The IT Operations group of the Technology Integration department solves problems and finds new opportunities to support PSI’s mission around the world. We provide expertise, guidance and support for enterprise applications, network infrastructure, business intelligence and software development. We’re physically located in Washington, DC, but we work all over the globe. We contribute to the PSI mission by making sure our colleagues have access to the information, tools, and support they need wherever they may be.
The IT Operations group leverages several Office 365 applications – SharePoint, Microsoft Flow and PowerApps in particular – to develop custom business solutions for PSI teams, departments and projects. These solutions help teams work more efficiently by replacing routine tasks with automated flows. They also allow us to better document key steps in a business process flow, like when a specific or certain type of document was approved or signed.
We are seeking a consultant who can support the development, testing and deployment of 2-3 prioritized business solutions in our project pipeline. A summary of your contribution and the skills required can be found below. For more details about individual projects to which you will contribute, please see section ‘Project Overviews’.
This is a 6-month contract with likely extension as project pipeline is dynamic and growing. We are looking to establish long term relationships with consultants who possess skill sets that match our current development framework.
- Assess the existing architecture of 2-3 prioritized business solutions that rely on both Classic and Modern SharePoint, SharePoint Designer, Microsoft Flow and Power Apps,
- Upgrade several workflows and business processes built in Classic SharePoint and SharePoint Designer to modern SharePoint and Microsoft Flow,
- Design, develop and test new solutions for prioritized projects using SharePoint Online, Microsoft Flow, and Power Apps,
- Suggest and design a framework for integrating related business processes that rely on the same underlying tools, like document libraries, doc sets, managed metadata, approval flows and more,
- Communicate status of prioritized projects with stakeholders,
- Develop and update technical documentation and tutorials,
- Support and maintain in production
Project A: Awards Management Business Solution
This project involves upgrading an online awards management solution built in classic SharePoint as well as developing new and integrated solutions for related stages of our awards management lifecycle.
Upgrading our current system: Our current awards management solution is built in classic SharePoint and relies on SharePoint Designer to automate several interconnected business flows. All flows built in SharePoint Designer need to be upgraded to Microsoft Flow and the SharePoint Site itself needs to be upgraded to a modern experience.
Building new solutions: Our current awards management solution is relatively limited in that it only manages a portion of the resources involved in the various stages of the awards management lifecycle. We would like to build additional business solutions for these stages of the award management lifecycle in a manner that is consistent, integrated and streamlined with any upgrades we perform to our current system.
Your contribution:
- Review and analyze the current structure of our award management solution built in classic SharePoint with SharePoint Designer workflows
- Upgrade all SharePoint Designer workflows to Microsoft Flow
- Upgrade our classic SharePoint site to a modern experience
- Build additional solutions that are consistent and integrated in a way that reduces duplication and inefficiencies throughout the award management lifecycle
Applications involved:
- Microsoft Flow
- PowerApps
- Modern SharePoint, including Document Sets, Managed Metadata, Content Types and more
- SharePoint Designer
Project B: Power Apps development
We are working to develop an application in Power Apps that will facilitate the management and approval of procurement orders. A single order could be comprised of multiple items, like 5 laptops, 2 projectors and a standing desk, for example. All items in the order will have its own metadata, like item cost, as well as shared metadata like the account to which the item is being charged. While the user will only interact directly with the application, all data will be backed up and stored in SharePoint.
Your contribution:
- Quickly jump in and learn how the current application is built,
- Make recommendations for improving and finalizing the application,
- Build remaining features that are missing and prepare the application for piloting,
- Finalize application with feedback from pilot and prepare for launch,
- Develop a maintenance plan for the application,
- Provide recommendations for expanding the use of the application to other offices
Applications and skills involved:
- Power Apps
- Microsoft Flow
- Outlook
- SharePoint
Project C: Custom Search Center
We would like to build a custom search experience in O365 where users can a) search for any resource they have access to using keywords and common search terms and b) filter for high value resources using a set of common tags, like doc type, country, region etc.
Your contribution:
- Build a custom and engaging search center using classic SharePoint with key features such as filters and custom search results highlighting specific metadata we would like to display, like description, owner etc. using HTML and CSS
- Develop a mechanism and process for tagging highly valuable resources across multiple libraries in a consistent manner
- Curate and customize the underlying result sources involved in the search engine to incorporate features like ranked results
Applications and skills involved:
- Classic SharePoint and classic SharePoint Web Parts
- Result sources and search query formulas
- Managed Metadata
- Crawled Properties
- HTML and CSS
- You have experience designing, testing, implementing and maintaining business solutions in Office 365 using Microsoft Flow and Power Apps,
- You are highly proficient in the design framework used in Power Apps,
- You have a deep understanding and knowledge of SharePoint Online, including Document Sets, Managed Metadata, indexed columns and more,
- You understand the software development life cycle,
- You can understand business requirements and translate them into technical solutions,