CNI: Usability and Digitalization
The Client
The Italian National Council of Engineers (CNI) is a private organization responsible for the enhancement of the engineering profession, with purposes of public utility and interest.
It has a central role in the promotion and development of this role in society, while being a reference point for the growth and common interests of the category.
The Initial Situation
The certified engineers (almost 250,000) are engaged in annual mandatory continuing-education, provided by certified bodies, which allows them to obtain credits. Everything is managed through a specific Training Platform: here you can carry out more or less complex procedures, for enabling the provision of courses, enrollment and participation, credit recognition or exemption, payments, production of documentation and much more.
This portal is a complex management application, with differentiated interfaces for each person involved and numerous features. Given its use, it must necessarily be usable, simple and safe.
And we have worked exactly on that.
How we worked
TECHNOLOGIES
- Python
- Django
- Postgresql
- Uwsgi/nginx
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Gnu/Linux
Work Steps
We started with an initial analysis of the state of the art, new needs and problems, through several meetings, including one of Impact Mapping to discuss the desired objectives and impacts.
We worked on the design of the possible platform, through several sessions of User Story Mapping with the client: this allowed us to better define the priorities and give the initial evaluation of the complexity.
The development work was done in Agile using the Scrum framework, with a mixed team formed by members of 20tab (with BE/FE/DevOps, UW/UI and Product Ownership development skills) and members of CNI (a technician and a domain expert).
UX research was carried out through data collection and direct interviews for the main milestones released.
Continuous updates to the application in production were provided by applying a good DevOps approach with a Continuous Delivery process, implementing CI/CD pipelines.
The Final Result
The platform has been entirely rewritten and renewed.
The organization of the contents, the general UX, the consistency, security and correctness of the data from a technical point of view are all considerably improved aspects.
New features have been added such as the management of inquiries for requesting credits or accreditation directly from the platform, event registration and much more.
The objectives achieved
The platform was completely rewritten, within six months, and successfully published in a first version containing only the most important functions. New features and improvements have later been added on an ongoing basis to those already released, based on the feedback received.
The project, however, has not yet been completed: new features are currently being developed to automate and digitize more daily tasks, which for now have remained off the platform.
Review by Alessio Chiga
"With the 20tab team, we have designed, developed and shaped a necessary platform for our services. The top-notch expertise, the use of shared tools and the high human quality have brought an exceptional result."
