Forum Discussion
Champions Management Platform: Events vs. Tournaments
I am new to this app, after the Tournament feature was added so I am having difficulty distinguishing between the two: Events and Tournaments and how the Event Track Details list works. Would someone mind defining Events and Tournaments, explaining the distinctions between them, and describe the purpose of and how to populate each of the associated lists for them: Event Track Details, Action Lists, ToT User Actions, Tournament Actions, and User Actions. They are named so similarly I'm struggling with keeping it all straight. Some examples of how they are to be used would help, too.
Or, if there is documentation that does these things, that would be fine. I have looked everyone and cannot come up with any that digs in a bit and explains these.
Thank you.
LisaJo48 - thanks for the questions! Responses below in blue!
- For Tournaments,
- So Tournaments are not for the champions? I thought they were another means through which champions could get points, along with Events.
Correct, tournaments are not meant for the Champions. We look at Tournaments as ideas and perhaps adoption themes that the Champions would curate, to then be posted as Tournaments for users in the organization. The Tournament is really meant for organization users to come to, be inspired to learn more, and gamify the experience to make it fun! - Two lists, ToT User Actions and User Actions have the same columns in them. What is the difference between them and how are they to be used?
I'm not sure what ToT User Action list you may be referring to. There should not have been a list with that name created. There are other tournament specific lists too like Tournament Actions and Tournaments that capture the actual steps of a tournament. The User Actions list is used for reporting the actions that users take as part of the tournaments, and then there are a few other Tournament lists created, outlined here.
- So Tournaments are not for the champions? I thought they were another means through which champions could get points, along with Events.
- For Events,
- What does is the "Count" column in the Events Track List for and what does it do?
Count here is the actual point value for the record. It would be the event type point value x the number of events the champion logged completed. Which is why you may see a higher count than the strait point value (assume I completed and logged 3 office hours done for a record - 3 x point value = count) - How is the Actions List list connected to the Events list, or is it? My perception is that the items in the Actions List are the tasks to be completed, for/with a particular event, in order to earn points, however, I'm not seeing a reference to the Events List in the Actions List (in the same manner as there's a link between the ToT User Actions list and the Tournaments lists). So I'm not sure I understand how/if they connect and how they work together or how to use them if they are not connected.
These two are not connected. At this time we are unable to separate out the lists into different directories to help easily clarify ToT vs Champion lists (naming standards we could do a better job of and will add that into our dev lists!). So for these, Action lists is for Tournament of Teams actions, specifically sample actions we introduce to get you started. Events List is the list specifically for Champions and events that are promoted to them for recording / logging as part of their activities.
- What does is the "Count" column in the Events Track List for and what does it do?
- Is it possible to change the column headers shown when you click on the Add Members tile in the app? For my company, Region and Country are not applicable. We'd like those to be "Company" and "Division" instead. I see no need to change the underlying column names in the lists, just what is visible to the end-user/champion when they are submitting the name of a new champion.
From the default installation - no. The column names are required to stay the same with the standard deployment. Likewise, there is currently no ability to change the field names from the Add Member screen.
You can absolutely customize any part of the solution though via modifying the code. We publish the entire code via the GitHub Repository so if you wanted to make column or UI changes you could. You would then just need to repackage the application and deploy with your custom changes.
Customization Overview
Thanks for the questions - from it I can also take away some feedback in improving our solution with the following additions to our feature logs to work on:
- Clearer list names and naming standards
- Ability to modify column or direct UI elements related to Champion nomination captures
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to inspire and for the work here, I've added the above to our teams backlog to discuss and if you have other questions related to my responses above, please reply back and let me know!
/Josh
- For Tournaments,
- Thanks for asking these questions @Lisa ! I'm curious: have you now implemented the CMP? I'm currently researching and writing a recommendation for our company about this. This far the information I can find is quite limited, I would love to hear more use cases from other companies. As far a I can tell from what I've found is that there's a lot of manual work for the Champions to put in and log their events/tournament progress. Which makes me doubt whether people would put in the effort to do this. I'd love to hear more about what other organizations are doing and how they're using this.
MandyGlim Believe it or not, I am still in the setup phase. There are several smallish problems that I've encountered with regards to the 'assumptions' made by the app. I FINALLY caught on that the events are TYPES of learning initiative, not each individual event. 🙄 That was a major aha moment! But some things still allude me. For example,
- Not all businesses have locations in other countries or, as in our case, we support multiple companies as part of one parent company in the same country. So, it would be nice to be able to change the labeling in the Add/Suggest Members UIs so that it said "Select company". There appears to be a way to do so by getting into the code (see 'Customizations' in GitHub), but not being a developer/programmer, I am struggling to follow the instructions (they assume a lot of knowledge; not for newbie's).
- I can't seem to update the logo using the instructions offered. (FYI: HELP! Anyone!)
- I find it interesting that there's no way to verify that an event entered by a champion actually happened (and the points are warranted) or what the subject was, so I'm looking for ways to know/add more about their event than just a date.
Since I'm struggling with the Events part, I've not fleshed out the Tournaments yet but, generally speaking, they make more sense to me than the Events.
