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Getting Started

Purpose​

Permitting is a complex space. B.C.'s Natural Resource Sector (NRS) alone has well over 600 permit types with just as many ways to collect, process and store information from intake to decision. Analytics and reporting and permitting reform is difficult for many reasons including data quality and inconsistencies with collection. Permitting systems can't integrate without a common language.

This standard specifies the foundational set of core descriptive data types and elements required to enable the compatibility and interoperability of Natural Resource permitting and authorization ecosystems, as well as define the purpose and characteristics of permitting. It will enable better business intelligence (ie. providing evidence for policy shifts) and permitting process improvements while enabling flexibility to adapt to shifts in direction on permitting.

Objectives​

The main objective of PIES is to deliver a published specification to enable better data quality and system interoperability. Understand the time, cost, and effort involved in requiring a mandatory data standard be included or usable in all NRM permitting systems to enhance data consistency, improve interoperability, and automate processes across the sector.

  • Make it easier to connect and work with the information in different permitting systems.
    • Reduce the effort and cost of systems integrations and automation.
    • Unlock the ability to provide consistent progress tracking to proponents.
  • Create technical guidelines that help various systems communicate smoothly and consistently.
  • Support different ways for systems to communicate with each other.
  • Unlock potential for evidence-based policy and transformative potential of AI.

Getting Everyone on the Same Page​

  • Set up a working group for people interested to contribute and adopt PIES. See MS Teams.
  • Create clear rules for data governance.
  • Develop a common language so everyone understands the same terms.
  • Gather feedback to ensure data is represented accurately and clearly.

Documentation​

  • Share best practices for documenting government data standards.
  • Identify and list common permitting concepts and data types.
  • Create a plan for implementing solutions using transformations and microservices.

And of course, PIES are delicious! 😄

Goals​

  • Enable a cross sector view
    • Through appropriate data access
    • Creates a single point of validated reporting
  • Provide a harmonized view to perform analysis to identify gaps, gain insights and to spot opportunities for improvement
    • Data quality
    • Data and information consistency
    • Identify processing times
    • Data harmonization cross sector level reporting
    • Activity bundling and linking
    • Coordinated First Nations Consultation

Ultimately PIES goal is to achieve consistency in reporting and analytics across various permitting systems AND to achieve interoperability (the ability for the systems to understand the key elements of information they need to share and talk to each other in a common language).

An Interoperability strategy and technology will be developed separately from the Data Standards. The strategy will focus on a stable, maintainable, scalable platform for data interchange with ability to transform data from LOB systems into the data standards.