JIS Migration Plan: Policy Edition
Appendix A: Glossary of Terms and Acronyms

The Appellate Court Records System (ACORDS) is a Web application that is used by the Supreme Court and the three divisions of the Court of Appeals.

The Court Automated Proceeding System (CAPS) is a Web application that is intended to augment the legacy applications used by superior courts (JIS and SCOMIS). CAPS is currently in design status.

A court enterprise application is one that supports mission critical business needs and is intended for statewide use by court staff in multiple court levels, or when applicable, in a single court level. Enterprise applications include both legacy and Web JIS applications.

A bridge application integrates applications that are isolated from each other by different architectures. Bridges are temporary facilities to extend the functionality in one application to users of another application. Bridges benefit users by making available legacy application business processes that have not been migrated to the Web, but they also add complexity and fragility to the overall system. Bridges may increase user workload and workflow by requiring data entry in multiple application platforms with different user interfaces. Bridge applications should be temporary because the goal of migration is to replace architectural boundaries with an enterprise-wide application architecture where bridges are unnecessary.

The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is a software industry standard that delineates the characteristics of a mature, capable software development process as an aide for an organization to assess its readiness to build reliable, usable applications that are delivered on time and within budget. The model identifies a progression of business practices described in terms of five (5) maturity levels:

1. Initial Immature Level with ad hoc processes;
2. Repeatable Level with instituitionalized processes;
3. Defined Level with integrated engineering and management process documentation;
4. Managed Level, with productivity and quality measurement programs; and,
5. Optimized Mature Level where the entire organization is focused on continuous process improvement.

The District and Municipal Court Information System is a legacy application that is used by the courts of limited jurisdiction. The name of this application has been changed to the Judicial Information System (JIS). The Migration Plan uses the new name, JIS.

An enterprise application architecture provides a view of the whole judicial enterprise and the applications that support it. The enterprise application architecture models what the JIS applications will look like holistically when the migration process is complete. The model emphasizes business processes at the court enterprise level, not by court level. Its purpose is to serve as a best-fit reference for each migration project, to enable technical communication across migration projects, and to identify reuse opportunities in developing applications.

A Graphical User Interface (GUI) (usually pronounced GOO-ee) is a graphical (rather than purely textual) user interface to a computer. The term came into existence because the first interactive user interfaces to computers were not graphical; they were text-and-keyboard oriented and usually consisted of commands users had to remember and cryptic computer responses. A GUI sometimes uses one or more metaphors for objects familiar in real life, such as the desktop, or the view through a window. Elements of a GUI include such things as: windows, pull-down menus, buttons, scroll bars, iconic images.

The Judicial Access Browser System (JABS) is a WEB application that provides views of case and order history for Superior, Juvenile and Limited Jurisdiction courts. JABS is currently in statewide production status.

The Judicial Accounting Subsystem (JASS) is a legacy application that provides accounting functions for both Superior and Limited Jurisdiction Courts. The name of this application has been changed to the Judicial Information System (JIS). The Migration Plan uses the new name, JIS.

The Juvenile and Corrections Integration (JCI) Project mission is to expand the Judicial Information System (JIS) to support the unique functions of superior court juvenile departments and limited jurisdiction court probation departments. In phases, the project will deploy modifications to the JIS, SCOMIS, and replace the old JUVIS (Juvenile Information System) application with a purchased Web application, the Juvenile Tracking System (JTS). See JTS.

The Judicial Information System (JIS) is used in two different ways depending on context: 1) As an umbrella reference, JIS is the portfolio of all enterprise-level legacy and Web-based court applications used by one or more courts; and, 2) As a specific reference, JIS is a single legacy application that includes DISCIS, JASS, DV, and Person modules used by the Limited Jurisdiction, Juvenile, and Superior Courts. JIS includes application bridges to other legacy applications, including JRS, JUVIS, and SCOMIS. The Migration Plan uses JIS in the context of the latter---to refer to a single application.

The Judicial Information System Committee approves and oversees the development of the statewide Judicial Information System including budget, standard data elements, records retention, communications with other systems, security, privacy, confidentiality, and data dissemination as established by Supreme Court Rule (JISCR).

The Judicial Receipting System (JRS) is a legacy stand-alone PC-based application, with a Graphical User Interface (GUI), used by superior courts for receipting processes. The application's standalone architecture lacks network support, a limitation that is resolved in the current legacy application architecture with a batch data upload interface to JIS.

The Juvenile Tracking System (JTS) is a purchased Web application that is intended for use by Juvenile courts (to replace JUVIS) and by Probation Departments in Courts of Limited Jurisdiction. JTS development and deployment is part of the Juvenile and Corrections Integration (JCI) Project. The JTS vendor is is currently modifing the application to meet Washington requirements.

The Juvenile Court Information System is a legacy application that provides juvenile referral and detention functions for all superior court juvenile departments. Under the direction of the JCI (Juvenile and Corrections Integration) Project, JUVIS is being replaced by modifications to the legacy JIS application and by the purchase of the JTS (Juvenile Tracking System), a Web application.

The JIS legacy applications include enterprise-level mainframe-based applications with dumb terminals and text-based interfaces (AKA green screens) and stand-alone PC-based applications with GUI screens. Legacy applications include the mainframe-based JIS, and SCOMIS and the PC-based JRS application.

The migration plan describes a way to manage the transition of court enterprise applications to the Web that is orderly for court operations and that serves the goal of achieving a cost-effective enterprise application architecture.

1. Automated systems that are essential to the agency to complete required legal obligations or legislatively mandated business functions.

2. Any system that by failing could jeopardize the health, safety, or financial well being of the citizens or employees of the State of Washington.

3. Systems responsible for the administration of benefits to the public, the exchange of data with other governmental jurisdictions and business taxpayers or otherwise required for the state to meet its legal obligations to the public and its employees.

4. Systems under the state's control that link to mission critical systems and that, if altered, could undermine the state's integrity.

These are technical standards that support the Judicial Information System (JIS) migration from a legacy procedural application architecture to a new object-oriented web application architecture. The standards can enforce both the way systems are developed, and can help developers produce a product that is compatible with other systems.

OO development is a software design method that models the characteristics of business entities using classes and objects. A revolutionary concept that changed the rules in computer program development, object-oriented programming is organized around "objects" rather than "actions," data rather than logic.

Historically, a program has been viewed as a logical procedure that takes input data, processes it, and produces output data. The programming challenge was seen as how to write the logic, not how to define the data. Object-oriented programming takes the view that what we really care about are the objects we want to manipulate rather than the logic required to manipulate them. Examples of objects range from human beings (described by name, address, and so forth) to buildings and floors (whose properties can be described and managed) down to the little widgets on your computer desktop (such as buttons and scroll bars).

The first step in Object Oriented development is to identify all the objects you want to manipulate and how they relate to each other, an exercise often known as data modeling. Once you've identified an object, you generalize it as a class of objects (think of Plato's concept of the "ideal" chair that stands for all chairs) and define the kind of data it contains and any logic sequences that can manipulate it.

Refactoring is changing one solution to another solution with an improved structure that provides increased benefits. An example of a refactored solution is the implementation of an enterprise application architecture in place of a court-level application architecture.

The Superior Court Management Information System is a legacy application that provides case management functions to all superior courts.

A court enterprise application with a graphical user interface (GUI) that is accessed via an extranet using an Internet browser. JIS Web applications comply with the OAC Application Architectural Standards and include the ACORDS, CAPS, JABS, and JTS applications.