Swimming Pool Register: Building Commission NSW
300,000 backyard pools, 182 local councils, about 30 forms, and two months to build it before registration opened in April 2013. We ran the NSW Swimming Pool Register for more than ten years after that.
The deadline
The NSW Swimming Pools Amendment Act required every backyard pool in the state, about 300,000 of them, to be on a register. Registration opened on 29 April 2013 and closed on 29 October 2013. The contract was awarded in February, which left about two months for the analysis, the design, the build and the launch.
What we built
We started with a discovery phase, because the hard part was not the form. It was the legislation, and the number of different people who had to use it. Owners registered their own pools. The 182 local councils registered pools over the counter for people who came in, ran the inspection programs, and updated records in the field. Certifiers and inspectors each had their own path through it. That came to about 30 forms and an inspector workflow.
Addresses had to be right, because a register of pools is only useful if a council can find the property. We integrated with the NSW land and property database so an address was picked rather than typed.
Launch
More than 50,000 pools were registered in the first week. The system held the load, including the storage and background processing behind each registration. Councils stopped handling registrations on paper.
After launch
We run and maintain the register, which has moved between agencies from the Division of Local Government to Fair Trading and then to the Building Commission.
What this involved
Analysis, design, build and launch in about two months, against legislation that gave the state six months to register 300,000 pools
About 30 forms and an inspector workflow, serving 182 local councils for over-the-counter registration and updates in the field
Integrated with the NSW land and property database so addresses are picked, not typed
Held the load through launch week, when more than 50,000 pools were registered
Run and maintained across three owning agencies