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PROPOSED WEB REQUEST SYSTEM UPGRADES
Steve Farkas and Jane Muder
Over the next month, the UPMC Web strategy team will undergo an organizational
change as our senior manager, Mark McDade, will be leaving the department. We
recommend that the following changes be implemented prior to Mark’s departure so
that issues halting or delaying completion of Web requests can be reduced or
eliminated. Through this proposal, we hope we can shorten the request‐to‐live time for
Web Strategy’s clients and optimize Web Strategy’s workflow.
Below is a list of proposed goals to accomplish Web Strategy’s objectives for increased
efficiency and service quality, and suggested methods for accomplishing said goals:
Handle high priority requests better
• Eliminate pre‐empting of requests
• Add preference field for requests
• Add field for request due date
• Allow clients to know who is handling their requests
• Add hidden priority field
Eliminate request “purgatory”
• Update Web Request Policy to better serve the needs of both Web strategy
team members and our clients
Enhance user interface functionality
• Add sorting functionality to report data grids
• Eliminate unexpected request description field truncation
• Pull Mark from the E‐mail flow
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Proposed Web Request System Upgrades September 26, 2008
Eliminate pre‐empting of requests
Web strategy team members encounter clients who pre‐empt official Web requests by
selecting the team member they wish to work on the request, regardless of whether
that individual was actually assigned the request. While it is understood that rush
processing requires faster reactions, this is not the most effective way to handle the
problem in all cases.
Because pre‐empting causes confusion and duplication of work among staff, we suggest
including a disclaimer on the request forms stating:
1. Expected turnaround time for assigned requests.
2. The policy for assigning them in a timely fashion.
Clients who attempt to pre‐empt requests can then be directed to this policy. The
policy can also be used for clients who pre‐empt publishing by pulling requests.
Add preference field for requests
Sometimes, the client prefers his or her request to be handled by a certain member of
the Web strategy team, based on that member’s experience in dealing with that client’s
materials.
We suggest adding one field containing a dropdown of possible Web strategy team
members to be determined during the submission process by the requestor, including
the option of “no preference”. This field can be added to the request form and
database. The request coordinator may or may not then assign the request to the
requested Web strategy team member. This allows the request coordinator to quickly
and accurately assign incoming requests.
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Proposed Web Request System Upgrades September 26, 2008
Add field for request due date
Clients very rarely include due dates for their requests because, with exception to the
general description field, there is no indication that a due date should be submitted with
a request. While many requests are not urgent, those that are should be priority.
Unfortunately, unless clients specify due dates in the text of their requests, the Web
request assigner has little mechanism for prioritizing requests.
By adding a date field object to the Web request form, clients can help the request
coordinator prioritize requests. The need for this function has become especially
apparent during periods when several staff members, as a result of vacation, illness, or
offsite training, are absent.
An internal system that will allow the Web assigner to rank requests, according to need
for rush processing, or lack of same, will allow for greater control over assignments.
Allow clients to know who is handling their requests
It has been mentioned that clients can feel greater control over the request process and
deliver materials to web team member if they know, upon the time of assignment, who
is handling their requests. Since a message is sent to the client when the request is
assigned, it should be of very little challenge to incorporate a variable for the team
member’s name into that message.
Add hidden priority field
It is already within the capabilities of the Web Request System’s relational database to
modify the priority of a web request. In order to manage high priority web requests
more effectively, Mark has suggested that we add a priority field with the options of
Low, Medium, and High (Like a blender!), that is not viewable or modifiable by the
client.
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Proposed Web Request System Upgrades September 26, 2008
Pull Mark from the E‐mail flow
In a successful effort over a year ago to significantly drop the overall time for each
request to be processed, the request system was programmed to CC Mark McDade on
each and every request when the request was made, assigned, and completed. Also,
Mark’s name and contact information appears on each e‐mail transmission. Since this
endeavor was a success and no longer necessary, and since all members of Web
Strategy have access to all requests by default, CC’ing any single member on every
request is nonessential. Mark has suggested that we remove all CCs to his email address
and also that we remove his name and contact information from the form.
Update Web request policy
Sometimes, despite the best efforts of Web strategy team members, client projects sit
unpublished for days or even weeks. We have found that this is partially because it is
not clear to clients that DEV sites are not being published. A brief explanation of the
publishing process on each request form can provide clarity to clients and speed up the
publishing process for all involved. Ideally, the explanation would let clients know that
they must approve all beta changes before any page or site can be pushed live.
Several members of the Web strategy team have handled requests that featured
unfinished or unedited copy. It is our recommendation that clients who do not have
Web‐ready copy take steps to resolve the issue before expecting Web changes. We
propose the following initiative:
1. If copy is in need of light edits but not legal scrutiny, Jane Muder (or other team
members) can provide light editing services. We can include a box on the request
form indicating a preference for light editing. This option is useful in promoting
UPMC’s brand by adding another safeguard against publishing incorrect content.
This change can also help to promote internal awareness of content appearing on
our Web sites.
2. If copy has not been finalized or approved, clients can check another box, which will
indicate to the client and to the Web assigner that team members are not to place
copy onto beta sites until the copy has been finalized. This option is essential to the
timely completion of Web requests.
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Proposed Web Request System Upgrades September 26, 2008
Add sorting functionality to report data grids
In order to increase the usefulness of the Web request reporting system, the ability to
sort by date, department, or name will be valuable in identifying languishing requests.
We suggest modifying the data‐grid to be sorted by all fields using the Microsoft
ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit; the following three fields are most important:
• Name (Requestor)
• Department
• Date
Eliminate unexpected request description field truncation
Usually, lengthy and detail‐rich requests exceed description form character limits.
Instead of providing any sort of feedback to the requestor, the text is truncated to the
maximum allowable characters. The remainder of this text must be requested by the
assigned team member. If the requestor does not have a duplicate copy of the text, it
must be re‐typed from scratch, which delays results for the requestor.
We recommend using the Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX control toolkit to add a visual
indicator, triggered by JavaScript, to show the number of remaining characters allowed
to be entered into the form field when that number is less than 100. The script can
display a pop‐up confirmation box if the number of characters entered into the form is
exactly equal to the total number of allowed characters.
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Proposed Web Request System Upgrades September 26, 2008
Proposed Timeline for Implementation
Due to hurdles in allocating stage environments for dynamic Web applications, such as
the Web Request Form, and the risks of disabling the system by deploying premature
code, it is suggested that these changes be made in two stages:
• Short term: < 30 Days
Copy changes to the Form’s use policy; AJAX Control added to eliminate
description field character truncation, report sorting functionality
• Long Term: 60‐90 Days
Due date field; rush processing option; text review option, team member
preference field
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