Review of ZIMS Use Cases

 We are in the process of gathering regional review of deliverables being drafted by SMEs in the ZIMS JAD sessions.  The feedback from each region will then be compiled by IADISC and sent back to ISIS. 

 This is an iterative process and there will be several rounds of review of each deliverable, but prompt review each time is imperative to keep the process moving.  There are 11 documents (or business use cases) to be reviewed in this round.  Our deadline for listserve feedback on this round is August 18.

 A business use case is a document that describes enough detail about a particular aspect of one of our business processes so that the ZIMS developers can then architect the system.  There is more background information about use cases and the JAD (Joint Application Design) process that is taking place to capture use cases at:

 http://www.iadisc.org/JAD/default.htm

 Basically, each use case describes a business process (such as Animal Transfers within Institutions), defines who is typically involved in the process (primary and secondary actors) and lists any constraints, pre- and post-conditions, or alternate workflows.  It also defines the data requirements for that activity.

 One note about actors: in the first JAD session, the group decided to use generic names for actors, such as reviewer, documenter, implementer, rather than job titles such as registrar, keeper, curator, to avoid confusion since these roles are so highly variable across institutions.

 Use cases are not easy to develop but with a little practice are an excellent way to communicate between subject matter experts and the technical experts.  We are hoping that this will be one good way to engage many SMEs in the design process to ensure that the use cases are complete and accurate.  This is somewhat of an experiment in getting broad representation via electronic collaboration, so please bear with us as we work out some of the communication kinks and feel free to offer any suggestions to improve the process!

 These are the first sets of use cases:

 First SET:

· Accession (Individual and Group)

· Acquisition (Individual and Group)

· Disposition (Individual and Group)

· Move within an Institution (Individual and Group)

 Second Set:

·Drug Inventory Management 

· Prescription Drug Processing

· Drug Usage Tracking

· Drug Inventory Reconciliation

 Third Set:

· Imaging

· Maintain Clinical Notes

· Diet Notes

 Each use case is a separate Word Document.  Please provide your feedback noting the Use Case number and title and the section number to which it applies.   It’s probably an understatement to say that this is a huge task and one that we will undoubtedly need to tweak a few times to make efficient but your feedback at this time is very important to making ZIMS a success.

 Please contact your IADISC representative if you have any questions or suggestions.

Thank you for your participation in the ZIMS design.