Connectathon Project Manager

IHE uses the term Technical Project Manager (TPM) to describe a person who is responsible for the technical management one or both of these items:

• IHE Connectathon
• IHE Domain

The purpose of this page is to provide background and relevant material for the duties of a Connectathon Manager. Domain Manager requirements are described elsewhere.

Conflict of Interest

The Connectathon Manager will be responsible for reporting test results and resolving differences in interpretation of technical standards and process. The Connectathon Project Manager must be free of any conflicts of interest. In the US, the Connectathon Project Managers do not have contracts or other business with participants in the North American or European Connectathons.

Qualifications

• 3 or more years of Project Management experience, preferably in the healthcare or IT arena excellent collaboration and communication skills
• Demonstrated self-starter who takes initiative and is a quick learner
• Demonstrated ability to work across multiple teams in different locations and timezones
• Experience in producing and delivering training materials
• Experience in accurately estimating and documenting work volumes, delivery dates and task dependencies
• Experience in basic web page development preferred
• Language skills:
  • To be specified by the regional organization.
  • In the US, a native English speaker is preferred

The Connectathon Manager needs a technical background as described in this section. At both the North American and European Connectathons, the Connectathon Manager also serves as a Domain Manager for a limited set of domains. This allows the Connectathon Manager to perform some of the Connectathon tasks more efficiently. We will call this out in this section.

Some of the technical tasks can be handled using the Gazelle Test Management System (Gazelle). That software is not a requirement to run a Connectathon. We will make a note on the tasks below where you might consider using Gazelle. For some smaller events, that tool might not be the best solution.

Gazelle Training

The Gazelle Test Management system and related tools are created and supported by Kereval. We do not document their use here.

Pre-Connectathon Tasks

• Create and submit a Connectathon request to IHE Testing and Tools Committee
  • Joint with sponsor.

• Determine the IHE domains / profiles to be offered for testing.
  • Joint with sponsor
  • It is acceptable to offer a subset of profile from one domain or to select profiles across domains. This is determined by the objectives of the sponsoring organization.

• Determine how you will support testing for each profile selected. This means:
  • Each profile tested needs a support person to respond to technical questions concerning the profile and/or test cases. In North America and Europe, each domain is managed by one person (e.g., ITI). It might be appropriate to split responsibilities in a domain based on expertise. As the Connectathon Manager, you are not responsible for all technical content in each profile. You are responsible for having the appropriate support personnel in place.
  • Support person needs to understand pre-Connectathon and Connectathon tests to be able to administer them and answer questions.
  • Support person needs to understand any software tools used during the testing process. This person might be responsible for bringing and managing the tools or might defer that to someone else.
  • Support person is at the Connectathon and resolves technical issues that cannot be resolved by participants or monitors.
  • Support person is responsible for collecting test instances and providing final grades for participants. Person must also engage in review process if a participant feels they did not get the appropriate grade.

• Determine registration process (Gazelle).
  • Joint with sponsor

• Establish a communication system so you can inform participants.
  • Joint with sponsor
  • IHE USA uses a Google Group that is configured so that only administrators can send messages.
  • IHE Europe uses a different Google Group that allows participants to ask questions directly to the group.

• Determine how electrical service will be delivered.
  • Joint with sponsor
  • Is electrical included with registration or does each organization need to purchase electrical separately?
  • If electrical is included with registration, how does a system request extra power if they have a larger box?
  • Are there tables that will not be assigned to allow for visitors? Will these get electrical drops? Maybe some of those tables will be sharing outlets.

• Specify network requirements. You do not have to be a network expert, but you need to understand enough to know
  • Joint with sponsor and venue.
  • Who is responsible for the physical network (switches, cables, Internet access)?
  • How IP addresses will be assigned (fixed, DHCP?) (Gazelle)
  • How will DNS be managed? (Gazelle)
  • Will there be outbound connections to the Internet (in general)?
  • Will there be services outside the testing area that need to get access to the internal network? Examples include developers who want to get access to their system or organizations that host their systems in a cloud environment and need to connect to participants on the private network.

• Determine network hardware, including cables.
  • Joint with sponsor and venue
  • This is tightly coupled to network specifications.
  • A simple path is to ask the venue to provide wifi, network switches and cables to each table. Your solution will depend on the venue and many other factors.

