Contents
Data Types
Items
In the IMSMANG information model, items are the containers for mine action information. An item is an area, activity or event that a mine action programme records information about and stores in IMSMANG. There are six categories of items, which are described in the table below. Each category can be characterized by a type that reflects whether the item is designed to track process or activity information or the object or product of an activity.
Items
Items are entered into IMSMANG by means of a field report. Typically, each category of items has its own field report template for recording information specific to that category. When entered into IMSMANG, all field report items must be assigned to a location, which is tied to the country’s gazetteer, or political or administrative structure. The items can then be traced back to the country structure so that users can easily report data such as the number and size of hazards within a particular province.
Part of defining and documenting an information model includes defining the useful information attributes for each IMSMANG item. IMSMANG comes with more than 1,000 data elements already defined as well as the capability to create additional custom-defined fields (CDFs). This makes it important to critically assess which data elements are useful to a programme for decision-making, analysis and reporting and to focus on those while ignoring data elements that don’t provide additional value. Limiting information to only that which is useful to the programme provides long-term benefits including reducing the data collection and data entry burden and improving system performance. And, while many data elements may be collected for each IMSMANG item, some elements may be more important for analysis than others. For example, whether a victim has been injured or killed may be more important for analysis than the victim’s nationality.
Item Subcategories
Each of the six categories of items can be divided into subcategories or types so users can collect information for each subcategory. For example, users can specify different types of hazards such as dangerous areas, confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs), minefields and battle areas and manage each kind of hazard differently. Using subcategories, information managers can:
- create separate workflows for each type of hazard
- create and manage separate data entry forms
- differentiate between item categories on the map
Additionally, information managers can customise the subcategories so that unused subcategories can be removed and other subcategories added. The same is true for all top-level items within IMSMANG, which lets information managers specify their exact information model, including the relationships among item categories, and adjust the model as their needs change over time. To accurately map the information model for a programme, it’s helpful to evaluate the available item subcategories and determine if changes to the information model in IMSMANG are required. While these values can be customized after system setup, understanding the types of information for each item is critical to implementing an effective workflow in IMSMANG. Table 5 shows examples of the possible subcategories of IMSMANG items.
Documenting Items
Auxiliary Data
In addition to defining the required information for IMSMANG items, it is important to define the relevant information to be collected about auxiliary data. This includes defining and documenting the country structure, ordnance, organisations and places, such as military bases, hospitals and cultural sites; any additional CDFs that should be created; and any subcategories for each of the auxiliary data types.
Documenting Auxiliary Data
Field Reports and Current Views
All mine action information is entered into IMSMANG via a field report, a data entry form used to collect information about an item. When a field report is completed, it is either reconciled to an existing item (that is, it is determined to be information about an item that already exists in IMSMANG) or it is reconciled as new (that is, it is determined to be information about an item that does not already exist in IMSMANG).
With this approach, users can collect and store multiple field reports about the same item over time so that the entire history of the item is preserved in the system. The approach also provides a complete audit trail of all changes made to any mine action information so that information managers can answer the question, "What did we know and when did we know it?"
IMSMANG also provides a constantly updated current view of the item which represents the sum of information about the item at any given time. As subsequent information is collected about a specific attribute of an item, IMSMANG updates the item’s current view on an attribute-by-attribute basis. For example, Field Report #1 collects some initial information about a hazard. It sets the priority to "Medium" and specifies that the hazard contains AP mines and is 25,000 sqm. Field Report #2 updates information about the hazard after a subsequent assessment. The report sets the priority to "High" and specifies the presence of AP and AT mines, but it does not change the size or the status of the hazard. Field Report #3 updates the hazard’s size and status after clearance operations are complete. The figure below shows how the hazard’s current view is updated after all three reports are entered into the system.
figure
Current view calculations are based on the date of the field report, so it is possible to enter data into the system out of chronological order (that is, to collect past information about an item) without disrupting the current view. For example, if a fourth field report were collected and dated between Field Report #1 and Field Report #2, it would have no effect on the current view as all information in the example was updated with Field Report #2 or later.
Mapping the Workflow
Business Rules Updating Structure
Progress Report Structure
Reconciliation Process
Location Folder
Assigning and Linking
IMSMANG provides the capability to assign items to locations and create links between items, a function that shows the relationships between items and processes and that enriches the data collected. Assignments and links are defined during the field report approval process. An item is assigned to one location, which ties the item to the country structure and allows for reporting mine action data by area. The same item can then be linked to as many other items as necessary. In this way, IMSMANG supports the idea of linking hazard reductions to hazards, victims to accidents or any item to any other item. When used with item subcategories, linking adds a powerful capacity to implement an information workflow and create rich and useful data for decision makers. To ensure the integrity of this data, system administrators must clearly specify the kinds of links to track in IMSMANG. See Maintaining IMSMANG for more on this topic.
The example below shows how users can build a workflow of complex relationships among top-level items and item subcategories to model the information management process for their programmes.
figure
The next figure shows how the current view changes with each hazard reduction that is linked to the original hazard. The CHA starts with a status of "Open." When the technical survey is linked to the hazard, it changes the hazard subcategory to "Minefield." Then, linking the clearance updates the hazard’s status to "Worked On." Finally, linking the completion survey changes the hazard’s status to "Closed." The result is one hazard whose information is updated over time by the four hazard reductions linked to the hazard. This way to track information can be used to represent the information management process and status rules accurately for a land release, risk management or other process model.
figure
The IMSMANG information model is flexible enough for each programme to customise the system to support its needs. For example, programmes that do not conduct MRE activities do not need to complete information about MREs, and they still retain full utility of the system. Similarly, programmes that conduct victim tracking and MRE activities only can disregard hazards and hazard reductions without any loss of utility. This flexibility, however, requires that programmes define the relevant uses of each item.
Although any item can be linked to any other item, not all relationships necessarily make sense for every programme. The diagrams below describe some of the more common logical relationships among items and can serve as the basis for an information model when implementing IMSMANG.
figure
The rationale for each relationship or link should also be documented so the meaning is understood. For example, a hazard reduction may be conducted on a hazard and an accident may be a result of a hazard or produce a victim. These relationships are used when entering data to ensure that the links between items are available for searching and reporting, like when searching for all hazards that have clearances linked to them.
figure