Since early November, we have been in a project phase known as Discovery. During this phase, we undertook:

• User and domain research
• One-on-one meetings with internal stakeholders
• Technical research
• Identified areas of opportunity
• Laid groundwork for Agile workflows This looks like a perfect blend of Technical Feasibility, while balancing Business and User Needs.

What we’ve Been Up to: User Research

• We spoke to people in four categories: Current Managers, Scorers, Test Administrators, and Prospective Managers (i.e. Supervisors or Team Leaders)
• We spoke to a total of 28 people in 15 cities in 5 provinces, and the National Capital Region
• We conducted interviews in French and English, to reflect the reality of people managing in the federal public service
• We also conducted a number of field studies, where we observed: Current Managers in their work environments, as well as testing and scoring sessions If you’re interested in the full findings of our UX Research, visit this post: https://code-for-canada.github.io/psc-updates/update-3/

Development

• In December, the technical stack we proposed (which included: React, Python, Django, and Nginx) was the first of its kind in 15+ years
• Since its approval, we have successfully implemented these new technologies on our local machines, and created a skeleton application using all of these
• Established best practices for code reviews, automated unit testing, linting, and services like Snyk, to ensure our code is consistent and secure

What We’re Currently Working On:

• Continuing to work through challenges in establishing a new deployment process using Docker (a containerization software)
• Re-visiting the research conducted by the PPC
• Establish product look and feel

What’s Coming Up in February?

• Beginning to validate existing eMIB wireframes based on our user research
• Ongoing user research to fill in gaps
• Prototyping product ideas