The Challenge
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is tasked with preserving Colorado’s natural and cultural resources through innovative conservation and science-driven management of the state’s parks and wildlife. Recognizing the limitations of its outdated internal systems, CPW sought a custom software solution to enable seamless, statewide management of its fisheries and fish-and-water-related health programs. Our company was selected to develop the Colorado fisheries application due to our expertise in conservation, open-source development, and user-centered design.
Our Approach
The project began with a discovery phase to identify CPW’s operational requirements, during which we worked alongside state representatives to gather and validate the essential functional requirements for the new system. We then proceeded to prepare, test, and refine a series of notional interface prototypes based on the state’s apparent needs. Approved concepts were used as the basis for subsequent technical development. Ensuing technical work was carried out in accordance with an Agile methodology, we assigned a full Scrum team, and accomplished more than 16 sprints. Work focused initially on critical features, and then gradually expanded to encompass other secondary functional interests.
The Result
The resulting custom application, COFish, provides comprehensive functionality, including:
- Core data tracking for management of waters, facilities, labs, and staff.
- Hatchery operations tools for inventory tracking, cost management, feed/resource logistics, facility rules, diagnostics, and certifications.
- Stocking, transfer, and salvage requests, approvals, and logistics.
- Fish health management case tracking, sample gathering, test result reporting, and prescription management.
- Workflow support for facility certifications and regulatory compliance.
- Administrative reporting with detailed analytics on inventory, growth, mortality, cost efficiency, and future projections at both statewide and hatchery-specific levels.
This integrated system significantly improves CPW’s operational efficiency and data accessibility, supporting its mission to conserve Colorado’s resources.
