Caution: this section of the site describes a more advanced use of the PIE Abacus.
It is best left unless and until you have read/heard 'The PIE Abacus - essential briefing for PIE leads (and others in comparable roles )' : HERE and/or read/heard/watched the PIEs Assessment training (Coming next)
Key features of the PIE abacus [4]: using the overlay feature
Just as significant as the 'drilling down' and 'adding in' features of the PIE Abacus - and in the longer run, probably more so - is the scope for collaborating and sharing your views. This share feature is available not just within one service, as with face-to-face discussions, but across many services, in your local area, or far wider.
The ability to share and combine assessments creates the possibility of shared views that are nevertheless firmly rooted in the individuals' own views; and perhaps especially where service users too can now run their own parallel assessment, to compare that with staff views.
Technically called the 'overlay' feature, this key advantage of the software - not available in the pen-and-paper version - allows a medium to large organisation to link any number of team Abacuses to form an overall picture, whilst faithfully preserving in fine grain detail all the original 'frontline' service assessments.
How this feature is then used opens up a wide range of possibilities, for local discussion, peer review, and user feedback. It also creates overview, gap analysis and progress tracking, that will be of particular interest to larger services, locality commissioners, and researchers.
Finally, researchers interested to study the impact of changes in practice can garner information from a wide range of study participants. Such participation, with little or no additional work, bring evidence-generating practice within the scope of even the smallest and more specialist of services. (See: the Pizazz as a research tool)
NB: the on-line training course for PIE leads and others - 'PIEs, Pizazz and the PIE Abacus: Intermediate level training' - goes into all this in considerably more depth. It is currently being finalised, taking into account recent developments; and will be available in time for the launch of the PIE Abacus, late this year.
The simplest, most effective way to evaluate and improve your PIE from Daniel O'Brien on Vimeo.
'Introducing the PIE Abacus' is HERE
Key features of the PIE Abacus [1]: the ‘short form’ is HERE
Key features of the PIE Abacus [2]: ‘drilling down’ is HERE
Key features of the PIE Abacus [3]: adding in ’bespoke' fields is HERE
Key features of the PIE Abacus [4]: using the ‘overlay’ features is HERE
Piloting the PIE Abacus
Aims of the pilot HERE
Timescales and time commitment HERE
The story so far HERE
The Pizazz approach
For the overall introduction to the Pizazz, see: Introducing : The Pizazz
For a note on current and future costs of using the Pizazz, see: Pizazz costs