Difference between revisions of "Understanding IMSMA Information Model"

Revision as of 17:08, 27 November 2012

Data Types

Core Data

In the IMSMA^NG information model, items are the containers for mine action core data. An item is an area, activity or event that a mine action programme records information about and stores in IMSMA^NG. 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 are entered into IMSMA^NG 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 IMSMA^NG, 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 IMSMA^NG item. IMSMA^NG 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 IMSMA^NG 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.

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 IMSMA^NG, 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 IMSMA^NG 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 IMSMA^NG. Table 5 shows examples of the possible subcategories of IMSMA^NG items.

Document the following decisions about items:

• data elements to be collected and managed in IMSMA^NG
• data elements that are not predefined in IMSMA^NG and should be created as CDFs
• particularly important, or key, data elements for the programme
• relevant subcategories for each item
• status values for each item

Below is an example of a fully-documented hazard.

Auxiliary Data

In addition to defining the required information for IMSMA^NG items, it is important to define the relevant information to be collected about auxiliary data. This includes defining and documenting the Country Structure, Explosive Ordnance, Organisation and Place, 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.

Document the following decisions about auxiliary data:

• data elements to be collected and managed in IMSMA^NG
• data elements that are not already configured in IMSMA^NG and can be created as CDFs
• relevant subcategories for each data type

Below is an example of a fully-documented place.

Field Reports and Current Views

A field report is a data entry form used to record and store information about an item.

A current view is a summary of all the information collected about an item on field reports.

Reconciliation is the process of assigning the information in a field report to an existing item or creating a new item/current view.

All mine action information is entered into IMSMA^NG 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 IMSMA^NG) or it is reconciled as new (that is, it is determined to be information about an item that does not already exist in IMSMA^NG).

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?"

IMSMA^NG 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, IMSMA^NG 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.

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 Reporting Structure

Reconciliation Process