Production management and control for operational oceanography

The mission of the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) is to conduct multidisciplinary military ocean surveys, collect and analyze oceanographic data, and generate operationally significant products and services that address Navy and Department of Defense oceanographic needs, as well as those of academia and civil agencies. NAVOCEANO provides near-real-time and long-term oceanographic product support in the form of text, graphics, remotely sensed products, and databases. NAVOCEANO constitutes a production environment for analyzing oceanographic features from in situ data, imagery, and databases and for producing tailored and standard products for a myriad of operational customers. Production can consist of automated processing, database creation, or scientific analysis of various data sets. To track the requirements and requests for products from receipt to dissemination, the production process has been captured in a workflow software package called Forward Looking Office Workflow (FLOW). This paper describes a system to meet production management requirements for operational products at NAVOCEANO. It will describe the current use of the FLOW software and an initiative to integrate FLOW into the hydrographic production process. A link will be made between the FLOW software and a commercial off-the-shelf performance management software, Panorama Business Views (PBViews), to give an office-wide perspective on production management and performance.