The badging is the unique element. I could probably set up the rest on my own but the badging would be missing and this is the incentive/promotion piece that we really wanted to take advantage of, therefore, I've got to get the rest of it to work/make sense for us. I have until December 8th to figure it out! Check here often....I may be posting lost of questions! (Sorry, in advance, JoshLeporati)
- JoshLeporati
Community Manager
Lisa - on point 2 once you update the logo on SharePoint site, it shouldn't take to long to see it reflect in the app. Note that this will only show in the header - not the actual logo that Teams uses in the app bar. That's a different location you'd have to change and do some app customization. If you are changing and not seeing the header logo reflect though - please do open an issue on the GitHub Issues list and we can investigate! https://github.com/OfficeDev/microsoft-teams-apps-champion-management/issues
On topic 3 - we are working on that feature and look forward to sharing it! It'll include the ability to queue up submissions so they can be reviewed prior to awarding, also allowing the ability of notes to be captured from the Champion submitting the event for review. If you have other thoughts on this please do let us know!
- Karuana_Gatimu_MSFTEvents are what your Champion's do to earn points. Tournaments are for your end user population to learn the product.
I have several follow-up questions. I'm not sure if this is correct forum to ask them so please let me know if I should ask a different Tech Community or direct me to the correct MS resource. Thanks!
- For Tournaments,
- So Tournaments are not for the champions? I thought they were another means through which champions could get points, along with Events.
- Two lists, ToT User Actions and User Actions have the same columns in them. What is the difference between them and how are they to be used?
- For Events,
- What does is the "Count" column in the Events Track List for and what does it do?
- How is the Actions List list connected to the Events list, or is it? My perception is that the items in the Actions List are the tasks to be completed, for/with a particular event, in order to earn points, however, I'm not seeing a reference to the Events List in the Actions List (in the same manner as there's a link between the ToT User Actions list and the Tournaments lists). So I'm not sure I understand how/if they connect and how they work together or how to use them if they are not connected.
- Is it possible to change the column headers shown when you click on the Add Members tile in the app? For my company, Region and Country are not applicable. We'd like those to be "Company" and "Division" instead. I see no need to change the underlying column names in the lists, just what is visible to the end-user/champion when they are submitting the name of a new champion.
- JoshLeporati
LisaJo48 - thanks for the questions! Responses below in blue!
- For Tournaments,
- So Tournaments are not for the champions? I thought they were another means through which champions could get points, along with Events.
Correct, tournaments are not meant for the Champions. We look at Tournaments as ideas and perhaps adoption themes that the Champions would curate, to then be posted as Tournaments for users in the organization. The Tournament is really meant for organization users to come to, be inspired to learn more, and gamify the experience to make it fun! - Two lists, ToT User Actions and User Actions have the same columns in them. What is the difference between them and how are they to be used?
I'm not sure what ToT User Action list you may be referring to. There should not have been a list with that name created. There are other tournament specific lists too like Tournament Actions and Tournaments that capture the actual steps of a tournament. The User Actions list is used for reporting the actions that users take as part of the tournaments, and then there are a few other Tournament lists created, outlined here.
- So Tournaments are not for the champions? I thought they were another means through which champions could get points, along with Events.
- For Events,
- What does is the "Count" column in the Events Track List for and what does it do?
Count here is the actual point value for the record. It would be the event type point value x the number of events the champion logged completed. Which is why you may see a higher count than the strait point value (assume I completed and logged 3 office hours done for a record - 3 x point value = count) - How is the Actions List list connected to the Events list, or is it? My perception is that the items in the Actions List are the tasks to be completed, for/with a particular event, in order to earn points, however, I'm not seeing a reference to the Events List in the Actions List (in the same manner as there's a link between the ToT User Actions list and the Tournaments lists). So I'm not sure I understand how/if they connect and how they work together or how to use them if they are not connected.
These two are not connected. At this time we are unable to separate out the lists into different directories to help easily clarify ToT vs Champion lists (naming standards we could do a better job of and will add that into our dev lists!). So for these, Action lists is for Tournament of Teams actions, specifically sample actions we introduce to get you started. Events List is the list specifically for Champions and events that are promoted to them for recording / logging as part of their activities.
- What does is the "Count" column in the Events Track List for and what does it do?
- Is it possible to change the column headers shown when you click on the Add Members tile in the app? For my company, Region and Country are not applicable. We'd like those to be "Company" and "Division" instead. I see no need to change the underlying column names in the lists, just what is visible to the end-user/champion when they are submitting the name of a new champion.
From the default installation - no. The column names are required to stay the same with the standard deployment. Likewise, there is currently no ability to change the field names from the Add Member screen.
You can absolutely customize any part of the solution though via modifying the code. We publish the entire code via the GitHub Repository so if you wanted to make column or UI changes you could. You would then just need to repackage the application and deploy with your custom changes.
Customization Overview
Thanks for the questions - from it I can also take away some feedback in improving our solution with the following additions to our feature logs to work on:
- Clearer list names and naming standards
- Ability to modify column or direct UI elements related to Champion nomination captures
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to inspire and for the work here, I've added the above to our teams backlog to discuss and if you have other questions related to my responses above, please reply back and let me know!
/Josh
- For Tournaments,
- For Tournaments,
