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Scoring Tutorial

The Scoring Tutorial provides explanation of each of the pages within the Score tab, what functions are available, and how to use them. Where additional background knowledge is needed, this tutorial will refer to explanations within the Learn tab.

How is the Score Tab Organized?

The Score tab consists of three buttons: the Scoring Tutorial (links to this page), the Start a New Project or Program (links to the Program or Project Registration page) and the Continue Working on an Existing Project or Program (links to the My Workspace page).

The Scorecard page can be accessed via either of the latter two buttons; projects and programs are scored on the Scorecard page.

In addition to the Continue Working on an Existing Project or Program button, the My Workspace page can be accessed on the header bar of the website after logging in. The My Workspace page grants access to all of the programs and projects registered by the user and/or projects and programs for which the user has received collaborator permissions (from other users). See Figure 1 for a graphic description of the Score tab page.

Figure 1 Score Tab

How to Start a New Project or Program

To start scoring a new project or program with INVEST, select Start a New Project or Program button on the Score Tab page. This option will link you to a Program or Project Registration page where you will enter your project or program information. This will ensure your project or program is saved and accessible in your My Workspace page.

Within the Program or Project Registration page, asterisked fields are required; all other fields are optional. The registration fields are intended to help you stay organized; the optional fields can be used in any way that is helpful to you. For example, the Primary ID and Secondary ID fields could be used for the project number, the funding number, the contract number, or any other number or title the agency or owner uses to identify or summarize the project or program. In addition to basic information about the program or project, the registration page requires selecting which INVEST module that will be used (System Planning, Project Development, or Operations & Maintenance) and the appropriate scorecard (Project Development only). For more information about the three INVEST modules, click here.

If necessary, the information provided on the registration page may be edited later (by selecting the Edit action icon on the My Workspace page or selecting Edit on the Scorecard page). However it is important for the Project Development module to select the appropriate scorecard when registering the project. This cannot be changed later without deleting the project and then registering it again. For more information on selecting a Scorecard, click here.

Once the registration information is entered, select Continue and then the INVEST website will confirm registration and direct you to the Scorecard page.

To access a program or project already registered, you can select Continue an Existing Program or Project on the Score tab page or select My Workspace on the webpage header bar. Either will take you to the My Workspace page.

How to Continue Working on an Existing Project or Program

The Continue Working on an Existing Project or Program button on the Score tab page connects to the My Workspace page. The My Workspace page enables users to manage the programs and/or projects registered under their login or that the user has collaborative access to.

How to Use the My Workspace Page

Figure 2 is a graphic description of the My Workspace page.

Figure 2 My Workspace

Registered programs and projects are listed under their respective modules. Data to the right of the program and/or project titles includes the Primary ID number, Secondary ID number, Year, Design Phase, Score, Status, and Rating. The My Workspace page is sortable by title, primary and secondary ID, Year, and Design Phase.

The status icon indicates if a project has not yet been scored (on open circle), is in the process of being scored (a half-filled circle), or completed scored (a filled circle). The Rating icon indicates by color the current rating of the project (bronze, silver, gold, and platinum). Green indicates no rating. See Figure 3.

Figure 3 Rating Icons

The following actions are available on the My Workspace page: edit, duplicate, print, score, delete, or invite others to collaborate. These are accessed by hovering over  Action text to the right of the program or project title and then selecting the desired action from the icons that popup. By hovering the cursor over the icons, a label identifying the icon will emerge, as in Figure 4.

Figure 4 Action Icons

  • The Edit action allows users to return to the Project or Program Registration page and modify any of the fields.
  • The Duplicate action will create an exact copy of your project or program. This is useful if you want to keep separate copies of the same program or project for scoring in a different phase or stage of development.
  • The Print action will provide a printer-friendly Scorecard. The Scorecard will contain the name of the project or program, the current date, the module, the type of scorecard (for Project Development), the points earned, and the achievement level. It will contain a list of the criteria, a brief description of each, and then list all questions and responses, and any data recorded in the Scoring Notes or Next Actions sections. On the printer-friendly Scorecard page, right click and select Printto print.
  • The Score action allows the user to continue scoring the project (accesses the Scorecard page). The Scorecard page can also be accessed by selecting the project or program title.
  • The Delete action will delete the project or program.
  • The Collaborate action will take the user to the Collaboration page where team members can be added to the project or program. This action makes it easier for multiple users, such as a cross-discipline scoring team, to enter information about a single program or project being evaluated. After registering a program or project, the user can invite others to collaborate on the same program or project, and select whether the team members have "edit"or only "view" permission (these can be changed later). The e-mail address used for collaboration should match the e-mail address used by that person to create their INVEST login. An e-mail notification will be sent to new team members. Also, from the Collaboration page, the user can also delete team members from collaborating on that program or project.

