Ask IRC & KnowledgePoint

Building and trials begin

17 Apr 12

In my previous post, I reported on the completion of the final specification, Stage 3.  We’ve now moved on to the prototype software build, stage 4 out of 5 development stages. 

As part of this phase, the KnowledgePoint platform is now open as a test site for limited-release trialling!  If you would like to take part, please email info@knowledgepoint.org.  We have a full list for the first two weeks of testing, but please do let us know if you would be interested in being involved in the next release.  More information on the trials can be found toward the end of this post. 

Finding our development team

The KnowledgePoint project is run by a consortium that currently includes RedR, WaterAid, IRC international Water and Sanitation Centre, Practical Action and EngineerAid.  From this alliance, we created a procurement panel to oversee the selection of candidate software developers. 

Our procurement decision would of course be founded on the cornerstones of cost, quality and timeliness.  But as anyone who has been part of software procurement knows, you rarely have three directly comparable options or an obvious list of candidates to start from. 

We want to build something that meets unique requirements.  At our KnowledgePoint Forum in the Hague in December, we heard compelling arguments that we should, nonetheless, avoid trying to create software from scratch; we should ‘stand on the shoulders of giants’, and build something innovative from existing components.  We’re particularly grateful to Deepak Menon of India Water Portal and Mark Westra of AKVO, among others who attended, for their advice on the software approach. 

Going straight for the main giant, we spoke to a tech company that is an industry leader in this field.  They supported the project wholeheartedly – but wanted us to work within their existing software, which unfortunately meant losing some of our key requirements for our operating environment. 

When asked, “what would it take” for them to meet our specification, they replied that they had received and rejected comparable proposals from multi-billion dollar companies.  The product philosophy is everything for such pioneers of the information age, and in their view they were being asked to stray too far from it.  And we don’t want money, they added, closing off a traditional route that clearly others had tried.   

There were few alternatives at this level, so the search went on to the wealth of agencies, design houses and lone developers, who may be based anywhere in the world. 

To narrow the search, we focused on identifying organisations and individuals who had worked on similar technology and preferably using open source software. Eventually we narrowed it down to three that best matched our needs.  But our final decision in fact involved asking two organisations to work together. 

The best option that met our criteria for talent and expertise in our core technology was based in Santiago de Chile, who also offered a competitive tender.  The main problem is that they were not set up as a software consultancy; although an established business, they would in essence be working through one person as a lone developer.  Independent of how highly we think of that lone developer, there is an unavoidable risk in putting all your code in one basket. 

We saw that by combining them with another organisation, Aptivate, we were able to fill the risk gaps that we had identified in using a lone developer.  Aptivate have huge experience in delivering IT projects for humanitarian and development organisations, and furthermore they had worked with the same core software before.  They specialise in many of the same approaches that we are prioritising (essentially, open-source, agile, low-bandwidth developments).    

Acting as technical advisors, Aptivate are providing everything from code reviews to project management support, and mastery of agile software methodology.  At the same time, our core software developer is providing great code and ploughing through the features we’ve specified.  Now we are in a position to test out what we have built so far. 

Trials

While our core platform is still very much in development, KnowledgePoint is following an agile approach to software that prioritises early user testing.  This has many advantages for an innovative project.  It focuses attention on user needs whilst providing a flexible project structure.  So when feedback (almost inevitably) requires changes to the software, risk and cost have been reduced by allowing problems to surface early.  The agile methodology is highly participatory, which fits well with the overall aims of our project. 

The trials are limited in scope so that there is time to respond to feedback individually and answer trial questions.  The trial site is currently at its most basic level – but new features will be released every two weeks for people to try out!

Once we have completed all iterations, we plan that KnowledgePoint will be in a position to conduct full-scale, controlled tests on live enquiries. 

With each release, we will also increase the number of people using the trial site, building a greater community.  Please do let us know if you would be interested in being involved by contacting us directly using the email address above. 

We hope people trialling the site will pose and respond to some test enquiries in the domain of Technical Support, but also just have a look around what we have built.  Testers won’t be required to fill in lengthy feedback forms, but if there’s something you would like to tell us, we do hope to hear any comments or suggestions at all you might have. 

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 A quick final note on software, to say thank you to Balsamiq, who provided pro bono licenses to use their mock-up software, which has allowed us to put more funding towards core software innovation.  As blogged previously, you can see what we did with their software here. 

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Progress at six months

16 Feb 12

With a comprehensive specification for the KnowledgePoint platform in place, based on extensive stakeholder feedback, the HIF KnowledgePoint project has reached the six month mark.  This update comes as we are about to embark on the build phase of the project. 

In my previous blog post, I reviewed the first two scoping stages.  Since then, we have completed our functional specification (Stage 3) and are about to begin the construction of a working prototype (Stage 4). 

