before (NFR-C-003).
Drivers
DRV-04, DRV-03
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
Ministry Records Officer
BR-008 Must
Indigenous jurisdiction and custodianship are recorded accurately
The system records who is custodian of each fact for each person.Description
The system records who is custodian of each fact for each person. It treats Indigenous governing bodies as their own class of participant outside the Crown, with their own legal bases. It supports transferring records to another sovereign government as a way of disposing of them. And it recognises designations made by another jurisdiction, while showing how current that recognition is.
Rationale
The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act commits the Province to bringing its laws into line with the UN Declaration. A Nation's authority over its own data cannot be expressed as a retention rule or an access list. The participant class and the custodianship attribute have to be built in from the start, because they cannot be added once the registry and evidence types exist TA-C7.
Success Criteria
- The system can read the custodian of every evidence type for every person, and every access decision traces to the agreement registry alone (FR-084, FR-085).
- A transfer package can be produced, and the receiving body can check it without using ministry systems (FR-084).
Drivers
DRV-06
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
Ministry Indigenous relations function, with the Ministry Privacy Officer
BR-009 Must
Everyone can reach the service, whatever their ability or channel
A person gets the same result whatever their disability and whichever channel they use, with the same legal effect and the same deadlines.Description
A person gets the same result whatever their disability and whichever channel they use, with the same legal effect and the same deadlines. No right, notice or deadline to challenge is available only online. Screens meet WCAG 2.2 AA at first release, confirmed by testing with assistive technology.
Rationale
The clients least able to use a portal make up a large share of this caseload TA-C8. A system that is correct but unreachable fails without showing up in usage figures. The duty to accommodate is set in law (OB-IN-29).
Success Criteria
Drivers
DRV-05, DRV-10
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
Head of Service Delivery Operations, with the Chief Digital Officer
BR-010 Must
Policy changes are fast, safe and dated
Policy staff can write, test and release a rule or rate change without a software release.Description
Policy staff can write, test and release a rule or rate change without a software release. Each change is versioned and takes effect on its own date, after review and legal sign-off. Older versions of each rule can still run, for replaying past decisions and for transition rules that run alongside current ones.
Rationale
The rules change all the time, and every decision draws on rules from several different dates RULES-C2. Taking rate changes off the software release schedule is the main financial case for the rules platform. That case rests on an untested assumption: that policy analysts can write rules on it TA-C9.
Success Criteria
- Two policy analysts, without help, write, test and release one real rate change from start to finish in a test environment, with the time taken and any help needed recorded (FR-090).
- Every rule carries a policy citation and effective date. No rule is released while its effective dates in policy still conflict (FR-091).
Drivers
DRV-09, DRV-10
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy and Program Design
BR-011 Must
The legacy systems are replaced step by step, reversibly, and completely
Work moves from the legacy systems to the new system one part and one group of clients at a time.Description
Work moves from the legacy systems to the new system one part and one group of clients at a time. There is exactly one writer per aggregate at every moment, per context and per cohort (N05). A published statement says what moving back would lose. The published interface outlives the legacy system behind it. Each legacy capability is shut down as its replacement goes live.
Rationale
The vendor supports the legacy platform past 2037, so no outside deadline forces the replacement to finish TA-C10. The previous programme replaced about a third of the legacy systems and left the most important one running. Responsibility for records moves one part of the system at a time, never one field at a time TA-C11.
Success Criteria
- Every part of the system that moves meets the definition of done in TA §E.10, including retiring the legacy function and closing its interfaces.
- Moving back is rehearsed for every group of clients before they move, and the list of what would be lost is published and accepted (DR-015).
- Removing the legacy product changes nothing in any published interface (NFR-I-001).
Drivers
DRV-11 (aims 3, 6, 7, 11)
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
Chief Architect
BR-012 Must
Workers can do their jobs at least as well as today, and safely
In each part of the system, the ten most common tasks take no longer, and need no more screens or switches between systems, than today.Description
In each part of the system, the ten most common tasks take no longer, and need no more screens or switches between systems, than today. Supervisors can see caseloads across programs. Client and staff safety concerns are recorded and acted on.
Rationale
Problems for workers, not missing features, sank the child protection phases of the previous programme. A move to the new system that makes a common task slower is a defect TA-C12. Staff safety is part of the nature of the work.
Success Criteria
Drivers
DRV-10
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
Head of Service Delivery Operations
BR-013 Must
A system failure never harms a client
Every service has an availability target, a recovery time and a recovery point, set by what its failure would do to clients and proven in exercises.Description
Every service has an availability target, a recovery time and a recovery point, set by what its failure would do to clients and proven in exercises. Anything that affects an entitlement or a payment must lose no data at all. Every dependency has a stated way of working when it fails.
Rationale
A lost payment instruction is a person without money TA-C13. N16, the parameter that covers this, is still [PROPOSED], because none of the 270 policy obligations calls for it PRIN-C4. Its authority lies outside the policy manual; its need is not in doubt.
