National Policing Professional Framework (PPF) website
Following the development of the National Policing Professional Framework (PPF) during 2008 - 2011, Christie and Christie were asked by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) and Skills for Justice to develop a national website that would deliver the framework to all UK based and overseas Police forces.
Requirements for the new system
Some of the key requirements for the new website were:
- A database driven system with both a public facing front-end and a Content Management System (CMS) for designated staff
- For the website to be publically accessible whilst providing individual Police forces and staff with additional functionality and information (such as the ability to contextualise the detail of role profiles and also creating their own local role profiles)
- For the website to provide overseas Police staff with access to their local force's role profiles
- For the website to be delivered within a relatively short timescale (6 months in total) whilst accommodating the outcomes of 2 other parallel work streams
Developing the new system
After meeting with the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), Skills for Justice and other stakeholders in August 2010, we created an initial list of requirements for the new website, a development risk register and a project plan. One of the key factors in developing the project plan and delivering the system within the required timescales was the need for flexibility in regard of 2 parallel work streams that were continuing to develop the structure and content of the framework. Throughout the project, we knew that the initial list of client requirements, our development work and system testing was reliant upon and subject to the output of the 2 other work streams.
Our first task was planning the initial architecture for the database, the server file system and the Application Program Interface (API) layer based on the list of known requirements. Following client approval, we then began to plan and develop a prototype system that would include prototypes for both the public facing website and the CMS.
We started by setting up the prototype web space and focussing on the visual appearance of the public website. The prototype was populated with some example data and a URL was provided to all stakeholders allowing them to see how the public site could look and function. Following positive feedback and more ideas generated by seeing this prototype, we confirmed a final list of requirements for the system.
As groups of requirements were developed, they were tested by a user group set up by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) and Skills for Justice. Testing worksheets were sent to the group and following the results requirements were fine tuned and re-tested before being signed off.
Following client and Force approval of the public site prototype, we then developed and tested the CMS system. This included extra functionality requested by Skills for Justice such as a role messaging system and web service communications with the Skills for Justice NOS Finder.
'Go live'
Following the sign off of both the public and CMS prototype systems, Skills for Justice populated the system database with the final version of the framework throughout December 2010 and January 2011. The system went 'live' in January 2011 both within budget and within the agreed project timescales.
The public facing website can be accessed by visiting http://www.skillsforjustice-ppf.com.