Category:CPs

Despite the best efforts of the Technical Committees, documents may contain text that is unclear, incomplete or incorrect.

Change Proposals (CPs) are the way stable, published technical documents (Technical Framework volumes, Final Text Supplements or Trial Implementation Supplements) can be modified. Change Proposals may be submitted by users, vendors or Technical Committee members, and usually result from experiences implementing Profiles, using Profiles or testing them at Connectathons.

Change Proposal Process

The status of a Change Proposal proceeds in the following sequence:

A Submitted Change Proposal has been documented using the latest change proposal template and submitted to the Domain. Change Proposals should be emailed to a Cochair of the Domain Technical Committee that published the document (or if not known, emailed to secretary@ihe.net).

The Change Proposal should include:

a problem description,
a rationale why the change is necessary,
a proposed solution or approach to the problem,
and the parts of the Technical Framework or Supplement requested to be changed.

The Technical Committee regularly considers Change Proposals which are then either assigned and move through the various directories below or rejected.

Directory Structure

As CPs are processed through various statuses they move from one directory to another. The directories are:

Incoming: contains CPs which have been submitted but have not been assigned a CP number or an editor. This is the place that new incoming CPs are placed prior to the first stage of processing by the committee.
Assigned: contains CPs that have been assigned an editor and are being actively worked on by the committee, i.e. Assigned status.
Completed: contains the last version of a CP that is in Completed status. It is waiting to be put to a ballot.
FinalText: contains the last version of a CP that is in FinalText status. It has been approved by ballot and is waiting to be integrated into the TF.
Integrated: contains the version of the CP that was integrated into the TF.
Rejected: CPs that have been submitted, reviewed, and rejected by the committee.
Canceled: contains CPs that have been canceled, i.e. Canceled status.

Implementors should base their work on:

+the current version of a Technical Framework

+ all Final Text Supplements

+ all Final Text Change Proposals to the Technical Framework or Supplements

Change Proposal File Names

When submitting a change proposal, the file name should be

CP-<domain>-<initials>-<2|3WordSummary>.doc

where:

<domain> is the domain the CP will be submitted to - one of ITI, RAD, CARD, LAB, EYE, PCC, PCD, RO, QRPH
<initials> are the initials of the person submitting the CP
<2|3WordSummary> are 2 or 3 words describing the CP

For example: CP-ITI-KW-ReplaceOptionalAttributes.doc

Once assigned, the change proposal file will become

CP-<domain>-<number>-<version>.doc

where:

<domain> is the domain of the CP - one of ITI, RAD, CARD, LAB, EYE, PCC, PCD, RO, QRPH
<number> is the id number assigned by the Domain Technical Committee
<version> is the version of the file
- starting at 00 and incrementing for each revision of the CP including when it is sent back to Assigned due to comments in ballot (e.g CP-ITI-031-05.doc)
- FT when a CP becomes final text (e.g. CP-RAD-123-FT.doc)
- IN when a CP has been incorporated (e.g. CP-CARD-023-IN.doc)

Final Text CP Publication

Starting with the 2015 cycle, a new (pilot) process for communicating Final Text CPs has been established. Not all domains will be utilizing this process initially. Questions about Final Test CPs for a specific domain should be directed to the domain's Technical Committee co-chairs (or the domain's designee).

New Resources:

A Google Drive Folder that will serve as the repository for Final Text CPs in PDF format. There is one folder per domain. The folder is here
A Google Spreadsheet that serves as a cumulative record of Final Text CPs and as an index into the above Google Folder. A template of the Google Spreadsheet is located here (in progress and not yet available)

New Process:

Each domain’s Technical Committee follows their current process for approving CPs
Once a CP is approved, a member of the domain’s Technical Committee:
1. Updates the Google spreasheet index to add one row for each Final Text CP
2. Makes a PDF of each Final Text CP, and puts it in the domain's Google Drive Folder of Final Text CPs
Annually, when Final Text CPs are integrated into Final Text volumes and TI supplements, a member of the domain’s Technical Committee:
1. Updates the row(s) added in (2) to indicate the volume/supp into which the CP has been integrated
Each domain will identify one person that can be a point-of-contact for CP inquiries. This person does not necessarily need to be the manager of CPs for that domain, but should be able to respond if there are questions about approved CPs in that domain.

Notes:

Items (2) and (3) will occur immediately following the approval of a Final Text CP (i.e. this is not a once-a-year process). That is because, as soon as a CP becomes Final Text, it carries the same weight as published FT and TI docs, e.g., it is ‘testable’ at a Connectathon from the time it is approved for Final Text, even if it will not be integrated until several months from now.
Both the Google Sheet ‘index’ and the Google Drive folder ‘collector of CPs’ is a cumulative record over time. It is not ‘cleaned out’ every year.

We are asking that each domain begin using the resources (Google Drive Folders and Google Spreadsheet Index) and process starting with CPs that are approved for Final Text and will update documents published in calendar year 2015. A domain may optionally choose to update these resources with CPs that were approved prior to 2015.

Change Proposal Tracking

Each domain technical committee manages CPs on the ihe ftp site. A common directory structure for this management is desirable, but not yet accomplished. As a common directory structure is agreed to this page will be updated.

Each domain technical committee also maintains a CP-specific wiki page containing:

A description of the ftp directory structure used by the domain
A table of Final Text CPs for the domain
A table of CPs in other statuses (optional)
A link to the Excel spreadsheet used to track the status of all CPs. A common format for the Excel spreadsheet is desirable, but not yet agreed to.

Examples:

The Radiology CP Tracking spreadsheet
The ITI domain CP Tracking, organized by year.
The RAD CP Tracking Folder

Editing Change Proposals

A change proposal must specify exactly how the Technical Framework/Supplement will be changed.

When modifying existing text, paste the original text into the Change Proposal and DO NOT use MS Word change tracking. Manually format all changed text to bold and either underline the new text or cross out the text to be removed.

When pasting other text from documents other than an IHE Technical Framework or Supplement, use “Paste Special…”, select “Unformatted text”, and apply the appropriate styles to the text inserted. This avoids importing spurious paragraph formats (which are the cause of significant headaches for editors).

Proposed changes should be introduced with “editors instructions” in a “box” such as:

Replace Section X.X by the following:

or

Add the following section after Section X.X:

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