How to Use the Scorecard Page

To score a program or project, select Scorecard after registering your project or program, or select the Continue Working on an Existing Project or Program option on the Score tab. This links to the My Workspace page; to navigate to the Scorecard, select the hyperlinked project or program title or select Actions to the right of the project or program title, and then select the Score icon.

Scorecard page

The Scorecard page provides access to the criterion details and scoring questions for each criterion. There is a scorecard page for each program or project registered. Figure 5 provides a screen shot of a Scorecard page. At the top of the page, the module and, for the Project Development module, the applicable scorecard, is shown. Underneath that, the program or project title is displayed. The Scorecard page lists the criteria by criterion number, title, and goal.

To the right of each criterion is the points earned over the total value of the criterion. To the left of the criterion are status icons for score tracking. The purpose of these icons are to clarify when criterion are done being scored. This allows the user to see that a criterion has been scored, even if it has 0 points or less than the maximum number of points.

Figure 5 Scorecard Page

  • An open circle is "Not Scored" which denotes criteria in which none of the scoring questions have been answered.
  • A partially-filled circle is "Scoring in Progress" which denotes criteria in which some, but not all, scoring questions have been answered.
  • A filled circle with open padlock is "Scoring Completed" which denotes criteria in which all scoring questions have been answered.
  • A filled circle with closed padlock is "Scoring Locked" which denotes criteria in which all scoring questions have been answered AND the scoring has been locked by the user.

Each criterion can be locked or unlocked for editing by clicking on (toggling) the icon; it is just intended to be an inventory on status. However, for programs/projects with collaborators, only the user who registered the project and collaborators with "Edit" permissions can lock or unlock the criteria, or otherwise change their scoring status.

While the Scorecard page is used to access the scoring for each criterion, there are additional features available on the Scorecard page.

The entire module (all criteria) can be downloaded as a PDF; select Compendium; Web Version or Compendium; Print Version to download all INVEST criteria.

Select Scorecard to view a blank scorecard for the module.

Select View Full Scorecard to print a PDF of the scorecard which includes the criteria names and goals, responses to the scoring questions, and any Scoring Notes or Next Action items entered during scoring.

Select Save Snapshot to save (and print) a "snapshot in time" of the scoring of the project or program. This snapshot is dated and static and will be saved for future reference and can be viewed or printed as a PDF. The snapshot will display all of the criteria (or, if scoring using the Project Development module, all of the applicable criteria), the score, scoring notes, next actions, and a list of uploaded supporting documents. Multiple snapshots can be saved for each program or project.

How to Use the Criterion Details and Criterion Scoring Page

The Criterion Details (left column of the page) consists of the criterion in its entirety including the Title, Affected Triple Bottom Line Graphic, Goal, Sustainability Linkage, Affected Triple Bottom Line Graphic, Background (if provided), Scoring Requirements, and Scoring Sources. The criterion is also downloadable in PDF format at the top of the page.

The Criterion Scoring (right column of the page) consists of questions for users to answer in order to score their project or program. The questions, while intended to be as clear as possible, are short-hand for the requirements as written in the criteria. In the case of a question being unclear, it is best to refer to the Background and Scoring Requirements within the Criterion Details.

Figure 6 provides a graphic description of the Criterion Details and Criterion Scoring page. The two sections following Figure 6 describe the information provided in Criterion Details and Criterion Scoring page and provide tips and information for scoring programs and projects using the Criterion Scoring column.

 

Criterion Details Column

Title – Begins with two letters designating the module designation (SP for System Planning, PD for Project Development, and OM for Operations and Maintenance) followed by a unique number.

Affected Triple Bottom Line Graphic Through the use of colored rings, this graphic indicates how each criterion contributes to sustainability by indicating the primary and secondary impacts to the triple bottom line principles (Social, Environmental, and Economic).

Goal Describes the overall intent of each criterion in a statement that reflects the larger concept.

Sustainability Linkage Describes why each criterion is considered a sustainable best practice by describing how it impacts the triple bottom line principles (Social, Environmental, and Economic). Only benefits considered primary and secondary are described; tertiary and other ancillary benefits may be evident but are not included in this description.

Background and Scoring Requirements Provides minimal background information, including definitions of relevant terms, and details the requirements of scoring the criterion and the point breakdown structure.