Success Criteria
- The C.15.1 capacity table has every cell filled, with an owner for each figure, at design freeze (NFR-P-001).
- Recovery targets are proven in exercises for every tier-1 component, and disaster recovery exercises run twice a year (NFR-A-002, NFR-A-006).
Drivers
DRV-07, DRV-10, DRV-11 (aim 13)
Parameters
N16 [PROPOSED]
Delivered by
Stakeholder
Ministry Chief Information Officer, with the Head of Service Delivery Operations
BR-014 Must
Each program family is specified from its own law and policy before it moves
For child care subsidy, employment services and child protection, the obligations are extracted from each program's own legislation and policy, by the same method used for the BCEA register, before that program's module is scoped.Description
For child care subsidy, employment services and child protection, the obligations are extracted from each program's own legislation and policy, by the same method used for the BCEA register, before that program's module is scoped.
Rationale
The detailed requirements here rest on the BCEA policy manual. The architecture covers more than that. The first set of rules it plans to move is child care subsidy (M5), and no obligation register exists yet for that program. Specifying a program from the platform down, without its own authority, is the mistake the method was built to prevent METH-C2.
Success Criteria
- Each program family has an obligation register, a rules register and a register of which decisions can be challenged, all with policy citations, before its module starts.
- Every platform-level requirement in this document is re-checked against each new family's obligations, and gaps are raised as amendments.
Drivers
DRV-01, DRV-08, DRV-09
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
Chief Architect, with the program policy authority for each family
Added v1.6. BR-015 to BR-025 state what the ministry needs from the system for children and family services. Each is delivered by the functional requirements in the groups it names.
BR-015 Must
A report about a child is received, assessed and answered within the time the law and policy set
Every report that a child may need protection is recorded when it arrives, on any day and at any hour.Description
Every report that a child may need protection is recorded when it arrives, on any day and at any hour. It is screened, given a response priority and a response path, and followed through assessment or investigation to a recorded outcome, each step within its time limit and with the approval policy requires.
Rationale
The Act requires a director to assess every report. Policy sets the limits in hours and days, and a report that is not received is a child who is not seen (TA §C.12.2). The reporting line already has its own availability target (NFR-A-007); this requirement covers what happens to the report after it is received.
Success Criteria
Drivers
DRV-12, DRV-17, DRV-18
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
The child protection practice authority (TA §E.5.9)
BR-016 Must
Indigenous laws, authorities and agreements are identified first and honoured at every step
For every child, the system records whether the child is an Indigenous child, each community, whether an Indigenous law or an agreement applies, and which Indigenous authority is responsible.Description
For every child, the system records whether the child is an Indigenous child, each community, whether an Indigenous law or an agreement applies, and which Indigenous authority is responsible. It applies the terms of an applicable agreement to the work, supports referral of a report to an Indigenous authority and withdrawal from a proceeding at its request, and records every notice, consultation and placement decision the Acts require.
Rationale
The federal Act and the provincial Acts make these duties conditions of acting lawfully for an Indigenous child, and an agreement with a governing body binds every director in the province. BR-008 already requires custodianship and a class of participant outside the Crown; this requirement covers what the director must do case by case.
Success Criteria
- No protection response, agreement, court step or placement for an Indigenous child proceeds without the recorded identity and applicable-law check (FR-110 to FR-142).
- An agreement's terms are held once and applied to each child it covers; the registry of agreements (FR-085) and the register of agreements with governing bodies are one record.
Drivers
DRV-06, DRV-12, DRV-14
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
The Indigenous Child Welfare Director and the Provincial Director of Child Welfare, designated under the CFCSA
BR-017 Must
Every agreement and court step runs on its statutory time, with the record the court and the parties are owed
Agreements with families and each step of a court proceeding are recorded with their parties, required content, term and cumulative limits.Description
Agreements with families and each step of a court proceeding are recorded with their parties, required content, term and cumulative limits. Notices are served on everyone entitled, hearings are tracked against their limits, and the prescribed reports to court are produced from the record.
Rationale
The Act fixes how long an agreement or order may run, who must be told of a hearing and what the court must be given. A term that passes unnoticed leaves a child in care with no legal basis.
Success Criteria
Drivers
DRV-12
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
The child protection practice authority, with legal counsel to the director
BR-018 Must
A child in care or in an out-of-care arrangement has a plan, a guardian's decisions and their rights on record
For each child in care, and each child placed with a care provider outside care, the system holds the plan of care and its reviews, the visits made, the health and consent decisions taken as guardian, the rights the child was told of, the checks made on the peDescription
For each child in care, and each child placed with a care provider outside care, the system holds the plan of care and its reviews, the visits made, the health and consent decisions taken as guardian, the rights the child was told of, the checks made on the people caring for the child, and the plan for permanency.
