Background

On behalf of RIVM, information products are developed for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature to help with nitrogen issues. Some of these have a legal basis. Development is strongly influenced by evidence-based complex science and by a political administrative reality. This requires both structured and flexible working (agile).

Mission Challenge

The complexity of nitrogen information products is high. Although we have a pretty stable team, there is no escaping the fact that knowledge management becomes a factor. Incidentally, this applies just as much to our clients and users: ever new people and more complex subject matter mean that with every new issue, the how and why of previous solutions has to be brought back into the discussion.

Approach

Our approach is based on mutual learning. After all, what use is a solution that nobody understands? Within our development team, this means that we almost always work on a multi-disciplinary basis. This results in an optimal solution where the necessary time is spent testing the proposed solution direction together. Users are closely involved in the development of the product. Partly so that they can determine what the solution should look like for them, but also so that new users can learn what the solution entails and how they can make optimal use of it later on. We do this by organising regular meetings where our developers, QA people and requirements engineers, together with the users, look at the solution directions via demos and working test environments. This creates a dialogue between development and use, resulting in a solution that fits the adaptability of the users and their organisation.

Outcome

Information products that provide a solution to the stated problem, where the client has a clear understanding of what problem is being solved and users have a clear understanding of what it takes to be able to use the solution.

Wing EMC capabilities deployed

1. Mutual learning
2. Interaction between different disciplines
3. Knowledge exchange
4. Linking managerial and operational interests