RCGP Statement: Trainee ePortfolio – 20 May 2011
As users of the Trainee ePortfolio you will be well aware of the
problems that have been affecting it since autumn last year. We are
very sorry about these problems and would like to update you on the
significant improvements we have now made on stability and speed
issues, and our urgent plans to address other issues.
Our first priority was to address the ePortfolio’s stability and
a new server went live on 14 March 2011. This update has been a
success as there have been no unplanned outages since that time. We
are continuing to monitor it closely.
However, we are aware of ongoing page load speed issues. We have
now addressed all of the most poorly performing pages and a number
of ‘hot fixes’ have been implemented this week which have
noticeably improved the speed of these pages and the website as a
whole.
The College has been investigating the root cause of these
problems to ensure that there are no fundamental issues with the
Trainee ePortfolio. We have prioritised this work over all other IT
development and re-allocated funds from other sources in order to
implement any necessary solutions as soon as possible.
The stability and speed issues have affected our ability to
undertake scheduled work to fix outstanding bugs and approved
enhancements over the last few months. However the College has now
provided additional development and test resources to enable the
backlog of improvements to be implemented.
We aim to release Version 6.0 of the Trainee ePortfolio on
Monday 1 August 2011. This version will address the most vital and
high priority items on the development schedule. Its introduction
is likely to require a period of extended downtime on the Monday
morning and possibly over the preceding weekend also – we will
publish further details about this release in due course.
From September onwards we will be working towards monthly
releases, to ensure that enhancements and fixes are applied in a
more timely fashion. This will require some downtime whilst the
changes are made live and we will publish the dates for the
scheduled downtime well in advance. Please note that we do not
intend to have releases from December to February, or May to July,
as these are the busiest months for review preparation, reviews
themselves and ARCP Panels and we would want to avoid any downtime
during these months. August will continue to be the main release
for any major changes as the monthly releases will be reserved for
bug fixes and minor enhancements.
The College appreciates that the problems experienced in recent
months have been very frustrating for our users and we sincerely
apologise for the inconvenience this has caused you. We hope that
this statement reassures you that we are working hard to address
these issues as a top priority.
Aside from the stability and speed issues, we hope that you will
start to see improvements to functionality and usability from
August 2011 onwards.
If you have any concerns or queries please contact the Trainee
ePortfolio Helpdesk who will be pleased to advise you. Tel: 020
3188 7655 or nmrcgp@rcgp.org.uk