CET+-+Workgroup+Management



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1.0 Stakeholder Engagement
Stakeholder engagement is critical for an initiative to be successful. Without the necessary participants, WG efforts risk delay or even premature termination. Another risk of not having a comprehensive representation of participants is that the final work product could be deemed invalid if a variety of viewpoints are not represented. The following list of best practices for engaging stakeholders throughout the duration of the initiative will assist WGs in leveraging their contacts efficiently and effectively in order to achieve their desired outcomes:
 * **Perform targeted outreach to engage stakeholders and SMEs whose participation would contribute to the success of the WG.** Determining which stakeholders would benefit from the outcomes of the Initiative will help when trying to find valuable committed members. To organize these contacts, it is recommended to maintain a list of individuals (similar to the one outlined in the Pre-Discovery section). Should you need further assistance with creating this list, you may utilize the Initiative Coordinator/ONC leadership for support, suggestions, and contact information.
 * **Reach out to SMEs individually in advance of WG meetings to encourage participation.** Highlight the reasons these individuals may be interested in the WG, and emphasize the value their participation would add to accomplishing the greater goals of the Initiative as well as their respective organizations. It has proved beneficial to reach out to these SMEs offline in order to coordinate presentations or components of the work product for the individual to present during workgroup meetings.
 * **Track stakeholder attendance and participation through the Wiki.** WebEx creates an attendance report for each meeting conducted. If you would like a copy of the attendance report, simply e-mail admin@siframework.org. The reports are usually processed and available for the S&I Framework administrator to download about two hours after a meeting is completed. Including a list of meeting attendees within the meeting minutes will help to track overall participation and highlight those individuals who consistently make time to attend WG calls.
 * **Explain the roles and responsibilities of a committed member to establish clear expectations at the beginning of the WG kickoff.** These guidelines can be reiterated throughout the duration of the Initiative should the participation and contributions begin to wane.
 * **Send a follow up e-mail within 48 hours of every WG meeting that includes high-level takeaways.**These e-mails should be sent to all individuals signed up for the WG regardless of attendance. The e-mail can include the following information:
 * Work accomplished
 * Action items
 * Information for the next meeting, including dial-in, passcode, and agenda
 * Link to the WG Wiki page
 * **Coordinate Face-to-Face meetings when feasible.** These meetings are important because participants are able to connect and put forth focused effort to the work products. During this time the group can discuss controversial issues, brainstorm new ideas and build a sense of community and teamwork.
 * **Cross collaboration of other S&I Framework workgroups/Initiatives (if applicable)**

The success of the S&I Framework relies on the participation of a wide range of stakeholders including Health IT vendors, health systems, standards development organizations, etc. Any interested party is invited to get involved in S&I Initiatives.

2.0 Building a Community for Sub-Workgroups
Often times, a large workgroup meeting is not the adequate setting to dive deep into the details of a particular artifact. If you find that your workgroup is in this position, it may be a good opportunity to create a sub-workgroup that will focus in on a particular topic or section related to the overall work product. In the past, there has been a trend for those individuals with the deepest interest and expertise to actively participate to form and participate in a sub-workgroup.

Below is an example of how these sub-workgroups contributed in the past to the overall work product when completing the Use Case package (Use Case Narrative, Use Case Diagrams and Functional Requirements). As depicted below, the Use Case and Requirements Workgroup focused on completing the majority of the Use Case Narrative including parts of the Overview and Scope; however, some extra focused work needed to be performed on the In Scope/Out of Scope text. Therefore, the workgroup formed a sub-workgroup to focus on composing this text and present it back to the overall workgroup for approval and subsequent inclusion within the narrative. A different group tackled completing all of the diagrams (Activity, Sequence, Use Case and Context), while another SWG focused on the Functional Requirement and Dataset Considerations. All of this material was approved by the workgroup members through a formal consensus process and allowed them to develop a universally accepted work product in a shorter amount of time.




 * //NOTE: Each of these Sub-Workgroups had individual wiki pages to collaborate and formulate their specific contributions by soliciting opinions of their members. These wiki pages were accessible to everyone and could be referenced to see the sub-workgroup’s progress.//**

Once sub-workgroups have formed, those calls should take priority. The main workgroup call should be used to sync the larger community on a regular basis with updates on SWG progress, including presentation of related work products for consensus (if applicable).

2.1 Approach for Increasing Attendance Within Sub-Workgroups
Should you find that participation is lacking within your sub-workgroups, there are two suggested methods for increasing attendance:
 * 1) **Send individually targeted recruitment e-mails.** You will notice that certain participants have subject matter knowledge based upon their work experience and/or the associations they are representing. If the topic of the sub-workgroup is in direct relation to an individual’s experience, contacting them personally to request their participation increases the likelihood that they will contribute.
 * 2) **The “round robin” approach.** This tactic entails calling out every member who attends the All Hands workgroup meeting before it is divided into sub-workgroups and requesting their participation in any of the identified sub-workgroups. A comprehensive participation list is easily accessible in the WebEx details. It is also important to request that those individuals who have only dialed into the call and are not participating via WebEx announce themselves so no one is left out.
 * //NOTE: Both of the aforementioned methods have proven successful in past S&I Framework Initiatives.//**

3.0 Conducting a Round of Formal Consensus
Consensus is a core value of the S&I Framework. The goal is unanimous consent, which is obtained by carefully considering and addressing significant input from the Community of Interest. Where unanimity is not possible, a group SHOULD strive to make consensus decisions where there is significant support and few abstentions. Click here for more information on the Consensus Process.

Below are some helpful hints for conducting a round of Consensus as part of your workgroup:
 * 1) **Give** **workgroup members at least one week to vote on the artifact and leave their relevant comments.** It is important to allot your workgroup members enough time to review the work product thoroughly in order to make an informed vote as part of the official Consensus Process. Note: Revisions to your work product as a result of the Consensus Process should be built into your overall timeline as they often cause delays in the final publishing process.
 * 2) **Resolve all “No”** **votes (Formal Objections) and “Yes with Comments” votes in a timely** **manner.** Participants may leave feedback on the Consensus page that requires a clarification or updates to the artifact. It is imperative to resolve these issues as quickly as possible. Although you will not be changing an artifact for consensus in the middle of the voting period, it is suggested that you update a copy of the document offline, present it to the group during the next meeting time, and subsequently put the new document up for a second round of consensus voting.

The following two techniques can assist in this method of updating an artifact during the Consensus period:
 * 1) **Work with participants individually to resolve specific comments and update content**. Then, present the artifact back to the entire workgroup for approval. Note: it’s important to keep the “tracked changes” feature on while making updates so workgroup members can see the updated content on the WebEx.
 * 2) **Use the “Comments” feature to highlight where exactly changes are made.** Use the comment bubble to indicate who wanted the change. During the meeting, you can then easily identify the individual and have them present their rationale behind the change in content to the group without having to flip back and forth from the artifact to the Wiki.

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