The Discovery Phase

In August, 2018, the Humber team began the discovery phase of the WECCC/Humber project.

Discovery included an on-site visit to WECCC's offices in Windsor, review of WECCC's documentation, and the team's investigation of the electronic medical records (“EMR”) software OSCAR.

As project manager, one of the things I brought to the project was a background in financial technology. Having spent many years managing the technology needs of one the "Big 5" banks, I expected to be prepared for the kind of discovery and requirements gathering that building an application in the health-care space would entail.

Medical technology
I was not prepared.

Our team spent the first 10 weeks of the project immersed in the documentation that was sent our way, while also researching existing solutions.

It can't be understated how easily overwhelmed a small team could be while undertaking a project in the health care space, particularly the health care research space. The sheer volume of documentation and research generated by any given line of inquiry is not to be underestimated.

Agile to the rescue

The Agile methodology of software development is intended to solicit frequent feedback through short development cycles. Adopting this methodology early on, and applying it not only to development but also the documentation generated by the team, meant that we were able to generate discovery results both through traditional methods of consuming available research materials, and also through pro-active inquiry, ideation, and feedback.

An incomplete list of research materials from the discovery phase:

  • Initial Considerations Before Building Requirements Document For WECCC Project, Problem definition document
  • Crafting a Digital Personal Health, UX Mockups (Powerpoint)
  • Windsor Essex Compassion Care Community: The Best of What Community Used to Be and Can Become, Telepalliative Care Technology Overview
  • Sharing My Journey, Work booklet
  • Sharing My Journey: Jane Doe’s Life-long Care Plan, Persona/Work booklet
  • Women's College Hospital Outcome Reports, User Flow & Wireframes v0.6
  • Outcome Reports UI Design - Encompass Community project outcome reports prototype screens
  • User-Centered Design in Audit & Feedback in the home and community care sector of Ontario
  • Community Tele-palliative Platform Background: Investing in well-being and social innovation in communities.
  • Compassionate Community Personas & Stories, (Powerpoint)
  • Outcome Reports: User Personas, (Powerpoint)
  • Compassionate Care Coach Checklist, Volunteer community visitation checklist
  • Ministry/LHIN Audit & Feedback Primer
  • Windsor-Essex Compassion Care Community "Quadruplicate" Protoype: Multi-level Shared Outcome and Public Value Measurement System, (Powerpoint)
  • WECCC Technology Instructions Version 10: Coordinators, Volunteers, and Interns, Internal workflow documentation
  • VPP Provider Interviews, 6 provider interviews - 1 social worker, 3 care coordinators and 2 students, conducted by University of Windsor Department of Nursing researchers
  • Ontario Telemedicine Network TelePalliative Evaluation Report
  • Vulnerable Person’s Focus Group March 22, 2018
  • 17 ethnographic studies conducted by WECCC
  • Population Health Planning Needs for LHINs, Epidemiology, Powerpoint
  • NHN Social Participation Survey, Community Connections Survey Prototype 2
  • Social participation and the health and well-being of Canadian seniors, Statistics Canada Report
  • Jane Doe: NHN Personal Report, 'Neighbours Helping Neighbours' report persona
  • Neighbours Helping Neighbours Report, Survey template, Sample Report, Instructions
  • Use Case #1: Jane Doe Summary, Use Case persona
  • Community Connections Instructions, Survey manual
  • Personal Dashboard format, Survey manual