AGUA Development Phase 5: Final Report

Every other year, when not conducting the biennial collections analysis, WEST undertakes systems development on AGUA, the WEST collection analysis and decision support tool. Planning for the fifth AGUA Development Phase (“Phase 5”) began in the summer of 2020, with project ideas submitted by the WEST project team, the AGUA technical team, WEST Operations and Collections Council, and WEST membership. WEST reported on the progress of Phase 5 work in June of 2021 with a Mid-Phase Report, available through the WEST blog. The AGUA Development Team completed its work on Phase 5 in September 2021, successfully implementing 8 of the 10 projects originally scheduled for development; the remaining two projects were strategically deprioritized by the WEST Operations and Collections Council in order to develop other priorities that arose after the Phase 5 project list was finalized.

As reported in earlier updates, this development phase prioritized an ambitious mix of projects focused on new user-facing features and back-end database enhancements to improve AGUA’s analysis capabilities. Where the Mid-Phase Report focused on describing each project, including development activities and outcomes, this Final Report takes a broader perspective on Phase 5 overall, including AGUA team process changes, the benefits these projects provide for members and the WEST program, and how AGUA Development fits into the larger national context.

WEST will begin planning for AGUA Development Phase 6 in spring 2022; development work is anticipated to begin in the fall.

The full Final Report on Phase 5 is now available for member review: AGUA Development Phase 5: Final Report