• Manage network configuration (once agreed to with network contractor)
  • Assign IP addresses (Gazelle)
  • Communicate host name, IP address map (Gazelle)
  • Communicate general network parameters (Subnet mask, Default gateway, DNS server) (Gazelle)

• Manage seating and electrical assignments (some of this can be passed to sponsors) (Gazelle)
  • Work with sponsor/venue to determine table configuration
  • Assign participants to tables in a way that facilitates communication. (Gazelle)
    • This is vague on purpose.
    • IHE USA and IHE Europe cluster systems by functionality. You might have a different approach
    • Table assignments need to consider organizations that bring more staff members than normally fit at one table. There are different approaches to this.
  • Document the tables that require electrical service and provide to sponsor or venue
    • Take into consideration extra tables (overflow) that allow for expansion. As mentioned above, these extra tables may have reduced power or no power.

Connectathon Tasks: Setup

You are responsible for the technical aspects of setup. That includes:

• Network
• Gazelle Test Management (if in use)
• Any other software tools

You might not directly do the work for any of these items, but you are responsible to make sure that the systems are in place and ready to go. The sponsoring organization could relieve you of some of this work, but it is most natural for you to manage this.

Connectathon Tasks: Event

This list is independent of responsibilities as a Domain Manager

• Communicate with participants during the event so they understand what they need to accomplish and on what schedule
  • The forum for the communication will depend on the event. Smaller events may choose to have a daily standup meeting with all representatives. Larger events may rely on email communication. There are pros and cons to both approaches. There are also other ways to address the communication.

• Serve as the arbiter for Connectathon process questions.
  • You can delegate some of the responsibility to a Domain Manager if one or more are present. The typical question is "Have I done enough work to get a passing grade?"
  • Do not delegate responsibility to monitors. You are responsible for the big picture, while a monitor is responsible for test instances. You can communicate with monitors to get an understanding of what is working. We strongly suggest you do not let monitors tell a participant that the have completed all of their tests. That is your responsibility.

• Serve as lead technical contact at the event. You might not be able to directly resolve the issues listed below. You should be prepared to help in these areas or be able to direct the participant or monitor to someone who can help.
  • I cannot make a connection to a peer for testing. Sometimes: I can make a connection to partner A but not partner B.
  • Do I have to complete all of the tests that are listed for profile X?
  • I have run these tests.... Am I done yet?
  • I have run tests with two partners, but the third partner is not working? What will happen during grading?
  • I do not agree with the validation result returned by tool W. The tool is wrong.
  • Can you remove test alpha from my system? My system does not support that function.
    • Hint: We believe the tests accurately reflect requirements for profile/actor pairs. That does not mean they are perfect, but that is the intention.
    • If someone wants to drop a test, you should really look and see if they need to drop the entire profile.
    • If you are using Gazelle software, you cannot drop individual tests.
  • I want to withdraw Actor A in Profile B from testing.

Post Connectathon Tasks

• Provide participants the opportunity to review and challenge grades either directly at the event or after the fact. (Gazelle)

• Create and submit a Connectathon report to the IHE Testing and Tools Committee.
  • Joint with sponsor.
  • This also serves as a request to formally publish results in the IHE database.

• Submit test results to IHE-Europe for publication (Gazelle)

Gazelle Enabled vs Non-Enabled Connectathons

The Gazelle software is a set of web based applications that are designed to support IHE Connectathon testing as well as other testing such as for conformity assessment. IHE North America and IHE Europe use this software to manage their Connectathons because the software automates many of the tasks as well as the testing process. That automation comes at a price as the Connectathon Manager needs to understand the Gazelle software capabilities, and participants need training on using the software.

When deciding how to manage some of the technical aspects of the event, you should consider if you want to use these tools or if you would prefer a more manual process. For example, IHE-RO has decided to manage their Connectathons without the Gazelle tools. The IHE-RO domain is an example where they have a core set of engaged participants. They find it easier to manage their test cases outside of Gazelle and to manage the event separately.

You also need to consider how the Gazelle tool will be hosted. Here are some considerations:

• For testing in some domains, it is possible to have a Gazelle system that is hosted remotely. For other domains, some of the Gazelle tools need to be on the local network to initiate connections to your participating systems.
  • An example would be for some of the ATNA tests where the Gazelle Security Suite will attempt to make a TLS connection to a system under test. If your Gazelle system is remote, you either have to forego this part of the testing or manage your local firewall to accept TCP connections from the remote Gazelle system.
• If you choose to host a copy of Gazelle, you will work with the Kereval team to manage database synchronization. Connectathon tests are written and stored in a master copy of Gazelle managed by Kereval. You can run a local copy of Gazelle that will have your participant registration data, but that local copy will have to synchronize some tables with the master copy to make sure you have current test descriptions and requirements.
• If you prefer to have someone else host the Gazelle instance, it is best to contact IHE Services. They can ask the right questions and give you a quote for the support you need.