Managing clinical terminology data while requirements are changing

Abstract

This presentation is a practical approach for managing change in requirements. A reality of our times is the continuous change in the world, which is reflected also in project requirements that frequently change during the solution development phase. This affects not only the software development, but also the project data which has to be setup for testing and implementation. The challenge is to have the project data ready when testing starts (unit test or system test). The task becomes more difficult when project data has multiple dependencies and has to be defined by external sources that we do not control. Typically, the external data definitions are not available in time for the start date of testing. The presentation is based on the author's experience with the Pan-Canadian Health Surveillance project and the clinical terminology data. In our project, terminology data is used by the presentation layer as well as in information exchange through standard messaging. The solution adopted had as objectives the availability of required test data for development and test teams, even when the external definitions were missing or were outdated due to changes in the specifications. We developed a strategy and a process for continuously configuring and updating the project data without impacting the development and test teams. This process will be discussed in detail during the presentation, bringing forward our challenges and lessons learned. In closing, data quality assessment and improvement methods will be suggested with specific details from the Pan-Canadian Health Surveillance project. With the H1N1 influenza virus affecting Canadians and the World Health Organization declaring the H1N1 Pandemic in 2009, the importance of controlling disease outbreaks becomes even more important.