Sprint 6 Update   

This was a shorter sprint than usual for us, due to the Easter break, with several team members having limited availability again due to annual leave and sickness.  

However, our Business Analyst, Martin, made good progress mapping the 'New Household Request' and 'Request a New Bin' processes (which have several similarities in the information requested) and comparing the existing digital services (where these were available). There are still a couple of gaps to fill and some clarifications needed, so this work will be completed in the next sprint. Martin also continued to explore the reporting requirements. This work includes expanding our understanding of the existing reports and what data is already held in the various back-office waste management systems, versus what may be needed from any new front-end reports, and will continue in the next sprint. 

Our User Researcher, Bal, completed her review of the 'Report Fly Tipping' process and the service differences identified. As always the UX insights, design recommendations and mini wireframes that she developed were added to our virtual board (on Miro) where all this information is being collated and shared.  

The Placecube development team and Dave, our Technical Architect, completed the integration connectors for the Bartec and Webaspx Waste Management systems, with all of the methods / API calls available in the Digital Place development branch. The next step is to confirm which are the right methods to call for all of the things that we want to do within each of waste services being developed. The team also started work on the integration connector for the Echo system. Dave was able to demo an early version of the 'Report a Missed Bin Collection' service, (which is still a work in progress) at our sprint review session, and this will continue to be developed and iterated during the next sprint. 

We've agreed to extend our planned timeline by an additional 2 sprints (which will be 8 and 9) to ensure that the allocated project budget is fully utilised and that we are able to deliver as many of the Waste Services, that were originally identified as high priorities, as possible in this first phase.  

The team have also been discussing the next steps and are considering whether to proceed with submitting a proposal for further funding, from the DLUHC Local Digital Fund, for a second phase of the project. More on this to come in our future updates! 

Our current plan for Sprint 7 (which again is a shorter sprint, due to the bank holiday) is to:   

• Continue building and iterating the front-end forms for the next highest priority services and undertaking bug fixing.    

• Complete building the integration connectors for Echo and Mayrise and confirm the methods required for the Webaspx and Bartec service calls. 

• Finalise the 'New Household Requests' and 'New Bin Requests' process maps and confirm the front-end reporting requirements.    

• Complete the User Research / UX review of the 'New Household Requests' and 'New Bin Requests' processes - with capture of related insights and development of associated mini wireframes. 

• Continue with the ongoing development of our Project Impact Monitoring & Evaluation plan.   

• LA partners to begin discussions about priorities and the work that could be undertaken in a next phase of the project, if further funding can be secured. 

Our next Show & Tell update session will be held online at 2pm on Tuesday 10 May, so please do get in touch if you'd like to attend.  You can also follow us on Twitter for regular project updates.   
   
This project has been funded by the DLUHC Local Digital Fund.