Welcome to the Steering Group, Work Measurement Study Blog

Colleagues:

  This blog is maintained by the Steering Group, to address questions related to the Work Measurement Study.

  Our primary goal in this blog is to provide guidance on the consistent use of the new dData task codes, and the Workload drivers, between the June 16, 2014 “go live” data in defenderData and the data collection periods in the fall of 2014.

   You will note that the comment function of the blog is disabled -- this blog will not be routinely monitored. If you have questions about the Work Measurement study, workload drivers, task codes, and defenderData, please email the Steering Group directly. We'll incorporate your inquiries and our answers into blog postings. You can find the membership of the Steering Group on the web sites listed below.

Web Sites:

  Core materials necessary for the Work Measurement study can be found here. 

    More extensive materials can be found on the "DWEB," which is accessible to Defender employees here. (Please note that the DWEB is only accessible within the Defender services firewall).


  (Note that several webinar recordings from the June dData sessions have been posted on the DWEB. Those videos can be downloaded and played on most mobile devices).

  We hope you find this blog a helpful tool in the transition to new timekeeping task codes, and the new Workload drivers.

Defender Steering Group
Work Measurement Study


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Workload Drivers - ACCA and Non-Controlled Substance Mandatory Minimum Drivers

Question: The Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) triggers a mandatory-minimum sentence, and it does not involve controlled substances. 

In ACCA cases, should we be selecting both the ACCA driver and the driver for non-controlled substance mandatory minimum?

Answer: No, select only ACCA driver please. The “non-controlled substance, mandatory minimum” driver is intended to catch non-drug mand-min cases, that do not have their own driver. Some examples include aggravated identity theft, alien smuggling, and the receipt of child pornography. 

Because ACCA does have its own driver, it should not also be coded with the “non-controlled substance, mandatory minimum” driver.  

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Workload Drivers - Supervised Release Violations, Probation Violations, and Rule 35 motions– do Workload Drivers coded to the underlying substantive case “transfer” to those cases?

Question: Do the workload drivers follow the client in dData? Specifically, assume that all of the drivers were previously coded to a client’s substantive case, and there is then a supervised release violation, a probation violation, or a Rule 35 motion. Do those  Workload Drivers’s coded to a client’s original case automatically “follow” the client into the new violation or Rule 35 case?

Answer: No.

Please code the Workload Drivers for every case. In the above example, the dData system doesn’t not automatically associate the Workload Drivers from the old substantive case to the new violation or Rule 35 case. The appropriate drivers should be re-entered for that new case, even though it is the same client.

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Workload Drivers - When should I be coding Workload Drivers? As soon as they are known, or can I wait until the end of the month?

Question: Do I have to code the Workload Drivers as soon as I become aware they apply, to get “credit” for the driver during timekeeping?

For example, assume I open Jane Doe’s case on August 1, but don’t code any workload drivers to her case. I bill time to Jane Doe's case during the next four weeks, but I don’t get around to coding the drivers on the case until the end of the August. Will any of the time I entered in August, before I coded the drivers, be appropriately weighted?

Answer: No, time entered before a driver is coded won’t be appropriately “weighted.” Workload Drivers should be coded before time is billed to the case.

If the Workload Driver isn’t selected before the time is billed, that time will not be appropriately weighted in the study. The key concept is that the drivers help explain the time resources the office is devoting to the case. If the driver isn’t coded to the case, that association between the workload driver and the time billed to the case cannot happen.

Before the fall data collection periods begin, every case should be fully coded and reviewed for accuracy with all of the workload drivers. As new cases come in, they should be promptly coded with any immediately-obvious drivers (i.e., citizenship, remote detention, remote court, etc.) As drivers change during the life of the case, those changes should be promptly coded into the workload driver tab. Contemporaneous coding of drivers will make for accurate explanations of the resources devoted to the case.

dData has the capacity to “backdate” drivers – and that backdating is entirely appropriate. There is a small box with several ellipses next to the individual driver on the Workload Driver tab. By clicking on the box, you can force enter the effective date of the driver, and backdate it. 

From a practical perspective, however, we'd emphasize that this backdating process is slow  -- there are unavoidable lags in the dData system every time that backdating box is selected. Multiple that little lag over hundreds of cases and thousands of drivers, and it can really slow the process down if you are backdating every driver on every case.

It is much, much more efficient to code drivers contemporaneously, as soon as the driver is known.

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