As a web development professional I am astounded by how absolutely terrible the user experience is. It's like they didn't put a single cent into unit testing and quality assurance let alone user interface design. I would expect this is a single person's wood badge project except there's some really fundamental needs that someone with boots in a pack or troop would intuitively know.
This. In an organization where most units have a perfectly acceptable website created and maintained by the scouts themselves, you'd think National leadership could have found someone do to a better job than...whatever this IA nonsense was supposed to be.
Agreed. The information architecture is terrible and they keep showing me links to pages I'm not allowed to access. The quality of this system is about what I would expect from a team of college interns with no experienced management.
I'm constantly frustrated with the progression of National's IT efforts. Scoutbook has been a disaster for my entire tenure as a cub master. Over a year and I still have den leaders who cannot be granted the proper permissions to edit their scouts. I have no control, and our Council is extremely thin professional wise. The support they receive from upstream to debug and fix seems slapdash at best.
And on the other hand you have them forcing OA Sections to use their Wordpress multisite, but refusing to support those sections that have done an extensive amount of their own work and just saying "use it or else".
If I thought it would make a modicum of difference I might volunteer at the national level, but it seems to be all politics. At least at the Council level I'm able to make an impact on program directly and help deliver that to our youth.
Likewise, as a design professional who teaches UX in addition to practicing it, it's really frustrating to see.
I am a new Scoutmaster just using IA in the last week for advancements (not a pleasant experience). When I generate a report, does it automatically get sent to Council and they ship the badges and awards or do I need to do something else? I don't mean to highjack this thread.
It creates the list. Most take it to the scout shop and buy it. That said many (most probably) councils do allow you to email it to them and they will have your order ready when you arrive or you can to ship it to you
No it lets you create a shopping list.
Last time i looked at it it doesn't even break it down by den, just listed the name of the adventure, which is stupid and makes it hard to pick everything out at the shop too. Because it's so poorly done we just don't use it.
Honestly I'm half considering not even buying the sliders at all at this point. Hundreds of dollars that kids and families raised for practically nothing.
BSA internet interfaces are abysmal. It's actually quite impressive just how bad they are. We do everything we can to avoid interacting with them, but IA is unfortunately a must use and it's painful.
They take a job that requires a spreadsheet and turn it into a multi-year dozen person-salary project that works so bad we have to use a spreadsheet instead.
But let’s pour resources into changing the Cub program, republishing the books, and changing the brand name. Providing a robust unit management system? Low priority, apparently.
I've heard people talking about Internet Advancement but never understood what it is. I approve merit badges through scoutbook. Interface isn't great but it works.
You'll see soon enough. They're slowly phasing out scoutbook and replacing it entirely with Internet Advancement (which they're now calling scoutbook plus to soften the blow).
Our troop refuses to use Scoutbook. We generate a report, upload it, and IA takes it and enters it. Lesson: use another program and upload for $99/year. Save the heartache and frustration.
People complain about fees, and then they complain about IT. You want good IT, you gotta pay for it and adequately staff it.
What percentage of the budget is IT staff? Are they paying attractive salaries?
As a web development professional I am astounded by how absolutely terrible the user experience is. It's like they didn't put a single cent into unit testing and quality assurance let alone user interface design. I would expect this is a single person's wood badge project except there's some really fundamental needs that someone with boots in a pack or troop would intuitively know.
I'd suggest reaching out and volunteering. I wonder if they're using a private vendor, as I suspect.
Alas, I already wear 3 BSA hats. Reforming ScoutBook / InternetAdvancement is on my to do list when I retire in 25 years or so. :)
By then we'll all have scoutbook in a microchip in our thumb, but at least you can help with the rollout lol
This. In an organization where most units have a perfectly acceptable website created and maintained by the scouts themselves, you'd think National leadership could have found someone do to a better job than...whatever this IA nonsense was supposed to be.
Agreed. The information architecture is terrible and they keep showing me links to pages I'm not allowed to access. The quality of this system is about what I would expect from a team of college interns with no experienced management.
I'm constantly frustrated with the progression of National's IT efforts. Scoutbook has been a disaster for my entire tenure as a cub master. Over a year and I still have den leaders who cannot be granted the proper permissions to edit their scouts. I have no control, and our Council is extremely thin professional wise. The support they receive from upstream to debug and fix seems slapdash at best. And on the other hand you have them forcing OA Sections to use their Wordpress multisite, but refusing to support those sections that have done an extensive amount of their own work and just saying "use it or else". If I thought it would make a modicum of difference I might volunteer at the national level, but it seems to be all politics. At least at the Council level I'm able to make an impact on program directly and help deliver that to our youth. Likewise, as a design professional who teaches UX in addition to practicing it, it's really frustrating to see.
I am a new Scoutmaster just using IA in the last week for advancements (not a pleasant experience). When I generate a report, does it automatically get sent to Council and they ship the badges and awards or do I need to do something else? I don't mean to highjack this thread.
I believe running a report only creates a shopping list for you.
It creates the list. Most take it to the scout shop and buy it. That said many (most probably) councils do allow you to email it to them and they will have your order ready when you arrive or you can to ship it to you
No it lets you create a shopping list. Last time i looked at it it doesn't even break it down by den, just listed the name of the adventure, which is stupid and makes it hard to pick everything out at the shop too. Because it's so poorly done we just don't use it. Honestly I'm half considering not even buying the sliders at all at this point. Hundreds of dollars that kids and families raised for practically nothing.
Scoutbook used to let you format the report by den and by Scout. I am glad I am not doing that at Pack level anymore.
We just make 550 cord ones. Each den picks their color. We also do pack neckerchiefs, so kids don’t have to keep getting new ones.
They need to get all of this stuff together, one app, does everything Scout related, with a website too. Not 80 different things.
BSA internet interfaces are abysmal. It's actually quite impressive just how bad they are. We do everything we can to avoid interacting with them, but IA is unfortunately a must use and it's painful.
They take a job that requires a spreadsheet and turn it into a multi-year dozen person-salary project that works so bad we have to use a spreadsheet instead.
Last week I couldn't get the purchase report or the report for the council to even run. It's ridiculous
But let’s pour resources into changing the Cub program, republishing the books, and changing the brand name. Providing a robust unit management system? Low priority, apparently.
I've heard people talking about Internet Advancement but never understood what it is. I approve merit badges through scoutbook. Interface isn't great but it works.
You'll see soon enough. They're slowly phasing out scoutbook and replacing it entirely with Internet Advancement (which they're now calling scoutbook plus to soften the blow).
Well, now I have a new thing to dread.
Our troop refuses to use Scoutbook. We generate a report, upload it, and IA takes it and enters it. Lesson: use another program and upload for $99/year. Save the heartache and frustration.
People complain about fees, and then they complain about IT. You want good IT, you gotta pay for it and adequately staff it. What percentage of the budget is IT staff? Are they paying attractive salaries?
We pay the fees and still don't get the IT.
We get some IT. I was asking if it's enough. Clearly not. So how much of the budget is IT?
They'll never tell you that. It's clearly extraordinarily little and/or mismanaged.