Past Projects

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State of Vermont samples are available on request. For confidentiality reasons, they are not included in this site.

Vermont Agency of Digital Services (ADS)

Design for Learning (D4L)

Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans)

Goddard College

Vermont Agency of Digital Services (ADS)

DMV Commercial Vehicle Operations System Replacement

My first project working with a vendor lead team using agile methodology. We were tasked with replacing the DMV Commercial Vehicle Operations Unit’s unsupported third-party software with FAST Enterprises FastDS-VS solution. During the planning phase of the project, I was responsible for extensive business analysis including Stakeholder Analysis; Elicitation and Collaboration; Interface Analysis and Modeling; Documentation Analysis and Summaries; Process Analysis, Summaries, and Modeling; and Financial Analysis and Modeling. I produced comprehensive tax type summaries and narratives; collected baseline statistics and generated appropriate matrices; drafted current and future state interface models, high level process models, and financial models with views for change request decision making; collected pain points and bright ideas; and produced complete inventories of legacy letters, forms, reports, and interfaces for development.

My primary role on the project during implementation phase was Testing Implementation Coordinator, where I shared responsibility with my FAST counterparts for Business Testing preparations, including training subject matter experts to produce test scenarios; reviewing scenarios and negotiating revisions; and developing tester training materials. Rollout scheduled for May 2020.

CVO Project Logo

MMIS Coordination of Benefits Business Improvement

My first team project as a new Business Analyst was a business process improvement with the Vermont Agency of Human Services (AHS) Coordination of Benefits (COB) Unit. The project team included experienced business analysts, a project manager, an organizational change manager, and many subject matter experts (SMEs). We were analyzing existing materials and eliciting additional information for each COB process area, including: estate recovery, casualty recovery, trust recovery, over resource recovery, credit balance, waiver credit balance, hospice patient share, Legal Aid Medicaid Project-Medicare Advocacy Project (LAMP-MAP), Health Insurance Premium Program (HIPP), data matching, IV-D insurance, private insurance, and the Prescription Drug Program (PDP).

I was primarily responsible for current-state process flow diagrams, business rules, problem statements, elicitation and validation meeting documentation, and the project glossary for the Estate Recovery, Casualty Recovery, Credit Balance, Waiver Credit Balance, Hospice Patient Share, LAMP-MAP, and PDP processes. The team worked together to draft key performance indicators and requirements traceability matrices.

DMH Spreadsheets Improvement

My first solo project was an inherited project-in-process to analyze AHS Department of Mental Health (DMH) patient tracking processes and spreadsheets for potential improvements and efficiencies. Deliverables included current-state process flow diagrams, project glossary, stakeholder identification documents and SME kits, data dictionary and process notes, and elicitation meetings and notes. The project was concluded as I was assigned to the COB project, but I was able to provide a good foundation for DMH to build on and they were satisfied with the work product produced.

AHS PMO Business Terms Glossary

Common vocabulary is a huge challenge in the state’s largest Agency. I managed the AHS IT Project Management Office (PMO) Business Terms Glossary to help establish and maintain a common vocabulary for business analysts to use in their work across Agency projects and with vendors. I was responsible for the schedule and agenda for the Business Terms Working Group (BTWG), a small team of business analysts and business architects reviewing terms for PMO-wide applicability. I drafted, maintained, and communicated new terms and changes and secured sign-off on terms entered into the glossary. During my time on the project we began the process of reassessing  standard operating procedures, refocusing the team’s purpose statement, and revamping submission and access processes.

Universal Request Process Training

My first assignment at the Agency of Digital Services (ADS) was to take my extensive training development experience and put it to good use! The PMO had recently revamped its project Universal Request Process (URP) and needed training materials to teach business analysts across the PMO how to use SharePoint workflowa to effectively steward their assigned projects through the evaluation process. This included a set of URP Portal Training PowerPoint slides, step-by-step Business Analyst and Reviewer guides, and a guide to creating working drafts in SharePoint to help with version control. The URP was absorbed into a different work group shortly after this training effort, but the next step would have been to adapt the training materials for new employees and develop a voice-over video of the slides for accessibility.

Checklists and Guidances

As a way to get oriented to the work and processes of the Project Management Office, I was asked to revise and create a few documents to help BAs produce deliverable of the highest quality and current standards. This effort began with updating the Functional Requirements Quality Guidance to the most recent versions of the BABOK and PMBOK. Then, I drafted the Activity Diagram Quality Checklist to begin establishing a standard across the PMO that adhered to current UML standards, but also approved PMO templates. Both of these documents have been approved and included in the PMO Organization Process Assets library. Finally, I reviewed and collaborated with a small team to revise our Use Case Guidance and Standard Template.

