Application Development: RMC creates highly customized job board for security cleared professionals

Overview

We were retained by security cleared job board ClearedJobs.Net to revamp and reconstruct their job board from the ground up.  The previous job board’s technical infrastructure lacked stability and was riddled with many accuracy and performance issues including, but not limited to:

• Database contained tables which did not contain any data
• Unwanted joins in query caused the database to fetch lots of extra data, thus slowing down search query performance
• Many table relationships were non-existent
• Excessive and unnecessary data duplication in the jobs table

The job board’s senior management retained RMC to create an entirely new, custom job board using MySQL/PHP as the foundation for the project. Some of the goals for the new job board included:

• Restore technical health, accuracy and efficiency to the job board’s database and data
• Improve job board-wide performance on all features and functions such as resume search, job search, statistics reporting, etc.
• Enhance the design interface of the job board by creating a streamlined, cleaner look that would facilitate ease of use and incorporate best practices for usability
• Implement and launch a customized blog using WordPress and brand the blog’s look to the main job board’s design

Challenges

The challenges of this project were extensive. We had to meet over 100 technical requirements and implement numerous, robust features requiring extensive customizations and work over many months. Moreover, our team had to design more than 73 interface screens including layouts for press releases, blog posts, job search results, resume search results, statistics reporting, career resources and much, much more.

Approach

“Developing a piece of software is not an easy task. Honestly, it demands an immense amount of time, money, and effort. A fair amount of planning and a good strategy are essential. A programming team has to go through many stages in order to be able to present the client the final product ready to use: from an initial idea, through design, a crucial stage of testing, and finally maintenance. A good plan is a must.” — from the Agile Methodology Web Site

This was an extensive, sophisticated project requiring hours of extensive programming, testing and refinements. The application we have created is vast with many layers and depth of function. We used Agile methodology for this development project. Our team provided regular status reporting and, due to the detailed nature of the project, implemented many “checkpoints” where the client had to sign off their approval before we proceeded forward.

[ Shown above: Black and white web interface wireframe of design sample option provided early on in the job board reconstruction and application development project. ]

The interface design aspects of the project were also quite involved. We were tasked with creating a streamlined, less-is-more interface that catered primarily to security cleared job seekers who, in general, may not always have access to the best internet experiences. We were also required to develop an interface that leveraged the previous job board’s color and branding scheme to preserve some consistency for site’s user community. Overall we developed over 70 screens, as shared earlier.

[ Shown above: Our press release web design interface had to factor in not only page orientation details but functional aspects of the newly implemented content management system for press release publishing. ]

The process for this creative component of the job board spanned several months as we collaborated with the senior marketing staff to identify everything from font sizes and margin spacings to visual cues and iconography. The end result for all GUI is what you see now on the live site.

Results

We launched this robust and very large job board application on July 5th of this year. The application was so extensive, it required our team to provide literally day and night technical support for 2.5 months after launch. This was an aggressive refinement and adjustment period (taking place over the 90-day post-launch warranty time frame) where we catered to a high volume of feedback from actual job seeker and employer users. Over the weeks and months after launch, we worked very closely with the senior staff at ClearedJobs.Net to go through every open ticket issue for refinement, testing, adjustments and resolution.

After Warranty Comes Maintenance

We are now in “maintenance mode” well after launch and, to date, all has been very smooth sailing. No more database shut downs or search performance issues.  One of the job board’s job seekers had shared this about the new site: “I have used a lot of job sites lately and this is the best I have used.”

As part of the maintenance contract, RMC handles all technical support and application development for the job board. We also assist the job board’s job seekers and employers (our client’s clients) with any concern or question that may come up from time to time about features or functions. Moreover, we provider server-level maintenance and a host of other web-related support services as well.

In the end, it’s been an amazing journey. Both client and RMC teams learned and grew a lot in this lengthy application development process. Our team’s lead, Mayra Ruiz-McPherson, has shared some of her own personal experiences on her own blog here. And our customer contact, Vice President of Operations John Nixon, is feeling much more confident these days about his job board services. “We are now free of the technical challenges which had impacted our business in ways that prevented us from fully optimizing our job seeker and employer experiences online. We have you and your team to thank for steering our company in the right direction within the complex world of web application development. On behalf of thousands of security cleared job seekers and employers, ClearedJobs.Net thanks you.”

John, you are beyond welcome!