Rationale
The director is the child's guardian or supervises the person who is. The Act sets the rights of children in care and the content of a plan of care, and policy sets how often a child is seen. Much of the policy that governs a child in care is not held (DEP-30), so several of these requirements are provisional.
Success Criteria
Drivers
DRV-12, DRV-17
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
The child protection practice authority
BR-019 Must
Adoption records hold the consents, notices and identity information the Adoption Act requires
The system supports adoption from planning to the order and after it:Description
The system supports adoption from planning to the order and after it: consultation with Indigenous communities, matching, the proposal to adoptive applicants, placement, consents and their revocation, notices, the reports to court, registries, openness agreements and post-adoption assistance.
Rationale
An adoption changes a child's legal identity for life. A consent taken too early, a notice not given or a birth father not searched for can undo an order.
Success Criteria
Drivers
DRV-13, DRV-14
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
The Provincial Director of Adoption
BR-020 Must
Services for children with support needs rest on recorded eligibility, consent and agreements
Eligibility for each support needs program is decided against the criteria policy sets and recorded with its evidence.Description
Eligibility for each support needs program is decided against the criteria policy sets and recorded with its evidence. Services start on recorded consent. Requests are ranked for priority, and each service, agreement and payment is recorded with how it ended.
Rationale
These services are voluntary and rationed. A family is owed a written decision on eligibility and a record of where they stand.
Success Criteria
Drivers
DRV-12, DRV-17
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
The program policy authority for children and youth with support needs
BR-021 Must
Only a person with the delegated authority acts, and every approval is recorded
The system holds every designation of a director and every delegation of a director's powers, with its category, limits and dates.Description
The system holds every designation of a director and every delegation of a director's powers, with its category, limits and dates. It tests a worker's delegation before a power is exercised and records each approval policy requires from a supervisor, team leader or director.
Rationale
The Act lets a director delegate powers in writing. A removal or a consent given by a worker without the delegation is unlawful, and policy reserves named decisions to named positions.
Success Criteria
Drivers
DRV-12
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
The Provincial Director of Child Welfare
BR-022 Must
Information about children and families is restricted, shared and disclosed as the Acts allow
Collection, use and disclosure follow the child protection statute where it applies and the privacy statute where it does not.Description
Collection, use and disclosure follow the child protection statute where it applies and the privacy statute where it does not. Records are restricted where policy requires, kept apart where a statute bars their use by another service line, disclosed to the parties to a proceeding, and transferred complete when a family moves.
Rationale
One family can be served under two statutes at once, with different rules for sharing between them. Staff in one service line may not open another line's records without consent or a written request. BR-006 sets the general duty; this requirement covers the rules particular to children's services.
Success Criteria
Drivers
DRV-03, DRV-12
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
The Ministry Privacy Officer
BR-023 Must
Money paid for a child's care is authorised, traceable and recoverable
Payments to caregivers, care providers, service providers and families are made on a recorded agreement or entitlement, approved by a person with the spending authority, and issued through the controls BR-004 sets.Description
Payments to caregivers, care providers, service providers and families are made on a recorded agreement or entitlement, approved by a person with the spending authority, and issued through the controls BR-004 sets. A parent's contribution to a child's care is determined, agreed or ordered, and collected.
Rationale
Finance policy separates the people who request, approve and issue a payment. The Act keeps parents responsible for contributing to the care of a child in care.
Success Criteria
Drivers
DRV-07, DRV-12
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
The Executive Financial Officer
BR-024 Must
Deaths, critical injuries, serious incidents and complaints are reported and reviewed on time
A reportable circumstance is recorded, approved and sent to those entitled to it within the limit policy sets, and screened for review.Description
A reportable circumstance is recorded, approved and sent to those entitled to it within the limit policy sets, and screened for review. Requests for administrative review and complaints are taken by any means, tracked to an outcome, and never held against the person who made them.
Rationale
The regulation gives a person a right to an administrative review. Policy requires a report on a death or critical injury of a child who received services, and the review that follows depends on that report being made.
Success Criteria
Drivers
DRV-12, DRV-17
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
The child protection practice authority
BR-025 Should
Mental health, integrated team and youth justice work is specified and held ready for the scope decisions
The requirements for child and youth mental health, the Integrated Child and Youth teams and youth justice are written from their own law and policy and kept in their own groups, so that each scope decision keeps or removes a whole group without rework.Priority: SHOULD_HAVE (conditional on DEP-26 to DEP-28)
Description
The requirements for child and youth mental health, the Integrated Child and Youth teams and youth justice are written from their own law and policy and kept in their own groups, so that each scope decision keeps or removes a whole group without rework.
Rationale
Each of these areas records its work today in a system other than the one being replaced, and nobody has decided whether the replacement covers them. Their statutes limit who may see their records: a youth justice record may not be seen by other service lines except as the federal Act allows.
Success Criteria
Drivers
DRV-15, DRV-16, DRV-17
Parameters
Delivered by
Stakeholder
The Ministry Chief Information Officer, with the program policy authority for each area