Sowing seeds of change: Transforming SPAR

Forestry in B.C. is changing and the Ministry of Forests is meeting the challenge. One example is the work of Forestry Digital Services (FDS), who are transforming forestry applications like the Seed Planning and Registry system (SPAR).

SPAR is the Ministry of Forests’ tree seed registry, an online system used by the ministry’s Tree Seed Centre as well as foresters, cone collectors, seed orchards, nursery staff, scientists and others across the province. SPAR helps them select seeds and cuttings with good growth potential and resistance to insects and disease for use in reforestation.

The newly upgraded SPAR 2.0 modernizes user experience and reduces the application’s risk of failure, ensuring its database will meet future user needs.

Updating the legacy system

All tree seeds used to grow the seedlings planted in B.C each year originate at the Tree Seed Centre, and staff and the forest industry use SPAR to manage a seed inventory valued at over $116 million. SPAR supports annual reforestation activities in B.C. worth approximately $250 million.

SPAR is a necessary tool for:

• Managing seedlots (seed collections), veg lots (collections of tree cuttings), seed orchards and parent trees
• Ordering seeds and seedlings
• Shipping cones to the centre for processing
• Requesting seed processing, sampling, testing and transfers
• Invoicing for seed sales and services

FDS knew updating SPAR was a priority to keep pace with forestry practice changes and reduce the risk of system failure. An update would increase its resiliency and data integrity into the future.

SPAR’s code was out of date and fragile. Code updates sometimes resulted in unforeseeable problems that incurred maintenance costs. Rewriting the A-class registration screens has stabilized the system so it can adapt to changing forestry practices, and reduced maintenance costs and the risk of failure.

The branching path of service design

FDS is comprised of four Agile teams working to improve the Forests Suite of Applications (FSA), a suite of more than 40 applications used by the forestry sector and other natural resource sectors.

Each FDS team works on one or two applications at a time:

• Team Alliance handles the Forests Client Management System
• Team Heartwood covers Forest Access Management, the Forests Operation Map and the Forests Operation Plan
• Team Silva is updating the Reporting Silviculture Updates and Land Status Tracking System
• Team Evergreen is responsible for modernizing SPAR and CONSEP (the specialized application of the Tree Seed Centre)

Team Evergreen uses service design as a human-centred and collaborative approach to creating products and services. Service design often begins with desk research and results in a working prototype. But between these two points, the process is complex and non-linear. Service designers conduct rounds of interviews and consultations, create journey maps and designs, and test prototypes with users. Refining prototypes guides developers in their creation of the final product.

Service design doesn’t only address how a product looks, feels and operates for users on the front end. It also helps developers understand what technical functionalities to build at the application’s back end.

Sprinting through the forest

Like all FDS teams, Evergreen uses an Agile approach to software development. Agile organizes a project’s design, development and testing tasks into iterations called “sprints,” allowing teams to organize their own work and adapt to changing needs. FDS believes Agile will allow Evergreen to refresh SPAR better, faster and at a lower cost than other approaches.

Site visits were important for members of the team without a background in forestry to understand SPAR in context. The service design team and product owner toured the Tree Seed Centre and saw the process of seed cones being kilned, and seeds being processed and stored.

(Fun fact: there are many ways cones are collected in the wild and one is by skimming from squirrel caches. Squirrels are prolific hoarders of cones, so human collectors take what they don’t need for sustainable practices like SPAR. The squirrels declined to be interviewed for this story.)

On August 16, 2024, Evergreen released its first iteration of SPAR 2.0. It focused on A-Class seedlots, which are collections of seeds from a seed orchard.

Future iterations of SPAR 2.0 aim to make registering and managing B-Class seedlots (seeds collected from natural stands of trees instead of orchards) and Veg Lots (collections of cuttings taken from live trees) easier for users.

Growing for the future

SPAR 2.0 launched only recently, so it’s early to say with certainty what impact it will have on the system’s users. The anticipated benefits are that SPAR 2.0 will make entering data easier for users and minimize data entry errors.

Evergreen will continue to use service design and Agile in its ongoing development of SPAR 2.0. This includes collaborating with SPAR 2.0 users to identify and make fixes and to design, develop, test and launch new features.

SPAR 2.0 confirms the value of service design and Agile to Team Evergreen and Forestry Digital Services. By involving SPAR’s users in the development and testing of SPAR 2.0, Team Evergreen is confident the new application will meet the needs and exceed the expectations of users.

With FDS and the forestry sector embracing change and adaptation through good design practices, teams like Evergreen can pivot as requirements change and address the needs of users as they evolve, ensuring a better future for the applications that support growth in forestry.