Low Code Digital Waste Service

The project is awarded £350,000 of funding through Round 5 of the Local Digital Fund to conduct a beta phase.

The project shared a number of updates and blogs posts on their website:

• Read background on the project from PlaceCube’s Gavin Beckett
• Read why the project was selected from LDCU Collaboration Manager, Leon Ackie
• Read Sprint 1 overview
• Read Sprint 2 overview

The project team has just completed their second sprint and presented their achievements during a Show and Tell on Tuesday 1 March. Read more about their progress and watch a recording of the Show and Tell in this blog post.

During the second sprint, the team has focused on:

• business analysis around the three priority service offers (Find my bin day, Request an Assisted Collection/Pullout, Subscribe to Garden Waste Collections)
• completing a review of their user experience and user research and summarising the findings.

Their Technical Architect is leading work to define low-code enhancements and has completed the definition of user stories for the Case Management configuration’s Graphical User Interface (GUI).

On Wednesday 9 March, Mike Connell and Dr Gavin Beckett presented at Public Sector Insight Week. In the session, they gave an overview of how the Beta phase builds on earlier work and is exploring the use of an open-source digital platform — with low code configurable components — to develop user-centred digital waste services.

On Tuesday 10 May the project team held their Sprint 7 Show and Tell, during which they presented:

• a review of their user research and UX insights into the replace / request a new bin workflow
• a demonstration of the subscribe to a garden waste collection service
• a demonstration of the bin collection day widget

The partner councils have agreed that some of the current project underspend will be used to fund two additional sprints of work. The additional sprints (8 and 9) will run from Wednesday 11 May to Tuesday 7 June.

During Sprint 8, the project team will continue to discuss and agree on the proposal for their application for continuous funding, alongside the completion of their Theory of Change document.

As part of Digital Leaders Week 2022, Mike Connell (Chief Officer — Digital and Communications, Rugby Borough Council) is hosting a talk to tell the story of how the partners have come together to solve a shared problem.

In May, the team held a Show and Tell session to present their achievements from Sprint 8 of the project’s beta phase. Watch the recording.

This sprint, the team has been focussing on building front-end forms and continuing integration work with the Echo Waste Management System.

The project team held their Sprint 9 Show and Tell on Tuesday 14 June, during which they shared a demonstration of the fly-tipping form and modifications to the ‘subscribe to a garden waste collection’ form.

Councils will be able to easily configure these low code forms to meet both the specific delivery needs of their local services, as well as their current waste management system requirements. Existing PlaceCube customers will have access to the Lowcode Digital Waste Service forms through the Form Manager, and PlaceCube will be available for support and/or training.

Alternatively, the code can also be downloaded from BitBucket and configured to work with a council’s implementation of LifeRay.

During Sprint 10, which will last three weeks, the team plan to focus on:

• developing the back office system integration of the Mayrise connector
• drafting the service implementation guide
• producing the Phase 1 final report

Project lead, Mike Connell (Chief Officer — Digital and Communications, Rugby Borough Council) presented a talk on ‘Finding resources when you haven’t any — a funding story’, during Digital Leaders Week 2022. Mike shared his thoughts and experiences of being able to achieve more by collaborating with others to identify and solve shared problems. If you missed it the first time round, you can still sign up to watch a recording of the session.

On Friday 15 July, the project team held their rescheduled Sprint 10 Show and Tell session. During this three-week sprint the project team focussed on:

• the subscribe to a garden waste subscription
• a draft of the user research review
• updating and sharing the User Experience report for feedback

Meanwhile, the team has begun drafting the service adoption playbook and the beta Phase One report. Phase One wrap-up activities have been taking place over the last few weeks and there will be one more Show and Tell at the end of the phase, during which the team will showcase everything that has been built.

In the final sprint of this first phase, the Placecube development and QA (Quality Assurance) teams completed the build and testing of the last waste service form, as well as 3 of 4 integration connectors.

