Official launch of SRI 2 for Scottish Government

Written by Jeremy Wilken 31 Oct2011

I am happy to announce that SRI 2 (Scottish Recovery Indicator #2), a project that Gnome on the run has been working on with Brian Teeman, has been officially launched. This was a very unique project and I'll be walking through some of the details to give you an insight into how custom applications are developed.

Providing quality assessments

SRI 2 is an evolution of the original SRI program developed several years ago. The main purpose of the site is to be able to provide mental health institutions in Scotland with the tools to evaluate their services.

The original SRI made certain assumptions that made it difficult for survey respondees to give feedback. Brian Teeman came up with a revised structure concept to tackle those issues, and worked with Gnome on the run to do the development of the custom program.

The essential tasks were to give managers the ability to generate a survey set, distribute the surveys (printed), and manage the feedback. The end result is called an action plan, which is essentially a step by step framework for tackling improvements for that manager.

The solution developed

Brian summarized the project as such: "After conducting an analysis of the existing site and its shortcomings and its unusually challenging target userbase, who had limited access to computers, I redesigned not just the site but the whole working practice. Gnome on the run was able to take the resulting wireframes and workflow charts and produce the ideal solution."

The Nooku Framework was selected as a framework for development, and the site was developed inside of Joomla. Brian was in charge of the design and visual aspects, so it was necessary for the application to have the base layouts necessary. The entire application was built on Nooku and Joomla, and features a full backend administration as well as the front survey manager.

There were some additional aspects, such as the ability to generate PDF files, tracking progress through the surveys, and sending emails at specific points. The final program allows users to register, setup a profile, create a survey set, collect and record responses, and create an action plan.

Feedback from the client

Brian and his client both provided some very positive feedback about the project. The client said: "Thank you for delivering the product we wanted rather than the product we would have settled for."