Refactoring+Efforts

=Refactoring Efforts=

Purpose:
To improve the ease of understanding and usability of Nationwide Health Information Network specifications for implementers.

Audience Definition
Before we undertake any efforts to 'improve' the specifications, we must run through an exercise to define our audiences and to characterize their needs. We will create a list of audience types, list specific examples from each type and reach out to those audiences in order to characterize and document their needs. Examples ||  ||   || Examples ||  ||   || Examples ||  ||   || Les Westburg John Hoppesch, Jason Ray ||  ||   || Harris, Vangent ||  ||   || Medicity, MedPlus, Kaiser ||  ||   || Medicity, MedPlus, Kaiser ||  ||   || Joe Lamy ||  ||   ||
 * **Audience Type** || **Characterization of Type and of Interaction with the Specs** || **Specific Needs or Aspects which will Maximize Utility** ||
 * **Architects (CIO/CTO)**
 * **Integration Engineers**
 * **Security Architects**
 * **CONNECT Team**
 * **CONNECT Integrators**
 * **Gateway Implementers**
 * **Gateway Integrators**
 * **Test Team**

Problems to be addressed
ONC has received extensive feedback from implementers regarding the difficulty in implementing Nationwide Health Information Network specifications. Two primary issues have been identified: >.
 * 1) **The "Onion"** - Nationwide Health Information Network specifications build upon profiles of IT and Health IT standards and specifications published by organizations such as IHE and HITSP. Those profiles are often built upon other profiles, which are built upon underlying standards and specifications. Implementers must often piece the information needed to understand Nationwide Health Information Network specifications from across up to half a dozen referenced documents. Requiting implementers to follow a lengthy trail of technical documentation has led to difficulties in conformance testing and interoperability and will impact the success of the Nationwide Health Information Network.
 * 1) **Context and Orientation** - Nationwide Health Information Network specifications rely on a large volume of technical information, much of which is contained in referenced profiles, standards, and specifications. Implementers have provided feedback regarding the lack of context surrounding the use of various features and functions, Implementers have also commented on the difficulty in understanding how aspects of the specified solution are intended to interact and how information referenced in other documents relates to those interactions.

Approach
We have been tasked with taking a phased approach. In the first phase, our efforts must focus on the improving the documentation and its ability to inform our implementers. In the second phase, we are charged with 're-casting' the Nationwide Health Information Network specifications to be contained in Information Exchange Package Documents (IEPDs) similar to those employed by NIEM.

Phase 1
The Nationwide Health Information Network Specifications Factory will re-author the current Production specifications. The upcoming documentation will consist of two parts: > **Specification Document** - This stable, visioned document will focus on communicating the information needed to enable implementers to produce systems which conform with the specified requirements. It will detail the requirements of transaction components and communicate conformance testing criteria. It will include information intended to orient the reader as to transaction components and interactions and provide reasonable context. This document will contain very minimal implementation guidance. > > **Implementation Guidance** - Information intended to supplement the specification document in order to provide detailed guidance as to the purpose, intent, and use of the specified transaction or its components. This information is envisioned to be continually refined and expanded as questions are raised and answered. As such, implementation guidance will be maintained on a moderated wiki, or similar platform. >

Phase 2
The Spec Factory team will undertake an effort to define and develop Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange IEPDs and then to use those IEPDs to contain the next version of the specifications. > **Model Driven Prototyping** - NIEM deals exclusively with the content aspects of information exchange and does not cover transactions. As such, we will be be producing NIEM "inspired" IEPDs, as opposed to NIEM conformant IEPDs. We will begin by developing models according to the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) defined by the Object Management Group (OMG). We will produce a Platform Indepedent Model (PIM) which speciies structure and function, but abstracts away the technical details. We will also produce platform specific model(s), which specify technical realizations within the Nationwide Health Information Network Architecture. > > **IEPD Definition** - We will also examine a collection of NIEM IEPDs to consider which components will be useful in increasing ease of use to Nationwide Health Information Network implementers.

Current Specification Refactoring Efforts
Query for Documents Authorization Framework