13 Editing and Approvals - HHS/OPRE-OPS GitHub Wiki

Research Purpose

OPRE needs a way to ensure all budget-related data has necessary oversight when edited and updated. An agreement will be edited many times throughout its lifecycle. In a draft status, data can be freely edited and changed as OPRE works out different options or ideas. This is the time for what-ifs and exploring options. In a planned status, details of an agreement have been more closely considered. Options have been discussed and altered to make them more realistic and possible. In executing status, an agreement is again edited in collaboration with the Procurement Shop. Now another party external to OPRE is involved to make sure everything looks good and is ready for the next stage of development. In obligated status, agreements have been committed through a signed contract and some details can no longer be changed or edited.

Throughout all of these phases of development, as things change from draft to obligated, approvals will be required to obtain necessary oversight across the budget. In OPS, the Division Director will review/approve anytime a status change is requested (draft to planned, planned to executing, executing to obligated) but sometimes changes are made within a status (planned to planned) and still need to trigger an approval so a Division Director is kept in the loop on any updates and can see how that change might impact the overall budget. This means OPS needs a way to trigger approvals on edits to the budget outside of a status change, in addition to within a status change.

Research Goals

  • Validate/review current agreement data model (create, read, update, delete) and approval structure
  • Clarify what data can be edited without an approval and what data needs an approval
  • Discuss how notifications can improve transparency and awareness on the non-approval items
  • Identify options to make editing/approvals as easy as possible
  • Incorporate a way to trigger approvals outside of the status change approvals we already have in place

Methods

  • 1:1 interviews
  • Design feedback sessions

Engagement Groups

  • Division Directors
  • Team Leaders