A quick recap on our project: KnowledgePoint is intended to make essential technical support easier to access and to allow providers to collaborate and pool expertise. To achieve this, we are creating a web-based tool that will provide better ways for exchanging and capturing knowledge and experience.  Our project seeks to invent a suitable process and to test it in a working prototype. 

Stage 3: Design and specification

Project time has so far been split evenly between research in Stages 1 and 2, and creating the design and specification in Stage 3.  The context of the project is the invention phase of an innovation, and the inspiration and creativity that this implies were particularly vital for this third stage. 

For inspiration, we surveyed some of the key developments in web-based software that best matched the feedback we had received from stakeholders.  We picked the elements that fitted best, and described additional elements that we thought we needed.  We also built an early mock-up of what such a site might look like.  These allowed us to visualise what we wanted to achieve in the end, and provided a laboratory for our ideas before formalising them in a full specification. 

After exploring the possibilities, embodying these ideas in a solid specification was the next challenge.  Each one of the five organisations that constitute the core working group provided valuable input into the specification.  The group worked to create a consistent specification that could meet the assorted aims without comprising the unity of the design.  The specification that has arisen is solid and it’s great to see that the different organisations in the group have created a sinlge way forward for providing a great TSS tool. 

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The build stage will begin within the next ten days, which we are expecting to approach in a series of releases that will allow us to test and review the platform in an iterative process. 

This will mark the start of a key phase of KnowledgePoint, and I look forward to providing updates on the new releases over the coming weeks. 

Tim Kent – Project Manager, KnowledgePoint 

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The latest WASH sector innovation is not a pump but communication

16 Dec 11

About ten years ago I remember the revolutionary feeling of no longer needing to drive three hours back from a rural community with whom I was working in order to get advice on how to tackle a particularly complicated technical challenge. This was not because I had miraculously become a more experienced engineer overnight, but due to the fact that I was now able to call the office via a somewhat large and clunky mobile phone. The fact that I had to climb to the top of the recently constructed water reservoir to do so, did not really matter, as I had saved about three days in delays. Revolutionary yes, but it had taken about a year’s worth of wrangling with management to get the then expensive mobile phone contracts funded. (Posted on the HIF Blog by Erik Harvey- WaterAid)

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Three months on for KnowledgePoint and the HIF

02 Nov 11

2 Nov 2011. The HIF KnowledgePoint project has been running for three months, and, as a result of our HIF grant, we have been able to increase dramatically our rate of progress towards collaborative knowledge-sharing for technical support.  Here is a brief overview of progress so far.

The first stage of our work sought to gather views on KnowledgePoint from stakeholders, and then to match those perspectives to a review of existing technology. The processes and technical requirements implied by the interviews and research in Stage one were amalgamated into a draft specification. The specification in turn was reformulated as a mockup, a graphical draft of how the system could work before any development begins. (posted to HIF blog by Timothy Kent, project manager KnowledgePoint)

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Collaboration brings specialisation: a perspective on KnowledgePoint

20 Oct 11

I'm waiting in anticipation for KnowledgePoint to be up and running for the WASH sector. A Humanitarian Innovation Fund Small Grant Award has enabled the new collaborative information service to move towards a stage where its members can quickly and easily exchange questions and answers on all issues relating to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.   

Practical Action has been running an enquiry service since 1968 in one form or another and what we have come to realise is that not all the answers are in one place. In order to get the best information at the right time you need to have access to a good number of people, and ideally these people are going to have the experience to cover the most difficult issues. This is why WASH Knowledge Point makes sense, as it brings the expertise of organisations such as Practical Action together with that of WaterAid, IRC, RedR, EngineerAid and hopefully many more in the future. (posted to HIF blog by Neil Noble, Practical Action)

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KnowledgePoint receives HIF grant

06 Oct 11

The Humanitarian Innovation Fund provided GBP19,500 for the first phase of KnowledgePoint, from August to December 2011. KnowledgePoint aims at cross-organisational enquiry handling for life-saving expertise across the globe. A short description of what has been funded and a link to the project blog can be found here. 

Http://www.humanitarianinnovation.org/projects/small-grants/knowledgepoint

More questions: reflecting on what the HIF grant means for technical support services

02 Sep 11

Receiving a HIF grant represents a huge step forward for our team. We are excited to have a chance to develop what we hope will be a widely used service for the sector, and to share the experience with all who are involved in humanitarian innovation and the wider community. This post is about looking back… a quick summary of how we got here. (posted by Nick Dickinson, IRC and Tim Kent, project manager KnowledgePoint).

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MyWASH social network for WASH sector

27 Apr 10

MyWASH is your social network on the Water supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) development sector. On this social network you can discourse, share, stay in the loop, keep up to date and learn. Please invite your colleagues and peers to this network to enable new contacts and discussions to emerge or to listen into.

Read more or MyWASH social network