Trinity Case Study: Web site for new National Careers Service

CS715Matt Groves & Gary Tucker

Matt Groves

Managing Consultant (IWSP)

mattg@tesl.com

www.tesl.com

www.linkedin.com/in/mattgroves

www.twitter.com/mattgroves

www.mattgrovesblog.com

Gary Tucker

Head of E-Comms – IM Services

Gary.Tucker@imservices.org.uk

www.skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk

www.linkedin.com/in/garytucker

Setting the scene…

National Careers Service

Project Approach

The Solution

Lessons Learned

Demo

Setting the scene …

Trinity

Founded in 1993

Private limited company

480+ FTE

£45m annual services revenue

Offices in Coventry, London, Telford &

Hitchin

Microsoft Partner

9 Gold Competencies (inc Portals and

Collab, Digital marketing)

6 Silver Competencies

VMware & Citrix Partner

Strategy of growth & acquisition

Trinity HQ

Hitchin London

Skills Funding Agency

Government Agency reporting into Department for Business Innovation and Skills

Formed in 2010 from the Learning and Skills Council along with the YPLA

Remit to deliver funding to Providers Approx £10Billion (SFA and YPLA)

Delivers programmes and funding through systems developed and supported by IM

Services

IM ServicesReporting into the Skills Funding Agency, servicing Skills Funding Agency, Education Funding Agency

and National Apprenticeship Service

Delivery for Business Innovation and Skills with a budget of around £100m

IM Services include, the data service, Learning Record Service, Information Authority.

Delivery of significant programmes such as the Next Steps, the National Careers Service, Personal Learning

Record, FE Choices, SAMs (Single Account Management System), Academy Systemisation, Learner Passport

Strategic Change in Government

ICT challenges QA standards Government

Digital Service

Realising Efficiencies

Realising Agility through new technologies

Web Strategy

Key Building Blocks Shared platform (Sharepoint)

Citizens e.g. National Careers Service Providers e.g. IM Portal for Academies and

Colleges (5,000+) Staff e.g. Corporate sites and Intranets

SPPS 2001 (staff intranet), 2003 (teamsites), MOSS 2007 (Next Step), 2010 (NCS)

Delivery for BIS

BIS Policy Skills Funding Agency Policy

BOM SIM Requirements

IM Services deliverers of the site with Trinity, Yard Partners and CapGemini

Why SharePoint?

Why SharePoint?

Allows flexibility & agility

for

in-house specialists to control

Rich toolset with the flexibilityto build complex systems within the framework

The National Careers Service(NCS)

The National Careers Service will transform careers advice by

combining highly-trained advisers with an interactive website,

equipping people with information on courses, apprenticeships,

funding, loans and the job market.

Business Challenges

3 integrated channels Web Face to face Telephone

1 million LLAs Potentially 20 million

users

Online applications e.g. CV builder,

Skills Health Check, Job Profiles,

Course search

Video removed for publishing on SlideShare………

View it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0DWwVw04Ac

On April 5th 2012 Skills Minister John Hayes launched a new careers service to provide higher quality advice, helping thousands of people to reach their potential.

Video Source: BIS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0DWwVw04Ac)

“The National Careers Service, universally available to

people at all stages of their careers, has the very best

interactive tools on its website and the highest-quality

advisers, committed to the noble cause of helping

others fulfil their aspirations.”

John Hayes MP

Minister of State for Further Education, Skills &

Lifelong Learning

“We need to inspire people, especially young people,

about career options and all the job opportunities open

to them.

It's a good idea to bring together high-quality, practical

information on a national careers website, to help them

make informed decisions about their future.”Dr Neil Bentley

Deputy Director General, CBI

The Approach

Solution Design - conceptual

Help, advice and information

Lifelong Learning Account

Tools

Content Authoring and Management

National Careers Service Website

Advisors

Citizens

Administrators

Design and Usability

Market segmentation Personas – to drive out needs Wireframes Prototypes End user testing Iterative approach

Direction:Clear goal and strong

intention to enter progressive employment

Distance:Close to goal /

potential

Distance:Far from goal /

potential

Direction:Unclear goal and weak

intention to enter progressive employment

Distance would be affected by skills, practical barriers, self-confidence

Direction would be determined by the clarity of the goal that an individual has, their commitment to pursuing it

DispiritedDo not see personal relevance

of skills development

On-track:Skills and goals aligned

and appropriate

TransitionalUndergoing career changeFixated

Inflexible idea of goal which is inappropriate, not acknowledging

lack of relevant skills

Dropped-outLow motivation to work

TrappedLow confidence, low aspiration

‘Would if I could’Have aspiration, lack clear path, motivation blocked by perceived

practical obstacles

NCS – usability in practice

Solution Design - technical Trusted Subsystem

model (mostly 2FA) Service Locator Patterns Separation of Data and

Logic Asset delivery via CDN 50+ Interface Contracts Custom console apps for

one-off data import W3C WCAG 2 AA Browser detection,

custom CCS and lots of graceful degradation

TES re-usable assets Telerik Spell check

‘Sanitised’ due to sensitiv

ity

Development Teams

Project

Manager

Technical

Architect

Discipline lead - X

Discipline lead - X

Discipline lead - Y

Disciplines:

Development

IWSP

DUET

BAST

Infrastructure

Project

Manager

Technical

Architect

Discipline lead - X

Discipline lead - X

Discipline lead - Y

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Development IWSP DUET

Team assembled from different disciplines

PM and TA roles are key

Development TeamsProject

Manager

Technical

Architect

UX StreamDev team 1 Dev team 2 Dev team 3

Content Team BA & Test

Assistant PM

Environments Third Parties

Yard Partners

Cap Gemini

Microsoft

Environments - TES

CA

(1)

Dev

(17)

Integration

(1)

SysTest

(1)

UAT

(1)

Customer Env’s

(7!)

Challenges

PM!!! Environmental differences Interface change Requirements…. Design constraints

Lessons Learned(some the hard way!)

Environments Network kit in pre-prod/test rigs Mocking back-ends in Dev

Analytics for AJAX SSL offload and AJAX TCP Chimney Offload Cookie sizes with CBA/SAML Do things once only!!!

Demo

DEMO OF NCS WEBSITE

Thank you for attending!

CS715 - Trinity Case Study: Web site for new National Careers Service – Matt Groves & Gary Tucker