EDR Needs Assessment Survey Questionnaire
Version 1.0

Stakeholders

Welcome to the Energy Design Resources (EDR) Needs Assessment Survey.

This purpose of this survey is to discover what features you think will increase the utility of the EDR website. Please answer all appropriate questions if possible.

The results of this questionnaire will be considered by the utility stakeholders when determining the EDR web site development priorities. You vote does count!

Name:
Title:
Organization:

Position:
Years in current position:
Current role in the EDR program:

Note to Design Team: In the questionnaire below, “(1 – 5)” signifies a horizontal radio button list with options 1 through 5. I prefer 5 rather than 10 options simple due to the overhead of creating all the controls.

General Web Site Features

• How important do you consider existing features?
  1 = Not Important, 10 = Most Important
• Design Practices (1-5)
• Technologies(1-5)
• Guidelines (1-5)
• Design Briefs (1-5)
• Case Studies (1-5)
• Newsletters (1-5)
• Software (1-5)
• Training (1-5)
• Where on the site is new content needed most?
  1 = Not Needed, 10 = Most Needed
• Design Practices (1-5)
• Technologies(1-5)
• Guidelines (1-5)
• Design Briefs (1-5)
• Case Studies (1-5)
• Newsletters (1-5)
• Software (1-5)
• Training (1-5)
• How important do you consider adding other features?
  1 = Not Important, 10 = Most Important
• Discussion Forums (1-5)
• Newsletters/Alerts focused on specific segments of EDR users (1-5)
• Blogs by Industry Experts (1-5)
• Pertinent Training/Event Calendars (1-5)
• Banner Ads/Announcements/Featured Content (1-5)
• Surveys and Polls with viewable results (optional) (1-5)
• Having some site content that is available to “members only” (1-5)
• RSS Syndication of Content (1-5)
• Are there any other features you would like to see included? (textbox)
• Do you know of other web sites that have features you think we should consider? If so please provide a link and let us know what you like about the feature. (textbox)
• For content development, training modules, targeted newsletters, etc. which demographics are most important for segmenting EDR users?
• Building Type/Size (1-5)
• Technology (1-5)
• Profession/Position (1-5)
• What other demographics should be included? (textbox)

Note to Design Team: We need to be aware of the CMS features and limitation of the DNN platform and the available modules. The work horse application for maintaining much of the site content which will be “added in an ongoing basis” is called “News Articles” by Ventrian. It allows different roles for “editing” and “approval”. Most of the other DNN modules do not offer this.

The other work horse is the Text/HTML module. It allows for easy, non-technical, creation of static content. A version of this module is available that does allow saving a “working copy” of the content that can be reviewed later before public submission, but no formal “approval” process. It also saves previous versions to allow for roll back. If desired, I can research for a Text/HTML module that allows for “approval” roles – a new module may offer this facility.

The only other possible roll back options we have will come from site wide nightly backups. This is only useful for catastrophic recovery.

We may want to word things is such a way as to limit the expectations of the deliverables.

Content Management

• How important are the following features to your organization?
  1 = Not Important, 10 = Most Important
• Creating and Maintaining your own online content (1-5)
• Creating content without needing to know HTML (1-5)
• View/edit content before it goes live (1-5)
• Approve content before it goes live (1-5)
• Archiving of previous content versions (1-5)
• View and utilization statistics for your content (1-5)
• To have your own newsletter (1-5)
• What other content management features do you consider important? (textbox)
• How many users from your organization do you envision having EDR content management responsibilities over the next 3 years? (textbox)
• What database integration capabilities (linking EDR tools and content with other existing databases) would you find most useful? (textarea)

Look and Feel

• Should the existing EDR logo and color scheme be: (radio buttons)
• Changed as little as possible so as to maintain continuity in EDR’s brand identity
• Updated substantially, but in such a way that some continuity is preserved
• Completely abandoned and replaced
• Should the existing SBD logo and color scheme be: (radio buttons)
• Changed as little as possible so as to maintain continuity in EDR’s brand identity
• Updated substantially, but in such a way that some continuity is preserved
• Completely abandoned and replaced
• Should the EDR and SBD websites continue to remain graphically independent: (radio buttons)
• Changed as little as possible so as to maintain a distinct identity for each
• Updated substantially, to encourage visitors to understand the relationship between the two sites

Developers

Welcome to the Energy Design Resources (EDR) Tool Management Survey.

We are creating a repository for all key data associated with the various online tools available at www.EnergyDesignResources.com . Please take care to answer all the questions as fully and as accurately as possible. Your input is crucial and greatly appreciated.

Name:
Title:
Organization:

Position:
Years in current position:

General Web Site Features

• What key strengths of the current EDR website do you think should be preserved and maintained? (textarea)
• What are the major weaknesses of the current EDR website that you think should be corrected or improved? (textarea)

Tool/Resource Information

Please provide all key technical requirements that describe your respective EDR tool(s) or resources. Fill out one form for each tool or resource.

Note to Design Team: All the response areas for the questions below will either be Text Boxes or Text Areas (for longer responses).

Management

• Name of tool or resource
• Objective of the tool
• Target user of tool
• Date of first version of the tool/resource
• Date of most recent version of the tool/resource
• Update cycle
• Where are the “source” files?
• Key original developer Name, Email and Phone
• Current designated contact Name, Email and Phone
• Owner of tool/resource Intellectual property (EDR, developer – if developer, please explain)
• Who currently provides support? Name, Email and Phone
• What email accounts (if any) does the tool require?
• Who are the individuals who currently manage these in-bound emails? Name, Email and Phone
• Are any recurring license fees necessary to allow EDR program to operate this tool? If yes, how much? When due?
• What is the funding status for support or development?

Resources and Utilization

• Databases or tables required. If yes please list.
• Approximate disk space required.
• Where is the physical server hosting this tool / resource?
• Shared, dedicated, or multi-server cluster (supporting this single application)?
• What unique or dedicated resources if any are necessary to operate this tool?
• How much traffic / how many users does this tool have currently?
• How much growth is anticipated over the next 2 years?
• Estimate the current number of active users of your tool or resource
• Estimate the projected number of active users of your tool or resource
• Recommended primary metric for tracking tool/resource commercialization success
• Recommended secondary metric for tracking tool/resource commercialization success

Development

• Are there any new features or development planned? If so what are the new features and estimated delivery date?
• How feasible do you think it will be to migrate the existing application to a shared server .NET environment?
• How feasible do you think it will be to migrate the existing application to a LAMP environment?
• What new content management system features would you find most helpful in supporting or enhancing the tool(s) or resource(s) your organization has developed for EDR?