We've chunked the task list into four sections at this stage. This update is about the third section and the fourth section.
Chunking the tasks into sections
There is a collection of tasks a caseworker needs to complete to make sure the school can open as an academy. We've named this section “Get ready for opening” in the prototype.
There are also a set of tasks that can be completed after the academy opens. We've named this section, “Completing the project” in the prototype.
These names may change based on feedback from users during Private Beta. For now, anecdotally, users seem to be comfortable with the two names.
However, what constitutes a complete project and whether it's a caseworker that does that, and whether these are the tasks that complete it, is still to be confirmed.
We may switch to something more like “Closing the project”, if completing doesn't feel like the right word.
Why we want to split the tasks into two sections
We wanted to chunk these tasks up into separate sections of the task list.
The thinking behind this was that this would help users to focus on what needs to be done for a certain deadline and deprioritise tasks that can be completed later.
This should help to meet the user needs to keep track of project progress and to manage their workload.
We already knew from much earlier research that there were certain tasks that must be completed before a school can open as an academy, and others than can take place after opening. We felt that naturally lent itself to two different sections of tasks.
Finding out what tasks were needed
We had a rough idea of the tasks we expected to be in the final two sections in the original Figma sketches we created.
This had been slightly finessed based on bits of information we'd gathered from speaking to users throughout the process so far.
However, we needed to properly validate what tasks were completed at what stage, and what it is caseworkers need to do.
What we learnt
Through research with users, we were able to define a set of tasks that must be completed before an academy can open.
Tasks that must be done before an academy can open are:
- Check the Baseline
- Complete and approve Single worksheet
- Complete the final checklist with external stakeholders
- Confirm all conditions have been met
- Confirm opening date with the school
What we'll do next
We've long had a suspicion that the Single Worksheet wasn't a necessary document.
Since we drafted these task sections, further research has shown that while caseworkers enter 50 different bits of data to this worksheet only 4 of those pieces of information are used by anyone else.
As far as we can tell, this means we can create a way of collecting and sharing that information through the service directly, and eventually remove the need for the Single Worksheet altogether.
Further research with other user groups including regional delivery officers, the academy operations team and the Education and Skills Funding Agency should tell us more about what information provided by the case workers is used.
This should help us identify areas to improve the task list, as well as test and add new functionality to the build.
We found through research that the final task on the list, Complete processing of conversion grant, is inaccurately named.
We've got a Trello card to do some work tweak the content in these sections of the task list before Private Beta.
This work includes:
- Rename the final conversion grant task to reference grant certificate
- Rename the clear legal documents section to include reference to signing tasks
- Add a sign and seal actions set to the Supplemental funding agreement task
- Clarify actions and add small piece of new guidance to Single worksheet task
- Remove and consolidate some actions from the ESFA handover task