SAMS - AS-is Scenarios

For major beekeeping activities, As-Is scenarios were formulated to share the beekeeper’s perception of his/ her daily beekeeping activities (Annex I):

Ethiopian As-Is scenarios (see Annex I)

Inside Inspection of Beehive
Outside Inspection of Beehive
Harvesting

Indonesian As-Is scenarios (see Annex II):

Outside and Inside Inspection of Apis cerana Beehives and Honey Harvesting
Outside and Inside inspection after absconding

In July 2019, the SAMS team reviewed and refined the As-Is scenarios during the Prototyping Workshop in Bandung, West Java.

Refinement of the Ethiopian and Indonesian As-Is scenarios in Bandung

Some details of the Ethiopian As-Is scenario “Inside Inspection of Beehives” were changed:

It turned out that Aberash as a professional beekeeper and also being an extension worker does not take her son but Tadesse, a traditional beekeeper, for assistance; thus, Tadesse replaced the son
both go by motorbike to the beehives not by car because it is not common for women to drive a motorbike, Tadesse is the driver
one picture was removed, and the last two steps/ processes were switched; at the end of the inside inspection of beehives, Aberash and Tadesse sit together at Aberash’s home discussing about what they have seen and what are their next steps.

In the Ethiopian As-Is scenario “Outside Inspection of Beehives” the following was refined:

an observing step was added: looking for dead bees, pests etc.

To the Ethiopian As-Is scenario “Harvesting” some details were added:

the beekeeper has to follow the standard cleaning process for cleaning the tools and to do a honey quality check;
it is to recommended to take empty beehives to the site to put the honey frames in, or to change the full ones (with honey) and put spare ones; for changing the frames, spare frames must be taken to the hives; but frames for exchanging might be a further investment;
it is recommended to take the honey extractor near to the apiary site; so far, harvesting and extracting is done at two different locations.

Example of reviewed and refined Ethiopian As-Is scenario

Some details in the Indonesia As-Is scenario “Outside and Inside Inspection of Apis cerana Beehives and Honey Harvesting” were refined:

Giuseppe is not going alone to the beehive, he takes two other beekeepers/ workers with him; Giuseppe is the expert, one is cleaning the area and the other one is the honey harvester
the cigarette was deleted from the scenario; it was firstly described that the beekeeper smokes the beehives with his/ her cigarette smoke to make the bee colony less aggressive which is a common but contradiction practice; during the workshop an experienced beekeeper described his experience that this behaviour makes the colony even more aggressive; he suggests to treat the bee colony more gently, pick the right time to check the hives (avoid noon time), and skip the cigarette smoke; moreover, it is bad for humans and bees, it is not common and not a beekeeping tool
the distance between the beehives was changed, the minimum is ten meters, not five meters
in the further process, when Giuseppe takes out the frames, one of the two other beekeepers/ workers is cutting the grass, cleaning the surroundings of the hives and assisting to look at queen larvae, mites etc. Giuseppe and his assistant also look for pollen and are determining the quantity of the drone eggs and queens eggs, if there are too much; the third one is just responsible for harvesting the honey; he is waiting next to the others until he can harvest the honey; he extracts the honey and gives the frames back to Giuseppe
when putting out the frames there is no wriggling of the bees; it was deleted; normally the beekeeper is just blowing away the bees from the frame.

The Indonesian As-Is scenario “Outside and Inside inspection after absconding” was also refined:

the title was changed, firstly it was named “When the bees have already swarmed”; the term “swarming” was changed to “absconding”
four steps/ processes were removed, and two steps/ processes were added

N°2.2 User Centered Design - Results & Lessons Learnt 21 / 74

the cleaning step/ process was missing; to take all the SAMS partner countries into consideration, different cleaning processes for EU, ID and ET were created: In Ethiopia, beekeepers clean their hive at night, in the EU and in Indonesia beekeepers just clean if there are mites and in the EU the cleaning is done by hand fire.

Examples of reviewed and refined Indonesian As-Is scenario

The As-Is scenarios were the ground to UI designers who worked on the DSS interface. With the help of the As-Is scenarios it was easy to substitute and enrich the different steps with the possible DSS usage and create a clearer understanding how it could be used.