Role Description
Overview and Terms
Role title
Date reviewed
Responsible to
Location
Duration
Start date
Expenses
Software Volunteer
May 2010
Toby Gould, Technical Support Service, RedR
This is expected to be a home based role but occasional meetings include a
kick-off meeting will be required in either London or Edinburgh.
Initial work package of candidate software platform assessment is expected to
take 3-4 weeks with the possibility of extension into the main project once a
single platform provider is chosen. The full duration of which will depend on
funding and any contributions in kind to come from the collaborative partners.
ASAP- May
This is an unpaid position however, travel expenses will be reimbursed for
meetings if applicable
RedR and the work we do
Each year millions of people around the world are affected by natural disaster and conflict. RedR is the
leading training and recruitment charity working in the area of international disaster relief. We provide
training, consultancy and support to relief organisations and their staff around the world, improving
emergency response and assisting people affected by disaster. Through building skills and training
people in countries where disasters occur, we make a lasting impact on the ground. We recruit
experienced relief workers following major global emergencies and advise potential new relief workers,
ensuring skilled professionals are always available to respond.
In response to recent humanitarian catastrophes, we currently have training and local capacity building
programmes in Sri Lanka following the devastating tsunami, in Sudan in response to the increasing
destabilisation of the region. We are also currently developing a new programme in Pakistan, as a result
of the heightened insecurity in the country as well as a training programme in Haiti in response to the
earthquake in January 2010.
Background
Introduction to the Technical Support Service (TSS)
RedR provides a free online Technical Support Service (TSS) to aid organisations and relief workers in the
field. The service can be used by anyone with access to the internet and aims to answer enquiries within
24 - 48 hours.
TSS consists of a panel of more than 150 technical experts, many with extensive field experience,
including engineers in the fields of water, sanitation and hygiene, public health, construction and shelter.
It also covers areas such as logistics, security, alternative energy, finance, IT and communications.
KnowledgePoint
KnowledgePoint is a collaborative project involving a number of WASH (water, sanitation & hygiene) NGO’s.
Its main aim is to develop a web based Q&A service for field operatives in support of emergency aid and
development programmes. There are various work packages underway within the collaborative project
and this requirement is for software support for the further development of candidate systems. This aspect
of the project is being co-ordinated by RedR in London and EngineerAid in Edinburgh.
Activities
1. To set up demo environments with 3 candidate software packages in accordance with the feature
requirements of KnowledgePoint.
2. To produce a suitability matrix against which each candidate system can be assessed and scored.
3. To test each systems functionality in comparison with the requirements. Mapping the suitability
of each candidate system in to the matrix.
4. To produce a final report with recommendations including a man day effort estimate for the full
development of each system.
If more than one software engineer is available then these candidate systems may be divided up in the
interests of time. In which case RedR and EngineerAid will be responsible for providing the assessment
criteria and the scoring matrix.
Outputs & Deliverables
1.
2.
3.
4.
Software suitability Matrix
Test & Analysis Report including access rights to any demo environments built
Weekly progress reports/calls
Final report including effort estimates
N.B Any intellectual property developed as part of this work package will remain in the ownership
of the KnowledgePoint collaboration.
collaboration. A mutual, bibi- lateral, non disclosure agreement will be
required
What RedR will be responsible for
1.
2.
3.
4.
Provision of KnowledgePoint feature set & system requirements including use cases.
Any software licences needed for the candidate systems.
Project Management and support during office hours
Reimbursement of reasonable, pre-authorised travel expenses.
Skills Required
Software development skills, web application experience, project work and report writing, time and task
management skills. Able to work to tight deadlines and able to be flexible in working hours. Experience
with Ruby on Rails, PHP, SQL server management desirable.
Volunteers will need their own PC/laptop and an internet connection in addition to these skills.