Completion Report
Project Summary:
Overview:
This project has delivered improved functionality for EdWeb by implementing a more flexible approach to the support for JavaScript. This will allow a better offering to our website users, improved audience communications, better information provision, reduce duplication of effort and duplication of data sources and better analytics data to inform decision making. The project has done this by introducing the ability to publish functionality that requires external JavaScript to function including 3rd party services. In addition, it will support scripts that improve website analytics and tracking and script libraries that allow the flexibility to meet business needs.
Scope from Brief:
The Scope of this project is to support the ability to publish widgets that require external 3rd party JavaScript to function. Support scripts that improve website analytics and tracking.
The user stories will be prepared by UWP, in particular this will allow the implementation of Click4assistance and Dotmailer functionality.
Objectives and Deliverables
| No. | Description | Priority | Objective / Deliverable Met? (Yes / No) | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| O1 | The objective is to meet the business expectations that we should be able to support JavaScript and 3rd party tools as a means to meet our audience neds and improve our understanding of Website usage | Yes | ||
| D1.0 | For Users with 'System Administrator' Role: | |||
| D1.1 | Ability to manage a new JavaScript library which will contain a mixture of - physically uploaded scripts - script URLs referenced by CDN - script URLs where the script is hosted by a 3rd party | Yes | ||
| D1.2 | Ability when adding a new library entry to specify that it be place in either the header or body. | Yes | ||
| D1.3 | Ability when adding a new library entry to specify the order in which the script is loaded in EdWeb. | Yes | ||
| D1.4 | Ability when adding a new library entry to manage parameters for the script which allow it to be customised. | Yes | ||
| D1.5 | Ability to view a full list of the uploaded script library, edit their loading order, disable or delete scripts. Just to note there will be some system scripts loaded first e.g. Google Analytics that system admins will not be able to reorder. | Yes | ||
| D2.0 | For Users with a new 'Script User' role (to be added to the CMS as part of this work) | |||
| D2.1 | A new CMS user role, to be separate from the existing Tech User role | Yes | ||
| D2.2 | Ability to associate one or more scripts from the new JavaScript library with an EdWeb page (regardless of page content type); | Yes | ||
| D2.3 | Ability for Homepages to specify for *each* script that it applies to the page alone or all pages in the homepage group; | Yes | ||
| D2.4 | Ability for non-Homepages to specify for *each* script that it applies to the page alone; | Yes | ||
| D2.5 | Ability where a script is parameterized to specify parameter values; | Yes | ||
| D2.6 | Ability to be able to position the JavaScript functionality anywhere within the page content e.g. the placing of a Dotmailer form anywhere within the content of the page or placing a Click4assistance pop-up window anywhere within the content of the page. | Yes | ||
| D2.7 | A new CMS user role, to be separate from the existing Tech User role | Yes | ||
| D2.8 | Ability to associate one or more scripts from the new JavaScript library with an EdWeb page (regardless of page content type); | Yes | ||
| D2.9 | Ability for Homepages to specify for *each* script that it applies to the page alone or all pages in the homepage group; | Yes | ||
| D2.10 | Ability for non-Homepages to specify for *each* script that it applies to the page alone; | Yes |
Success Criteria
| Success Criteria | Criteria Met? (yes / no) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
|
The project can be declared a success when:
|
Yes |
Benefits
| Benefits | Benefits Met (yes / no) | Comment |
|---|---|---|
|
This functionality will deliver the ability to meet business needs in a cost effective and flexible manner. Specifically this means:-
|
Yes |
In addition to the deliverables outlined in the brief, additional scope was added at two points in the project. Firstly , CHASS agreed to fund improvements to the profiles that had resulted from user feedback after initial development. In this work, social media integration, which UWP had developed was rolled out into LIVE.
Secondly, SCE funded two iterations where the core project team was joined by David McKain a developer from SCE. The focus of these two iterations was mainly to put into practice the collaborative development framework delivered under UWP012. Additionally, in these two iterations the support documentation was updated and improved.
Schedule
Target Date |
Previous Date | Title | Stage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01-Nov-2016 | No date available | Planning Review | Plan |
| 12-Jan-2017 | No date available | End of Iteration 1 | Accept |
| 24-Mar-2017 | No date available | End of Iteration 2 | Execute |
| 06-Apr-2017 | 17-Jan-2017 | Delivery Iteration 1 | Deliver |
| 21-Apr-2017 | No date available | End of Iteration 3 | Execute |
| 02-May-2017 | No date available | Delivery Iteration 1, 2 and 3 | Deliver |
| 23-Jun-2017 | No date available | End of Iteration 4 | Accept |
| 21-Jul-2017 | No date available | End of Iteration 5 | Accept |
| 27-Jul-2017 | No date available | Delivery Iteration 4 and 5 | Deliver |
| 03-Aug-2017 | 23-May-2017 | Deployment Review | Deliver |
| 14-Sep-2017 | 10-Aug-2017 | Closure | Close |
Analysis of Resource Usage
Staff Usage Estimate: 33 days (end of planning)
Last agreed budget: 124 days
Staff Usage Actual: 108 days
Staff Usage Variance: 324 % (due to additional scope)
Other Resource Estimate: £0
Other Resource Actual: £0
Explanation for variance
As noted above at two points in the project additional funding from Colleges was secured to deliver more functionality and work with collaboratively with other developers develop. In total this accounted for 4 iterations.
Key Learning Points
Successes:
- External developers commented that is was a really great project to be part of and learn how complex the process from Users Story conception to deployment is.
- Ability to step back and review current processes e.g. UAT
- A lot of support and technical documentation updated and improved.
- Good having a new developer co-located
- The development work completed with CAHSS, we learnt that when the business areas are more engaged, not only is the user story definition improved but also the features delivered more akin to the business needs.
Major Issues:
At the end of the initial iteration there were major issues with the deployment. These issues were resolved only for the Bamboo Service to be unavailable. This delayed the code deployment for almost 3 months.
Recommendations for future similar projects:
Co-location is a key to these kind of projects, especially when colleagues from other areas of the University are working alongside the core project team.
Outstanding issues:
There are no outstanding issues.