Resources References in the document are now numbered with superscripts and the reference information is consolidated under the Resources section. In addition, references which are not referenced but may be useful are also included in Resources for many criteria. The online version of criteria contain links to relevant case studies and criterion examples.

Scoring Sources This section lists the supporting documentation, such as calculations and reports, necessary to validate the score selected for each criterion. These sources may be recorded by using the "Scoring Notes" function or the "Upload Supporting Documents" function in the scoring web-tool. Since this is a self-evaluation tool, this information does not need to be provided to a 3rd party, but best practice would be to document scoring justification for future reference.

Criterion Scoring Column

The questions within the Criterion Scoring column are numbered to match the requirements as listed under Scoring Requirements in the criterion.

For example, there are four requirements in PD-04. They are numbered:

  • Requirement PD-04.1
  • Requirement PD-04.2
  • Requirement PD-04.3
  • Requirement PD-04.4

All requirements in PD-04 are straightforward “yes” or “no” questions except Requirement PD-04.3 which has three “sub-requirements” or “elements” that must be answered to determine the points earned. These are listed as:

  • Requirement PD-04.3a
  • Requirement PD-04.3b
  • Requirement PD-04.3c

In this example the requirements are cumulative. That is, any combination of meeting the sub-requirements will earn points for the criterion. While all questions follow the same structure of the numbering of sub-requirements, how the points are tallied can vary. This variance is written within the criterion. For example, requirements may be:

  1. Cumulative, any requirement earned can add to the point total for the criterion.
  2. Cumulative, with a maximum score restriction. In this case, requirements are likely listed in a table. Points will be listed as cumulative with a maximum score restriction. For example, in PD-19 it states, "Points for different scoring requirements are cumulative; however, this criterion shall not exceed a total of eight points."
  3. Cumulative, but dependent. For example, Requirements SP-05.3a and SP-05.3b which state "Scoring for this requirement is based on the following, cumulative elements. The first element must be accomplished to earn the second."
  4. Not cumulative; highest point value. For example, in PD-12 "Points are not cumulative; rather the highest point value earned should be used."
  5. Not cumulative; one score may apply. For example, to achieve Requirement PD-10.1 states "One of the following scoring requirements may apply." In PD-10, either Requirement PD-10.1a OR Requirement PD-10b must be earned.

These differences are addressed by the structure of the Criterion Scoring questions. While many questions are simple "yes" or "no" questions, other questions are needed to trigger follow-on questions. Some questions require referring to a list of requirements in the criterion or calculating points from a table or tables within the criterion.

It is also important to note that not all questions for a criterion are shown at once. Sometimes a "Yes" answer will trigger more questions to appear, and other times a "No" answer will trigger more questions to appear. Some requirements are determined to be met or not met by a series of questions that are triggered by previous responses. To understand how the questions were written for a particular criterion, it is best to review the Criterion Details.

Other tips and tricks worth noting:

  • If the answer to a question earns points, the number of points it earns is listed after the answer in parenthesis. For example, "(3 points)."
  • In order for the criterion to appear as "Scoring Completed" (and therefore to be able to "lock" the criterion) on the Scorecard page, ALL questions (which are shown) must be answered in the Criterion Scoring section. (Some questions may not be triggered to show unless pre-requisites, or other conditional questions, are met.)
  • There are a handful of criteria in which more points are able to be earned than are allowed by the criterion. In those cases, a question will be asked to ensure the scorer understands that restriction. Even if more points than earned are selected, the points for that criterion will be capped in the overall score tabulation.
  • After answering the questions, select "Save" to save your answers and tabulate your score for that criterion.

In the Criterion Scoring column, under the questions, there are several features provided to aid in scoring programs and projects. These include Scoring Notes, Upload Supporting Documents, and Next Actions. The purpose of these features is to aid in record-keeping, to help users organize and keep together supporting documents that justify the score earned, and to help users keep track of tasks needed to complete scoring or tasks needed during design and construction to earn points for a particular criterion. The information you provide and upload here is secure and private.

How to Download a Blank Scorecard for Offline Use

If you would like to download a blank scorecard for offline use, you must first start a new project or program.  Once a program or project is registered, you can select  My Workspace on the webpage header bar to take you to the My Workspace page. On this page, as part of header for each module for which you have a registered project or program, there will be clickable link to "Download blank scorecard for offline use." The downloadable scorecards are available for agencies to use for offline management to score a project or program using INVEST. These scorecards can be used before, during, or after implementation of a project or program.