When we think of a new system or process “going live,” we often imagine scenarios involving dramatic and immediate change. And much of the time this is an accurate representation of a go-live. Consider the typical go-live situation in which an old computer system is replaced by a newer system. The go-live of the new computer system will usually involve the old system being rapidly decommissioned just as the new system, and all the changes it brings with it, is turned on.

The go-live of the newly redesigned YOS and COS on August 31, 2020 will be a bit different than the typical go-live. While there will be an exact moment at which the current surveys are “turned off” in Matchforce and the new surveys are “turned on,” the effect of this change will be neither immediate nor dramatic.

In order to illustrate what the go-live of the redesigned YOS and COS will look like, let’s discuss for a few moments how Matchforce creates outcome surveys for community-based matches. Matchforce automatically creates YOS and COS surveys 60 days prior to when they are due for community-based matches. So at any moment in time there are a set of YOS and COS surveys that have been created in Matchforce but not yet completed. What this means for the go-live of the redesigned YOS and COS is that while the new surveys will go-live in Matchforce on August 31, BBBS staff will most likely not start administering many of the new surveys until much later. For any survey that was created in Matchforce prior to the go-live date of the new surveys will still be administered in the current survey format (because these surveys were created in Matchforce in the current format prior to the new format being activated in the system). Similarly, most of the new surveys that are automatically created in Matchforce during the first few days following the go-live of the redesigned surveys will not be immediately scheduled and administered. It will only be later, closer to the actual match anniversary dates, that most of these first new surveys will be administered.

An important caveat to the discussion of how Matchforce creates surveys and the impact this will have on the go-live of the redesigned YOS and COS is the case of baseline surveys. Any baseline survey that is created after the go-live of the redesigned YOS and COS will be in the new format.

Baseline surveys not withstanding, most BBBS agencies will feel the effect of the go-live of the redesigned YOS and COS increase over a period of time of approximately 60 days post go-live. This is the timeframe it will take to bleed down the current version surveys that were created in Matchforce prior to go-live and ramp up the administration of the redesigned surveys that will begin to be created on August 31.

In addition to the time it will take to transition from administering the old YOS and COS to administering the new surveys, how the go-live of the redesigned YOS and COS feels to an agency will also depend on which optional survey question sets an agency decides to use. The redesigned YOS has seven optional question sets that agencies can decide to administer or not. The redesigned COS has three optional question sets. If an agency chooses to administer all of the optional question sets, then the redesigned YOS and COS will look much like the current versions of the surveys and the effect of the go-live of the new surveys will be greatly reduced. Conversely, if an agency decides to not administer any of the optional question sets, then the redesigned surveys will appear much different than the current versions and the felt effect of the go-live of the new surveys will be greatly increased.

As you can see, while the go-live of the redesigned YOS and COS occurs on August 31, 2020, the felt impact of the go-live will not be immediate or necessarily dramatic. All BBBS agencies will experience a transition period during which administration of the new surveys is ramping up and administration of the current surveys is winding down. In addition, agencies can control how dramatic the change to the new surveys is by selecting to administer or not administer optional question sets.

If you have any questions about the redesign of the YOS and COS, please email the project team by clicking here. We will get back to you as soon as possible.