Cambridge Assessment is a department of the University of Cambridge, and Europe's largest assessment agency. They are a not-for-profit organisation whose aim is to influence education policy and strategy around the world to ensure individuals access the benefits of the education they receive. They play a vital role in both developing and delivering assessment across the globe. Cambridge Assessment has a research capability that is now the largest of its kind in Europe. Their communication networks link assessment professionals across the globe and they incorporate three exam boards that deliver qualifications in over 150 countries.

 

Cambridge Assessment went out to tender to select a development partner to create a new module for the extranet of OCR, the UK Exam Board. This enables the online management of vocational and general qualifications. The requirement was to provide an online module that enables schools and colleges to submit grades that pupils had been awarded for their coursework. Around 2,000 centres would need access to this facility with an estimated annual throughput of 5 million transactions.

 

The project needed to be completed within a very aggressive timescale of 3 months from awarding of the contract. The solution also required sympathetic coding structures to enable easy maintenance and provide flexibility.

 

To win the contract, Beacon recognised that our approach and partnership with Cambridge Assessment and OCR would be key factors if delivery within the timescales was to be achieved. Failure to meet these deadlines would mean that marks for that course year would need to be submitted using the current manual process and the new system would be delayed until the following year. To manage risks and maximise customer feedback, we proposed a methodology based on the Microsoft Solution Framework (MSF).

 

This approach enabled us to plan discrete stages of development that were time-boxed and also meant we could focus on implementing the functionality according to a set of prioritised requirements. We staggered consecutive phases of development in order to help meet the defined timescales. This approach enabled us to deliver a successful solution to Cambridge Assessment within the specified timeframe while meeting their budget constraints.

 

In the early stages of the tender process, Beacon worked closely with Cambridge Assessment to establish a detailed picture of their requirements, the technical constraints imposed and complexity of the work involved. This enabled us to prioritise the functionality and provide an accurate assessment of the costs.

 

On winning the contract, it was confirmed that the primary reasons for selecting us were the swiftness of our response, together with the investment we made to better understand their requirements and establish an effective development plan and approach within the desired timescales.

 

In a final review of the project, the following comments were made by Cambridge Assessment on the success of the project and the working partnership both parties had established:

 

The software developed was based on a standard three-tier, client-server solution with an ASP.NET web front-end and a SQL server back-end.