Electronic herd register software requirements
Information on the requirements that software must meet to be accepted as a Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) herd register.
To be accepted by DARD, software will:
- Have to meet the requirements outlined below:
- Information and layout on screen and hard copies is contained in the same way as that required for paper records in domestic legislation. Notes for guidance, the fraud warning and breed codes should also be included. This should be updated periodically as required by DARD.
- The reliability of this information must be beyond reasonable doubt. The computer code shall not be editable by the user.
- All details in the Register should be contemporaneous and recorded in an order based on the date the animal was created, in other words chronologically. The programme must be able to print the register in this order.
- All amendments must be recorded in the register and must be displayed on screen and on all hard copies of the register that are produced. Where an entry is amended, reversed or marked as deleted, the software must force the user to record a reason.
- The herd register must include an audit of changes, which demonstrates the changes in the format of the register. The audit record of changes should show old values, new values, dates of changes and reason for changes. Preferably the User enter date is made manually in addition to the PC clock date. The audit of changes must not be editable and if there is more than one user it is preferable that the audit of changes or deletions is made.
- Records may not be deleted from the system without trace. All entries in the register shall be non-deletable. Records should remain on the register and should be marked as deleted, showing the date deleted and the reason. This will be shown in the audit of changes and must be displayed on the screen and on all hard copies of the register that are produced.
- The programme will allow an updated printout of the herd register to be made. It must show the heading “MC3 Herd Register for Bovine Animals” and show the name and address of the herd keeper, the herd number and name and version of the software package. All pages should be numbered and show the date printed.
- Regular backups of the Register should be made. A prompt (preferably an hourly prompt) to carry out a backup should be incorporated into the programme.
- Be successfully tested against these requirements by Information Technology (IT) staff at the College of Agriculture Food and Rural Enterprise using details of one of the College herds.
