Acknowledgement: Shared by Peter Bamuhigire, techguypeter.com, +256 784 464178.
Overview
Use this skill to write requirements for the operational system behind a BDS or accelerator programme. The system may be a spreadsheet, Airtable-style base, KoboToolbox/ODK workflow, database, or lightweight app, but the requirements must define data, access, audit, scoring, monitoring, privacy, and reporting before tools are chosen.
Use When
- Designing an application register, eligibility screen, scoring matrix, diagnostics tracker, action-plan tracker, expert deployment tracker, or M&E dashboard.
- A donor programme needs auditable selection, beneficiary tracking, and quarterly reporting.
- Sensitive company, personal, financial, or diagnostic data will be collected.
Do Not Use When
- The task is only public campaign copy.
- There is no selection, monitoring, or reporting workflow.
- You are building software without first defining the data and control model.
Required Inputs
- Application form fields and eligibility/award criteria.
- Monitoring indicators and reporting cadence.
- User roles, reviewers, experts, donor/client viewers, and administrators.
- Data-protection and consent constraints for the relevant countries.
- Expected tool route: spreadsheet, form tool, Airtable-like base, or app.
Workflow
- Define the data dictionary for applications, eligibility, scoring, diagnostics, TA packages, attendance, action plans, evidence, and outcomes.
- Separate eligibility pass/fail checks from award scoring and ensure scoring is computed, explained, and reviewable.
- Specify RBAC: applicant, administrator, screener, evaluator, expert, team leader, donor viewer, auditor.
- Require audit trail and versioning. If the chosen tool cannot provide immutable logs, specify compensating controls.
- Define consent, minimisation, retention, confidentiality, export, and anonymisation requirements.
- Define indicator metadata: definition, source, disaggregation, owner, frequency, validation, and reporting output.
- Specify dashboard views for pipeline, geography, selection, diagnostics, TA delivery, risks, and outcomes.
- Produce acceptance criteria and test cases for the register and dashboard.
Quality Standards
- Every field is typed, validated, and owned.
- Eligibility and award scoring are separate.
- RBAC matches the real capability of the chosen tool.
- Audit and version controls are explicit.
- Monitoring indicators are defined before dashboard design.
- Privacy-by-design defaults to the strictest applicable programme standard.
Anti-Patterns
- A shared spreadsheet with personal/company data and no access control.
- Manual scoring with no formula, reviewer notes, or audit log.
- Indicators with no source or disaggregation.
- Collecting more data than the programme uses.
- Dashboards that cannot be reconciled to source records.
Outputs
- Intake and monitoring system requirements.
- Application-register data dictionary.
- Eligibility and award-scoring rules.
- RBAC and audit-trail requirements.
- M&E indicator dictionary and dashboard requirements.
- Acceptance criteria and export requirements.
References
references/data-dictionary-and-rbac.md: Core tables, fields, scoring, roles, and controls.references/monitoring-dashboard-requirements.md: Indicator dictionary and dashboard view requirements.