Innovative Environmental Information Management Services

Q & A

What makes Innovative Environmental Information Management Services (IE) different?

IE is a small business with a broad background. Fred Dieffenbach is the owner/operator of IE, and has more than 20-years of experience working for environmental consulting firms, Federal agencies, and developing IT solutions. Fred uses a pragmatic approach to solving problems, looking for ways to do things better and more efficiently. For example, while employed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fred managed a permit database, built a comprehensive document management system, and developed a strategy to improve customer service. While Fred's broad range of experience gives him the ability to bridge the gap between environmental science and modern technology, his common sense perspective ensures that technology is used to solve the problem, without becoming the problem.

Why is important to identify the purpose of a project?

As strange as it might seem, many projects start without a defined purpose or objective. Doing so is a bit like leaving your driveway without having a destination in mind. Not having an objective makes it nearly impossible to determine whether a project is acceptable, or whether it is even complete. It may also cause project costs to increase excessively. Even if you cannot identify specific objectives, it is important to have a purpose in mind before starting.

Even if you know the overall purpose of the project, you may not have a clear picture of the questions you are trying to answer. For example, the overall purpose of the system may be to help manage multiple parcels of land but if you don't know what questions need to be answered you may find that you aren't tracking the appropriate information. Identifying potential questions at the start of the project will make the development process easier and more efficient, and will almost certainly yield a better solution.

Do you need a custom solution, or is an off-the-shelf application suitable?

Once you know the purpose of the project and the questions that must be answered you are ready to weigh the merits of a custom solution against an off-the-shelf product. If your only need is a product that tracks your organization's finances, an off-the-shelf product may be a logical starting place. However, if you want to inventory the floristic resources on each of your properties and track the status of those resources into the future you may find that an existing product is simply not adequate. In practice, many projects combine a bit of both. One of the biggest advantages of an off-the-shelf solution is that most are well supported. But, a well supported product may not be flexible enough to fully meet the needs of your organization.

What is your budget?

Knowing how much you have to spend before you start considering an IT project may help you with some of your decisions. If your finances are limited, or they will be distributed over time, you may want to phase the project to ensure that it is functional throughout the development process. For example, if you launch a grand project that will incorporate a series of interdependent modules, but suspend the project due to limited funding, you may be disapointed to find that the application is not functional in its interim form. Conversely, if you start the project knowing that your current funding will only pay for a third of the total development cost, you may want to stage the development project so that you will have a functional application, even if the intermediate version it is less capable than the full project.