Feature - Phase 1 Assessment Milestones
- Lisa Clancy
We have introduced to your Production environment on Aug 16, 2022new functionality in release 4.28.0 , in the form of Assessment Milestones; we have extended schemas to provide a list of the required uploads needed as part of the assessment, along with a method of creating rules around when an upload needs to be received by e.g. max 3 days after Gateway.
Structured uploads to make it easier for users to provide the correct information
The system has been enhanced to allow the configuration of assessment milestones. These milestones can be configured against assessment components, to provide a more granulated break down of the tasks required, and allows for optional rules to be configured that give guidance as to when these milestones must be met.
If you would like to use Assessment Milestones it is important to note - you will need to create a new Assessment Schema that includes the milestones you wish to use and then retire your older Assessment Schema.
The configuration of milestones is done in the following system areas:
Assessment component
A new tab called “Assessment Milestones” has been added to this screen.
Details of each milestone can be added here, for use against assessment schemas later.
Two different type of milestone are available: File Uploads and Assessments.
File uploads indicate that a file upload needs to be provided against the assessment component during its duration.
Assessments are a mandatory system controlled type, that indicates an assessment must take place against the assessment component.
Assessment schema
The “Components” tab has been reworked to allow components to be added via a dropdown list, adding to the table below.
The regular “Save” button has been replaced with two new buttons:
“Save & Continue” and “Save & Exit”
Save & Continue, saves the assessment schema and returns the user to the same edit screen, to allow further changes to be made.
Save & Exit, saves the assessment schema and returns the user to the main schema listing page.
Once an assessment schema has been saved, the new “Manage Milestones” button appears against each added component in the components table. (see below image)
Clicking this manage button will show the screen used for configuring milestones and rules, which has the following functionality:
- Setting a rule against a component
Add component drop down (not available in restricted edit mode): allows the adding of any configured milestones against this assessment component.
Added milestones can be removed via the red bin icon (not available in restricted edit mode).
The Assessment type milestone is added to all new components by default, as this must take place.
Add rule button: adds a blank rule line to allow configuration of a new rule.
Added rules can be removed via the red minus icon.
Rules are added to the system using the dropdown options and input fields, to create sentence style rules. i.e.: Finish Max 5 Days After Gateway.
Rules can be configured to rely on other milestones being completed.
If in view mode, the manage button is replaced with a view button, which can be used for display purposes only.
Once milestones are set up against a schema, booking a new element against a plan linked to that schema will show any configured milestones within the Programme Checklist, located within the Assessment Profile screen.
Clicking the manage button against a booked element will display the new Element Milestones sidebar widget, which shows information about any configured milestones.
Within this sidebar, any File Upload type milestones can have files uploaded against them. Internal users are able to select a file as the “Selected Version”, completing the milestone. This will allow you to see some form of versioning history with the documents uploaded.
Assessment type milestones are automatically completed by the system when a result is published.
Logging of Milestone Success/failure
With the introduction of assessment milestones (detailed above), the system will attempt to calculate a due date using the rules that have been configured against a particular schema’s milestones. These due dates are then compared against the date in which the milestone was completed, to determine whether the milestone was completed in time.
The due dates will always prioritise “Finish” type rules over “Starts”, and “Maximum” types over “Minimum” - this is because the system does not know specifically when a file upload type milestone was officially started - it is only aware of when the file was uploaded & subsequently selected as the accepted version.
The outcome of these calculations is visible within the new Assessment → Assessment Element Milestones report (more details of this report can be found below).
Note: if no rules have been set the milestones will still appear on the Assessment Profile in the checklist.
Frontend enhancements/Restrictions
The following additional enhancements have been made to the assessment profile area, related to the new assessment milestones.
External users (i.e. Providers) can no longer select a file version & complete a file upload type milestone.
The programme checklist has been enhanced to show the milestones (along with their completed status) against each one.
These are displayed as sub items under each component, in the order specified.
Restructure data to allow logging of milestone success/failure.
Added functionality to the new milestones development to store element milestones against each component – this is an internal change that will allow for reporting on milestone delivery success in a later ticket.
Complete assessment milestone on result publish
The milestones development has been enhanced to record an assessment milestone being completed, when a result is made available. This is triggered via both the QA being published, or the result being published (in the situation where no QA is required).
Operations Report
A new operations report has been created as part of the milestones work:
“Assessment → Assessment Element Milestones”.
This report is controlled by the new permission
“Reporting → Assessment Element Milestones”.
This permission has been given the the following default system user roles:
admin
owner
awardingorganisation
This new report will show element specific information regarding the milestones that are configured against the corresponding schema that the plan is associated with. Aside from main apprentice/element information, additional information such as “due at”, “completed at” & “completed by” are included to show a measure of performance.
A new filter has been introduced to help filtering on the report, called “Milestone Completed” - this new filter is a binary decision (Yes/No) that will show milestones that have/have not been completed, depending on the options chosen.
A pre-existing bug has also been fixed, that caused the user search to potentially look at the incorrect table when searching by email address. This ticket should now force all user information to be taken from the same table.
Entity Report
We have added two new reports;
Assessment Schema Element Milestone Rules and Assessment Component Milestones, located on the Assessment tab of the reporting area.
Assessment Component Milestones
Visibility of this is controlled by the ‘Assessment Component Milestones’ permission which is given to the owner user role and AO user role by default.
This report details out the Assessment Components that have milestones against them, their active status, the milestone type, name and order. We have provided filters for standard, component name, milestone status, schema and the milestone type.
Assessment Schema Element Milestone Rules
Visibility of this is controlled by the ‘Assessment Schema Element Milestone Rules’ permission, which is given to the owner user role and AO user role by default.
This report details out the Schema Components that have milestone rules against them, the milestone details and the rule details. We have provided filters for standard, component name, schema name and milestone type.
