Difference between revisions of "Information Exchange"

Revision as of 12:47, 22 March 2015

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IMSMA^NG is designed to support information exchange with many IMSMA users and Mine Action stakeholders at numerous sites. These users can include implementing partners, Regional Mine Action Centers and other authorities (e.g. Ministry of Health).

IMSMA^NG supports nearly any conceivable patterns for exchanging data including

• multilateral exchange
• peer-to-peer exchange
• one-direction exchange
• two-direction exchange.

The most common pattern is two-direction exchange between a Central Mine Action Authority and implementing partners.

IMSMA^NG supports nearly any conceivable patterns for exchanging information including

• producing maps with external GIS software
• producing reports with iReport and Excel
• producting online reports and dashboards with MINT
• publish information to websites via the Staging area.

An important part of establishing data/information exchange is to plan and document the workflows so smooth data exchange and high-quality information is obtained.

Collecting Regular Feedback

In any information exchange activity, it is important to have regular sessions or meetings to collect feedback and discuss issues or improvements to the information exchange process. One recommendation is to establish a feedback forum where implementing partners and stakeholders can address data quality issues and make adjustments to the information exchange process. Topics to address in such a forum include:

• frequency of data exchange
• standardisation of reports and searches included in the central dataset
• permissions and role changes
• creation or modification of Auxiliary data
• which data to collect
• changes of templates

By collecting feedback on these issues, information managers can help ensure that information exchange works as expected and set up a quality assurance mechanism to prevent data quality issues from affecting the Mine Action Programme.

Ensuring Correct Roles and Permissions are Assigned

Establishing correct roles and permissions is a key factor in managing and maintaining data exchange within IMSMA^NG. Using the permissions structure, the information manager can carefully control access to key functions that affect data exchange including Data Entry Form templates, Custom Defined Fields, Auxiliary data and Data Entry Form approval. When permissions are correctly established and roles and user accounts created, information managers can distribute the IMSMA^NG dataset to implementing partners knowing that key data controls are in place.

These are the recommended role permissions:

• Ensure that the Central Mine Action Authority has exclusive control over user accounts and roles, Data Entry Form templates, the Data Inventory Manager and Auxiliary data.
• Ensure that the implementing partners have Data Entry, Approval and export/import Data Entry Forms permissions.

Avoiding import to the national database issues

By establishing a set of limited permissions for the implementing partners, information managers can prevent the accidental or intentional creation of new data elements not available in the national database that will affect the ability of the Central Mine Action Authority to import Data Entry Forms and cause the national dataset to become fractured.

By limiting Auxiliary data permissions to the Central Mine Action Authority, information managers can prevent complications when importing Data Entry Forms. Because Data Entry Forms refers to Auxiliary data, it is important that each country have one common set of Auxiliary data to facilitate exchange. If the Auxiliary data is not properly synchronised, the exchange of Data Entry Forms can result in import issues which must be manually resolved. While IMSMA^NG provides an interface for resolving these kinds of issues, it is recommended to reduce the occurrence of these issues by limiting any creation of Auxiliary data to the Central Mine Action Authority who can then distribute an updated dataset as necessary.

Sending Backups to Reset to a Common Dataset

One way to ensure that each implementing partner is working from a common dataset is to distribute a full backup of the IMSMA^NG dataset on a regular basis. The key is to distribute an official national dataset regularly to ensure that Auxiliary data is up to date and that any changes made to other parts of the dataset are distributed. In this way, implementing partners can maintain a common set of national statistics and the dataset reflects the decisions made by the Central Mine Action Authority to resolve errors or issues in importing and exchanging Data Entry Forms.

It is important to understand, however, that the restoration of a backup file overwrites the data in the implementing partner's database including any Data Entry Forms that have not been sent to the Central Mine Action Authority yet, locally created searches and reports. So, the recipient implementing partners should consider the following recommendations:

• Make a complete backup prior to restoring the Central Mine Action Authority’s backup.
• Export all Data Entry Forms that have been entered since the last exchange with the Central Mine Action Authority before restoring a backup.
• Restore only the IMSMA^NG database and GIS database.
• Have a local copy of templates and Saved searches so they may be re-published and re-created in IMSMA^NG.
• Request that any customisation or other non-exportable elements that are important for implementing partners to be created in the national database prior to distribution so they do not need to be recreated each time a new backup is distributed.

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