Public Access to Legislation Project

Project update, May 2007

The PAL Project is about to enter the user acceptance testing (UAT) phase of the project, following the completion of systems integration testing (SIT) and regression testing. Performance testing of the system by Unisys is also about to begin.

The PAL system is expected to be in operation and available to the public early in the second half of 2007.

Technical review

In February 2007, the project’s independent technical adviser, Dr Timothy Arnold-Moore of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), undertook a high-level technical review of the project. His report, finalised in March, found that the system was close to completion, with only a small number of issues outstanding. Fixes for these have now been developed by Unisys and its suppliers.

In the conclusion to his report, Dr Arnold-Moore noted:

SAIC is extremely encouraged by the progress made on the PAL system since the last review. There is a buzz of eager expectation within both the user community and the development team that the system is very nearly ready for production deployment. Key components including the document authoring environment, the print rendering subsystem, and the website infrastructure, while always capable of improvement, could be deployed without undue risk now. Providing that Unisys can deliver link management and editorial diary functionality to system testing in the near future, and the most severe limitations of the UUI can be addressed, the remaining functionality should be deployable and a complete, integrated management system for the entire legislative document lifecycle deployed with confidence.

Discussion of the technical review

Data

A production-like environment that has been established for UAT is being loaded with an advance copy of all legislative data that will be acquired from Brookers on completion of the project. Over 7,000 Acts and regulations, the oldest of which dates back to the 13th century, have been converted from Brookers’ legislation databases for publishing on a test version of the new PAL website.

Once the project is completed, the PCO will begin officialising (see FAQs) these documents to ensure content is complete and accurate. This in itself represents a substantial body of work, which is expected to take around three years. Until that process is completed, the legislation in the PAL system and published on the web will remain unofficial.

UAT and performance testing

UAT will be carried out at the PCO by members of all teams involved in the drafting and publication of legislation, and also by members of the Office of the Clerk and the Tax Drafting Unit of the Inland Revenue Department. The purpose is to establish that the system will function according to specifications in a business context. At the same time, Unisys will undertake performance testing. Successful completion of these two steps will lead to final acceptance of the system by the PCO.

Further steps before going live

Unisys and the PCO are working together to develop an implementation plan. The PCO will be focusing on business implementation—user documentation and training, establishing internal processes and procedures for Help Desk and user support, confirming new business processes, facilitating and managing the process for converting work in progress into the new system, and ensuring that the Office of the Clerk, IRD, Brookers, and SecuraCopy are properly connected and set up.

Unisys is addressing technical implementation. This covers finalisation of system documentation, the installation and commissioning of all systems into the Unisys Kapiti Data Centre, and handover to ongoing production, operations, and support teams.

The PCO has recently appointed an implementation manager, who among other things will have overall responsibility for finalising the ongoing services arrangements between the PCO and Unisys for the maintenance, support, and enhancement of the PAL system.

The transition to the new system will include the conversion and migration of work in progress, including legislation being drafted at that time, and Bills and Supplementary Order Papers before the House or select committees. The new system will be introduced, and the old system phased out, over a period of three months rather than cutting over to the new system at a specific date.

More information

• For information on the project’s objectives and scope, see Introduction to the PAL Project and the project’s FAQs.
• For information on the project’s background and history, see Project history.