Self Assessment for Drone Pilots Using an Open Source Forms Workflow Solution

Overview

It is a requirement that all Government staff managing or flying a remotely piloted aircraft system or drone (RPAS) in BC must complete and submit a self-assessment form which needs to be viewed, stored and on occasion modified by Ministry privacy staff. The problem is a great fit for the formsflow.ai open-source solution, developed and maintained by AOT, namely a Forms engine with a Workflow back-end. The form was designed using the forms component of the formsflow.ai solution, the notification was delivered through a simple email-notification workflow defined with the workflow component of formsflow.ai and the authentication was  performed through the Keycloak identity management component of formsflow.ai. 

By utilizing formsflow.ai, AOT was able to develop and deliver a solution to manage the self-certification required by Government staff to fly a RPAS in BC in record time (less than one month)

Key Takeaway

The use of the open-source formsflow.AI framework can dramatically reduce the time and effort to implement a forms/workflow solution.

Benefits

• Reduced integration time and effort with pre-existing framework
• Reduced development time and effort with pre-existing templates
• Provided scalability and monitoring through DevOps component framework
• Avoided user duplication through integration with existing Identity Management system
• Improved reliability through use of evaluated and proven component products
• Future-proofed for inevitable business process changes through integration of a fully-featured workflow engine

Our approach

1. Download formsflow.ai from github
2. Configure Keycloak Identity Management system
3. Build custom self-service form using smartform designer
4. Build workflow using graphical workflow tool
5. Deploy and test

Design and implementation

Please refer to formsflow.ai GitHub page for details on the design and implementation aspects.