DEVELOPMENT

We worked in order: learn the method, build it in, check it against SRG’s own.

1. We learned the routine from the people who ran it. Before building, we worked from SRG’s annotated copy of its processing program, with notes on what it wanted automated and what had to stay. We studied its sample reports, analyzed the old database before moving anything, and settled open questions with SRG on calls. The method was the product, so understanding it came first.
2. We built the method in and kept SRG’s formats and words. Each question carries its place in SRG’s method and each answer its score, so every submission is scored automatically, and reports are built from the stored scores. Each company SRG serves has its own protected page and its own users, who see only their own participants and receive the reports they’ve chosen. Participants receive what their company allows, and SRG receives all three. Reports aren’t kept on the server once sent, and SRG can edit the themes, texts and questions they draw on. The files SRG’s analysis reads come out in their original formats, down to the line endings. When SRG asked us to call the people taking the assessment participants, not applicants, we changed the system to match. An end-to-end test suite covers submission, scoring and company access.
3. We checked our results against SRG’s, with SRG. A system that scores differently isn’t SRG’s method, so SRG compared our outputs with its existing system while we compared alongside. In the first round, before the platform moved to production, SRG found some answers being given the wrong values, and we corrected them. Less than three weeks after the move to production, SRG found score differences again and explained the part of its method they came from. The next day we corrected the calculation and recalculated every participant’s stored scores, history included. SRG also confirmed the theme graph matched its original geometry.
4. We brought the history across and backed up the old server. Every imported response was re-scored by the new system, so old and new records are scored alike. SRG chose how much history to bring and keeps the rest in its own archive. In March 2025 the platform moved to production on SRG’s own domain. Ten months later, we backed up the old system in full (database, code and server configuration) and worked through a checklist before it was retired.