Omnibase 2

Context

Omnibase 2 is part of an ongoing Education Technology Services (ETS) development project to address some of the data collection and processing needs of departments in the School of Education. As part of the ETS Business Processes group, I participate in this project in various capacities.

Conditions

Omnibase 2 is a re-design of a early school management system, Omnibase (1). The opportunity to re-design this application is not just a copy of the previous application, but also an opportunity to address the business processes of departments using the application. It is currently being rolled out area by area with a process being followed to maximize impact. First an analysis of the department needs and current practices is undertaken. Then recommendations to fill needs and improve current practices are made. Next a design is decided on and developed. The application is then tested for usability issues and bugs. Lastly, the department staff are trained and the application and any procedural changes are implemented in the department.

Scope

Omnibase 2 has been implemented in a number of departments, including Teacher Education and Distance Education. There are currently hundreds of users on the system, but a majority of these users log on during registration times. The rest of the year a set of core adminstrative users (about 30) use it on a daily basis.

Role

My role in this project has involved the documentation of bugs and usability issues and training. Myself and a coworker evaluated the application for bugs and usability issues and then I ran usability sessions with departmental staff to uncover problems that I might have missed. I also developed training documents for various departments and created the template for documentation of the application.