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Increasing User Participation
| Category: |
Increasing User Participation |
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| State/
Agency Name: |
Arizona Division of
Children, Youth, and Families |
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| Contact
Information: |
CHILDS Project
3443 North Central Avenue
Suite 1206
Phoenix, AZ 85012 |
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| Description: |
User commitment is
critical to the success of any development effort.
In Arizona, State staff committed extensive time
to promote user acceptance early in the SACWIS development
process. They recognized early on that user involvement
with development and testing of the system would
promote ownership and acceptance of the system and
in the field. |
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SACWIS staff traveled to each of the 72 offices
across the State before the system was implemented.
During each visit members of the State SACWIS team
had informal conversations on issues, concerns,
and related problems. Each session began with either
the Deputy Director of the Economic Security or
the Assistant Director of the Division of Children
Youth and Families affirming that user concerns
are just as important as meeting Federal requirements.
The presence of high-level department management
at each of the pre-implementation visits played
a significant part in demonstrating the State's
commitment to user approval.
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After the implementation
phase, the SACWIS staff continued efforts to increase
user participation by conducting follow up visits.
Since the site visit process was based on the notion
of rewarding sites that demonstrated user acceptance
or had the highest number of users, the State office
could trace transactions as a means of finding out
who was actually using the system. The SACWIS staff
visited the regional offices in order of the highest
number of users or the highest number of transactions.
The post implementation follow-up came to be known
as pizza socials. At the pizza socials, the SACWIS
staff talked candidly about the system and the use
of the system. Through the informal conversations
SACWIS staff found glitches in the system that were
never reported through normal help desk channels.
The SACWIS staff was able to personally see how
the use of the system impacted social work practice.
More importantly, by conducting face-to-face post
implementation visits the SACWIS staff was able
to address social work practice and SACWIS policy
issues at the same time. According to Arizona staff,
conducting site visitation has had a huge impact
on increased stakeholder buy-in from end users.
While Arizona staff does not consider their effort
extraordinary; according to Don Perry, "It
was something that needed to be done and went a
long way toward securing user buy-in." For
more information please contact the CHILDS Project
at (602) 264-3376. |
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for Children and Families (ACF) / Children's Bureau (CB)
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