Design for Learning (D4L)

Content Creation Module

Based on original content from teacher Lori Bell and feedback from the pilot program participants, Project Coordinator Arden Kirkland and I redesigned the Design for Learning (D4L) Content Creation module for public launch in WebJunction. This included development of more comprehensive tools, resource lists, activities, significant rechunking and ordering of content to create better flow, and sourcing visual content to support key points. My most significant contribution to the module was recording the audio and video components, making me the face and voice of the module.

Screenshot of Content Creation Module

Quick Start Guides & Live Practice Sessions

I was first hired as a Project Assistant in D4L while I was a student in the program. I managed forums in the D4L Moodle LMS, scheduled and hosted technology practice sessions with other students, authored Quick Start Guides for synchronous meeting/presentation tools, and curated the Group Zotero Library. The tools that I taught other students includ Adobe Connect, Talking Communities, Zoom, WebEx Meeting and Event, and Blackboard Collaborate. I also taught Basics of Moodle for D4L, focusing on the most used and needed features, including a Quick Start Guide with additional tips. In January 2017, I co-producing a series of videos with another trainer to distill what we learned in those practices sessions, as well as compiling resources from the web to help future asynchronous students get started. The videos are meant to give a taste of the live practice session for students in the asynchronous WebJunction environment.

Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans)

Training to Schedule Your Unit’s Records

The VTrans Records Management team was charged with creating a comprehensive training to guide business units through inventory, analysis, and writing guidance to manage their Agency copies of record. This six-part training program included five classes and individualized assistance. The flagship group of trainees included employees from units across the Agency whose records were missed or inaccurately scheduled in the first pass. They began classes in June 2017 and I taught the first in the series before departing the Agency.

Training to Schedule Your Unit's Records

Basics of Recordkeeping at VTrans

Basics of Recordkeeping at VTrans is a three-part interactive series of online trainings about Records Management concept. Each part of training includes a short video (closed captioning and transcripts are available) followed by a brief quiz to reinforce what trainees will learn. A certificate of completion is awarded upon successful completion of all three parts. This series is a prerequisite to more in-depth, in-person training.

As a student in the Design for Learning (D4L) Project, I was fortunate enough to use this work as my Capstone Project. Continual feedback and revision from both inside and outside of the Agency made the production modules top notch. This training touches all Divisions, all work sites, and all levels of the institutional hierarchy in an Agency of 1300 employees. Approval by our Records and Information Management Board was required at all stages and extra care was given to accessibility. Planning and draft production ran March-June 2016. Pilot and revision ran July-August 2016. Testing and production in the Agency Cornerstone LMS ran September-October 2016. Agency-wide distribution to the flagship group of 420+ employees ran November 2016-January 2017 with a completion rate of 98.5%. Retooling and revision was slated to begin in April 2017 with a focus on continuing education and new employee orientation.

ScreenShotHelenLindaCapstone.png

Screenshot of D4L Capstone Videos with Closed Captions

Eastern Transportation Knowledge Network (ETKN) LibGuides

The Eastern Transportation Knowledge Network (ETKN) is a resource sharing network of transportation libraries, organizations, and others whose mission is to “increase access to transportation research and information, to reduce the operating costs of its member libraries, and to offer new and improved information services for member libraries and their users.”

The State of Vermont does not have a transportation library, but I encouraged us to join as an affiliate member to provide a new avenue for VTrans researchers to receive and contribute to regional and national collaboration. We cannot contribute to resource sharing in the traditional sense, but I assisted with member surveys and collaborated with a small team to update the group Sustainability LibGuide. I was responsible for the Highway updates and helped gain exposure for the Agency by suggesting items from VTransTV for visual appeal.

OnBase Governing Body

I was Chair of the OnBase Governing Body, a group of 15+ Agency staff, primarily in our Finance and Highway divisions, charged with review, approval, and implementation of changes to improve usability and to act as champions for the OnBase Enterprise Content Management system. During 2016-2017 we were directing a pilot project for digital records management best practices within the OnBase infrastructure. Ultimately, they’ll gain Federal Highway Administration and Agency CFO approval for a paperless recordkeeping and reporting environment, and secure funding to build it in production.

