Principles for the SANER Project

Principles by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

One of the things I try to understand for every project I work on are what are the fundamental principles of the project.  Often I even attempt to get these principles formally adopted by a project (when I can remember this important step).  That's because these principles facilitate and simplify decision making.  When the principles are clearly stated and agreed to, then when a contentious decision comes up, it can be evaluated according to these already agreed upon principles, and the decision making can move forward on that basis, rather than the sometimes deeply emotional arguments that can result. 

Often times, one can understand the principles of a project by looking at definitions of the project scope or approach (i.e., methods).  We never actually established the principles of The SANER Project, but that never stopped me from thinking about them and at least developing a mental model of what I think they are.  So, here they are, enumerated and explained in modest detail:

1. The work needs to be done quickly.  As a result, it must
1. Work with existing systems where possible, minimizing new development.
2. Utilize off the shelf components and FHIR Servers where feasible.
3. Use existing FHIR capabilities and operations where feasible.
4. Minimize efforts needed to integrate external systems.
2. The work needs to be aligned with current US national and international initiatives, thus it will use FHIR Release 4.
3. While the end-goal is automation of the supporting solution, there must be intermediate features which still enable value for users who are not able to provide more advanced capabilities.  This is really just another way of saying "minimize new development", but more clearly describes that partial implementation must both be possible, and add value.
4. Finally, in the extreme situation impacting facilities who might use this solution, a great deal of attention must be paid to verification and validation of the specification.  There is absolutely no room for implementers to break a system that is otherwise functional and vital to operations.

Decision points in The SANER Project have been constantly evaluated against this mental model as we tracked the work.