Page 164 - Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS)

BUYING AN AFIS SYSTEM: THE BASIC DOCUMENTS NEEDED 149

their input from day one presented to them in an organized way. This will evoke
corrections, additions, and deletions. After the facilitator updates the slides, they
are reviewed a second time and updated again, as appropriate. On the third day,
the facilitators can flesh out the material in the slides to a ten or so page ConOps
that can be signed off and approved that week. The slides can then be updated,
as appropriate, and used to brief those not present at the meeting.
At this point, it is critical to share the ConOps with potential vendors to deter-
mine if it needs to be changed to make your wants and needs match up with
their COTS products. This can help control costs, reduce risk, and permit the
vendors an early look at your needs. One way to do this is to hold a meeting
where the slides are presented to all the vendors and copies of the ConOps are
distributed. Follow up by inviting each vendor to an informal meeting to permit
them to comment on your ConOps before it is converted into a requirements
specification, when contracting rules are likely to prohibit further informal
communication with potential vendors.
In preparing the ConOps, the following outline is a useful starting point.
The list should be tailored to the needs of the individual jurisdiction and
modified over time as experience dictates.

• Purpose and intended use of the AFIS—civil, criminal, applicants, homeland
defense, etc., as well as highlights on users, customers per service offered,
etc. [what and who]
• Timeframe for contract award, deployment, and numbers of years of
intended use [when]
• Deliverables to include any converted records, equipment, training, and
documentation [what]
• Functionality—identification, verification, latents, palms, etc. [what]
• Transactions—based on ANSI NIST standards, etc.; both AFIS searches and
responses [what]
• Hours of operations of the AFIS—staffed versus lights out [when]
• Staffing per shift [who]
• Workloads in terms of transactions per day, priorities, and capacities for
storage [what]
• Performance in terms of response time, throughput, and maximum accept-
able matching error rates [how]
• Gateways to other systems such as other AFIS and criminal history systems
[what]
• Open issues and next steps

Once approved, the ConOps will act as the base document from which subse-
quent requirements specifications, source selection plans, and master sched-