We organized a pro-bono, Agency-wide assessment of our business and IT environment with our Hyland OnBase vendor, building investment in the process and gaining commitment from 50+ personnel from executives to skeptical non-users. They attended business unit meetings and shared openly and candidly about their work and document storage habits over the course of three days at the end of October 2016. The purpose of the assessment was to gain a high-level understanding of VTrans business processes, the IT landscape, and gauge the health of our existing OnBase system. This resulted in a report that made recommendations for quick fixes, return on investment, and future growth. The Agency has a roadmap to success for the first time in its fifteen-year history with the software.

AOT Records Management Fact Book and Annual Report

As chief editor of the AOT Records Management Fact Book and Annual Report, I was delighted to show-off the work of the Records Management unit each year. The Fact Book documents goals, accomplishments, challenges, and progress of the records management program at VTrans during the calendar year. It’s designed with Adobe InDesign and printed/distributed internally. The inaugural issue was published April 1, 2016.

FactBook  2017rmfactbookcover

Goddard College

ILS Migration

My first professional project was orchestrating a migration to the Koha ILS at Goddard College, making ours the first academic library in Vermont on an open-source system. It is one of the proudest achievements of my career. The decision to change systems is expensive and both physically and psychologically exhausting. Still, it’s not nearly as daunting as wrestling with a system that’s a bad fit. When we migrated to Koha, hosted with Bywater Solutions, we began saving $12,000 annually and years later we still liked the product and our service vendor. No system is perfect, but at least in open-source you can make meaningful system-wide change.

Technology Communications

The most successful technology conversations use both visual and language-based methods to solve a problem or teach a new skill. Combining a visual, like a screenshot, with descriptive language, like using the 5-Ws to be your own detective, can provide a fuller picture that leads to a fast, easy solution. I apply this method in all my tutorials as well, employing screenshots with written instructions to accommodate all learners.

Digital Mirroring

It’s imperative that beloved features of the physical library be mirrored in the online environment, especially if you’re serving populations at a distance. I create mirror lists of all our most popular physical collections & displays in the online catalog so that the browsing experience can be duplicated wherever possible.

Better Web Interfaces

I’ve been involved in many efforts to fight badly designed web pages. The latest user experience improvement at Goddard College involved moving our separate WordPress website onto the new college main site, making us a part of the college’s web presence for the first time. I simplified all of our pages and expanded and organized our Research Resources to highlight more materials and make them easier to find. At the same time, we upgraded our catalog site to a responsive theme. In my role as co-webmaster of the VLA website, nobody knew better how much we’d outgrown our previous website. I convened the Ad-Hoc Website Redesign Committee in 2012. After a few false starts we unveiled the new website in March 2014, a collaborative effort that takes into account user feedback, usability standards, and common expectations of modern websites.

Innovative Workshops

Goddard College is a progressive, low-residency college, so it is incumbent upon us to find ways to reach students at a distance and give them more bang for their on campus time. In Fall 2015, I piloted a new pre-campus orientation tutorial with Guide on The Side (GOTS) to replace our maligned on campus orientation. The guide frees everyone on campus for a hands-on Library Skills Lab, helping students learn the tools through doing. The pilot was such a success that Student Services has asked for IT information to be added so that they can follow the same hands-on model on campus. I have received many requests to teach other departments how to use the GOTS software for their own tutorials. The college is a collaborative environment by design, so it seems only natural to work with students & faculty to co-lead workshops. While the library already does this with faculty on request, I would like to see us make this a regular offering at every residency. Work on this began formally during Fall 2014 with Demystifying Research, co-written with MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts faculty for specific use with artists. Students have claimed the workshop is “life changing.” Continual improvement of teaching methods and content, in collaboration with faculty and staff campus-wide, has resulted in a 51% increase in student satisfaction.

Satellite Librarian

I proposed & piloted the Satellite Librarian Program at Goddard College over the Fall 2013 semester. Satellite Librarian is set up in our Community Center doing everything but moving physical materials. Based on the evaluation results we made the program a permanent offering of the Library & Information Technology Services Department as of Spring 2014. It is one of the most popular new initiatives college-wide. I also proposed changes to our customer-service model at the circulation desk to ensure that a person was always present when students approached. Between these two user-driven changes, library reference interactions increased by 57% in one semester and 113% over time, despite declining enrollment.

The RDA Divide

I am wholeheartedly in support of retiring AACRII and love the potential RDA holds for search and display in the digital environment. If I’m concerned about anything, it’s the RDA divide. The cost of training, along with the subscription pricing model for RDA Toolkit, is something that too many libraries cannot afford. It’s not a matter of willingness, it’s a matter of costliness. This is why I helped create the RDA Training Opportunities Masterlist, which is growing all the time. I taught myself RDA using mostly freely available resources and transitioned Goddard to RDA cataloging in Spring 2015.