The big news from Information Technology is the culmination of the Everest program and the delivery of our Wave CDMS. As is typical of our IT leader, Daryl Care, humility rules the day. He’s quick to point out that getting this far required a team effort. Rather than focusing on how much IT invested into the project, he suggested we try an analysis from a different perspective.
You may remember our Director of Secondary Curriculum, Brittany Janectic, from our last edition of “The Bridge.” She walked us through the yet-to-be-named Wave step by step. We tapped her again. Thanks for putting up with us, Brittany!
We also asked Charlie Thayer to add his perspective as the Executive Director of Curriculum Development. We welcome another view always. They’ve both had a big hand in making the new system happen. So, we asked them how it’s going.
Us: First, how did we come up with “Wave” CDMS?
Charlie: So, I think the person to best articulate this one would be Doug Sharp. He was instrumental behind the name selection. Essentially the name is an association with a brain wave as it connects with education, learning, creativity and the like.
Doug, a.k.a. the Commissioner: Yep, Charlie nailed it. The marketing team collaborated and came up with a few ideas, but ultimately Wave resonated with the Executive team and won the day.
Us: What is your current role in the project?
Charlie: I wouldn’t say I have an official role in the project aside from key stakeholder as E.D. of Curriculum Development. Brittany has guided the development efforts from a business standpoint. I’ve assisted and operated on the sidelines as another set of eyes along the way as this tool relates to the overarching needs of the organization.
Us: Brittany, you explained your role as product owner in the last edition of “The Bridge.” Any updates?
Brittany: Yes, I continue to work with the development team as I have since last year to provide, as Charlie said, a business perspective on wants and needs for an in-house learning content management system. Charlie has been instrumental in guiding me through the more technical aspects, and with augmenting the application to enhance the team’s – and future clients’ – productivity.
Us: How is Wave being received since its recent launch?
Brittany: I am getting a lot of positive feedback. Our employees are loving the speed at which the system works, its intuitiveness, and the fact that it has eliminated aspects of the development workflow that were tedious or time consuming or both. Of course, there are barriers to having to learn a new system, but to see entire portions of content being generated on the first day of release and having a smooth release week from the technical support end gets me excited about the future of this product.
Charlie: Yes, initial returns have been very positive. Chiefly, it’s fast! At least compared to our former tool, which was painfully slow. The team took a moment or two to get acclimated, but Brittany, with the help of a few others, orchestrated a diligent approach to training in the new system that allowed folks to feel very comfortable on Day One of using Wave. We are now a week in and folks are moving and already suggesting enhancements and formulating new ideas for what we may want to do with the tool moving forward. Plus, Brittany has a very full backlog of user stories that, once given the green light, we can turn loose on the developers.
Us: What positive impact is Wave having on LLS?
Brittany: From an application standpoint, it is exciting to have a tool that we created, in a relatively short amount of time, based on our needs as a company and as a curriculum provider. It is also motivating to have a product that was built on the premise of collaboration. In order for this to have worked, IT and the business teams needed to be on the same page during migration, creation, validation and testing. Wave not only showed us that we could do all of those things, but that we also could listen to each other and work together towards a mutual goal. I truly believe that Wave reaching its MVP is just the beginning for the exciting prospects this newfound relationship will foster.
Charlie: The biggest impact from my perspective is the autonomy that we have over the tool we use to create our curriculum offering. We faced so many limitations with our previous system that we often had to make sacrifices in the way we presented the great content that our team creates because of the things that that system could not do. Now, if the system cannot implement a specific task, we can ask our IT friends very nicely and they think of a way to make it happen!
Questions about Wave? Send us an email and we’ll get the answers from the people who know. Thanks Brittany and Charlie for taking time to update the LLS team on this terrific tool. And thanks for your dedication to the project.
