Bayerische Forstverwaltung
The QA app of Bayerische Forstverwaltung
The Challenge
Bayerische Forstverwaltung (Bavarian Forest Administration) faced the challenge of redesigning an existing quality assurance process, used to check forest management data supplied by external forest planning offices before transferring it to its own data storage system, enabling targeted error correction through clear and traceable feedback.
The audits to be performed can be both geometric audits (e.g., correct coordinate system) and content audits, such as compliance with value ranges, correct naming, or compliance with the correct data model.
A special feature of the entire verification mechanism is the need for a specialist department to be able to make changes to the verification rules at short notice, independently, and in some cases also on a data record basis.
The goal of the joint development was to create a workflow that would enable the specialist side to quickly and independently adapt the QA rules without needing to make changes to the FME workspaces. In addition, the solution should be transferable to other use cases to make testing processes more flexible and easier to maintain.
With the QA app, we have gained an application that enables us to quality assure data collected by third parties according to the specifications provided by specialist and GIS departments. The specifications can be configured, making it easy to adapt the QA app to different testing processes and changes in technical specifications. The notifications from the QS app make it easy for data creators to correct any errors found.
The QA app makes our work easier and helps us to ensure the required data quality.
The customer
Bayerische Forstverwaltung is responsible for forestry and forest management in Bavaria. Based on the Bavarian Forest Act, it ensures that forests are managed properly and sustainably, supporting the further development of the forestry and timber sector. In doing so, it is in constant dialogue with forest owners, citizens, and social interest groups, as well as forestry partners, associations, clubs, and self-help groups. Bayerische Forstverwaltung mediates between conflicting interests and develops appropriate solutions, both on site in the forest, and at the political level.
The solution
The previous quality assurance process has been fundamentally revised. By clearly separating the tasks between the specialist department and FME development, it has been made significantly more efficient. This was achieved by transferring the test criteria from the actual FME Workspace to an external configuration file (JSON).
The specialist department now uses a newly developed FME Flow app for the QA process in which the geodata to be checked from the forestry planning offices, including its own control file, are imported. The file contains technical test rules and can be adapted and customised before each QA run by the specialist department, separated from the FME developers.
The technical logic of the quality assurance process therefore moves from the FME Workspace to the configuration file. The result is a flexible, easy-to-maintain QA solution that can be easily adapted by the specialist department, thanks to an outsourced configuration file. In addition, the solution is generically structured and developed so that basic building blocks of the test workspace can be reused across projects.
The benefit
User-friendliness thanks to FME Flow app-based quality assurance process
Flexibility thanks to quick and easy changes to technical requirements
Increased efficiency: decoupling of technical and development departments
Transferability thanks to reuse of the FME workflow for other business processes
The solution is based on
FME Form and FME Flow
JSON configuration file
Summary
con terra has developed a powerful and flexibly adaptable quality assurance workflow for Bayerische Forstverwaltung that breaks new ground by decoupling the specialist department from the development department. Working together, we were able to replace the existing process and set up a new, more efficient one. In addition, the basis for transferability to other business processes was created.
