By Eric Burden | January 6, 2018
In the spring of 2017, I prepared a demonstration of an interactive reporting system built on the R/Shiny platform for providing up-to-date and actionable information to MDCPS Social Work Supervisors and Social Workers. The system was built on a philosophy that effective management by data is predicated on providing the right information to the right people in as readily accessible format as possible. For a direct supervisor, this meant providing information about the individual performance of each supervised social worker, highlighting areas needing improvement before a policy requirement had failed to be met. The original goal, and the first round of developed reports, were aimed at being most useful to supervisors and their direct reports. The demonstration was well-received, and I took on the role of lead developer in preparing the system for deployment to the entire agency. Through a collaborative effort with multiple MDCPS units, we were able to launch the services agency-wide in July of 2017, with ongoing development through to the current day. Major features include: Up-to-date information; the ability to reframe displayed data by Region, County, Supervisor, or Worker; report business rules available on report page; report downloadable in PDF or XLSX format; highlighting of records that are approaching non-compliance; and updating charts for at-a-glance overview for each report/context. Screenshot and link to a GitLab repository (modified for public consumption) included below:
