MasteryWorks has developed a number of paper-based surveys, questionnaires, and tools to assist its clients in managing talent and resources. Management realized that an online version of many of these tools would improve the appeal of MasteryWorks’ products. The IT department had originally built a rich Windows client to accomplish this goal, but realized that moving to a web-based environment would help MasteryWorks and its clients to reach a larger audience more easily and less expensively.
MasteryWorks identified several existing tools that could be better served in a web-based environment.
The company also created several new tools to take advantage of the unique abilities of a web-based application and a centralized database.
Ness worked closely with MasteryWorks to identify requirements for each of the tools. Key requirements included:
- Allowing unique branding of each customer’s toolset. Some of MasteryWorks’ customers wanted the tools to appear as part of their own web services collection. Also, MasteryWorks licenses some of its tools to third parties who desire their own branding.
- Maintaining cross-browser compatibility. MasteryWorks found that most of its clients used a mix of Netscape and Microsoft browsers, so its web-based tools needed to support common versions of both browsers.
- Allowing easy customization of certain content. Various pages of each toolset may be considered specific to a given customer. Therefore, non-technical MasteryWorks personnel needed a way to easily update the content of those pages.
- Providing optional anonymous usage of the tools. Realizing that anonymity can encourage more honest responses to certain questions, some users of various tools wanted to allow anonymity for a number of reasons, while others preferred to associate names of users with the tools they used.
- Allowing easy integration of new tools as they are designed and developed.