Work continued on documentation, with the updated ‘User Research Review & UX Insights Report’ circulated for review and feedback by the LA partners.

The date/time of the team’s final Show & Tell session will be confirmed shortly. Follow the project on Twitter for updates.

The project team plans to hold their final Show and Tell session on Tuesday 11 October at 2pm. This session will be used to demonstrate the full functionality available for the Low Code Digital Waste Service.

On Tuesday 13 December the team held their final Show & Tell session of the beta phase.

In this session, the team provided an overview of the final output delivered during this phase.

They also confirmed that they intend to submit an application for continuous funding to continue implementing more waste service business processes.

Final Show & Tell! https://t.co/FB82oiRVCJ #fixtheplumbing #localdigitalfund #digitalwaste #closethegap pic.twitter.com/keNNQnUV9I

— Low Code Waste Services – funded by Local Digital (@digitalwastesvc) December 13, 2022

On 13 January, the Digital Waste Service project team submitted their beta application, through the continuous funding framework. The panel interview is scheduled to take place on Friday 24 January at 4pm.

the Digital Waste Service project was successful in their application for Beta funding as part of the continuous funding model (CFM) process.

They were awarded £350,000 and they are excited to begin phase 2.

In the past two weeks, the Low Code Waste Service project team completed Sprint 1 and began Sprint 2. They are currently focused on further discovery to determine priorities and detailed requirements for the partners involved.

The team has begun initial design work by developing process flows and wireframes for waste services in two delivery workstreams: Customer Notifications and Commercial Waste/Traded Services.

They reviewed five customer personas representing typical Commercial Waste service users, highlighting their behaviours, frustrations and goals.

The project has also started planning for user testing in Sprint 5 and are creating a Participants Recruitment Guide for gathering feedback from service users. This feedback will inform the next iteration of the digital service design.

During this sprint, the project team started developing the Bin Collection Day reminders service and are working on user stories for the Garden Waste Subscription reminders.

Recent insights from Dorset Council regarding their Commercial Waste collection service quoting tool and pricing model has provided valuable understanding. Different options are being assessed to ensure project delivery within constraints.

The project team have had productive conversations with Medway and Burnley Councils, exploring adoption routes and potential software development collaboration, including sharing developers.

They have also had discussions with Moore Insights and Placecube to finalise the support partnerships. In the next sprint, they aim to agree a plan to embed the organisations into the project.

The project team have made good progress on their user stories for bin collection day and garden waste subscription renewal reminders and are on track for delivery shortly. They have also been delivering and refining user stories relating to commerce and business accounts.

Work has begun to test the prototypes (high fidelity wireframes) developed in Figma with users. Their feedback and any design change recommendations will be shared at their Show and Tell on 15 August.

In the next sprint, which will run for 3 weeks, the team will continue to deliver further user stories and continue development of the Bartec integration connector to enable use of API calls to Dorset Council’s back-office waste management system.

If you would like to attend the team’s next Show and Tell on Tuesday 5 September, please email [email protected].

The project team has made good progress this sprint with nearly a full team. Their primary focus was to complete outstanding non-quote journey work and complete the Business Account and Bartec connector task. They’ve finalised the quote-based journey requirements, with refreshed designs completed, and user stories written. They’ve also developed a Proof of Concept for key aspects of the quote journey and initial stories have been refined and estimated by the team.

Excitingly, the Sandbox environment for customers is nearly ready to roll out, allowing hands-on testing. Documentation for project features is underway and will be hosted on the Sandbox site once complete.

In the next two weeks, they’ll complete the remaining Bartec connector methods and begin work on GOV.UK Pay integration with Commerce.

This sprint will include technical investigations for complex elements, refinement of the user story backlog, and estimation of development efforts. They remain focused on addressing QA (Quality Assurance) feedback and will also work on scoping and planning for Sprint 9, which is scheduled for 18 to 31 October.

The upcoming tasks for the team involve advancing discussions with the councils that are interested in the product.