Lessons Learned
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The topics addressed in the CalHHS Data-Sharing Guidebook were identified by conducting discovery sessions with a sample of the agency’s departments. The lessons learned focus on data sharing via a Business Use Case Proposal (BUCP) but apply to other sharing agreements as well. The lessons learned provided by discovery session participants are provided in this section and address the following categories:
The table below summarizes the lessons learned provided by discovery session participants and the benefits they provide to data sharing. Where applicable, the lessons learned reference the Data-Sharing Plays provided later in the Guidebook.
Engage your department’s BUCP experts early in BUCP planning. Expertise may reside within other programs/units within your department.
Expands the pool of BUCP expertise available to your department.
Promotes schedule stability and reduces rework during BUCP creation.
Designate a use case sponsor for clarification and decision- making.
An empowered sponsor provides a focal point for scope clarification and decision-making.
Designate a specific coordinator or product owner for each BUCP to help coordinate internal and external stakeholders. Designate a BUCP core team composed of the required skills (data, technical, legal).
Clear roles and a consistently engaged core team reduce BUCP approval time.
Cleary explain why the data is needed in your BUCP and include links to relevant legislation.
A clear output/use and legislative justification improves the strength of your business case and support from the data provider.
Ask the data provider if assistance will help reduce the time needed for data fulfillment.
Reduces the time to receive data and establishes close working relationships between the data requestor and provider staff.
Research both State and Federal statutes that govern data sharing before requesting data.
Understanding restrictions before requesting data helps you efficiently use your department and the data provider’s time. Identify and address any restrictions in your BUCP. For example, some Federal statutes require traceable benefits from data sharing to program participants.
When possible, avoid including proper names in the BUCP and refer instead to roles to mitigate amendments/updates due to staff changes.
Reduces BUCP management efforts and mitigates timeline impacts from administrative changes.
Avoid using department-specific jargon where possible. If specialized terms are required, make sure to define them.
This approach promotes clarity in BUCP requests and creates a common set of terms for communication/coordination.
Gather the required staff via in- person meetings or web conferences to address key aspects of the agreement. Do not rely solely on email communication.
Working sessions reduce the time required to resolve critical aspects of data-sharing. Working sessions also establish relationships to help resolve data-sharing challenges that may arise during approval or fulfillment.
Allocate sufficient time for the creation and approval of the data-sharing agreement. Include times for unknowns that will arise.
Allocating sufficient time allows the downstream users of your shared data (e.g., Program Staff) to schedule their initiatives.
The subsequent section, Data-Sharing Plays, Play 1: Establish Data- Sharing Metrics and BUCP Tracking, provides ideas for creating capabilities
to track BUCP approval metrics for planning purposes.
Encourage your department’s leadership to include data sharing in planning.
Creating a shared understanding of data-sharing importance benefits your efforts, including:
Staff resource and funding allocation
General support during the BUCP process
The subsequent section, Data-Sharing Plays, Play 3: Create a Business Case, provides ideas to secure executive support for data-sharing.
Metrics tracked in the BUCP repository created in Data-Sharing Plays, Play
1: Establish Data-Sharing Metrics and BUCP Tracking, provide metrics and outcomes to gain leadership support.
Improves the ability to locate required datasets and identify the maintaining department/program.
Using open data eliminates the need for a BUCP. Please see the following web pages for further information for guidance on when data-sharing agreements are required:
Evaluating the viability of open datasets before launching a BUCP effort bolsters your justification for the investment in creating a data-sharing agreement and request for identified data.
Include a specific business need to justify why the identified data is needed.
Specific business needs play a vital role in the following:
Security Approval
Addressing Statutory Requirements
Dispute Resolution
Limit the scope of your data requests to the required data elements.
Limiting requests to specific required data improves BUCP approval and fulfillment timelines by reducing the scope of security and legal reviews. Accurately scoping data elements also reduces the effort to produce shared datasets.
The subsequent section, Data-Sharing Plays, Play 6: Describe Your Data, describes the process to create a detailed data element inventory and security classifications to scope data requests.
Identify all statutory and legal requirements early in the BUCP process.
Early identification of statutory requirements allows for proactive legal resolution or time to identify alternative solutions (e.g., Aggregated Data).
The subsequent section, Data-Sharing Plays, Play 6: Describe Your Data, includes guidance to include citations to legal statutes in data descriptions for awareness early in the BUCP process.
Be sure to analyze requested data to identify any linked data from third parties (additional departments/organizations) for additional statutory requirements.
Mitigates the potential for late detection of statutory requirements in the BUCP that may flow from the third-party entity.
Research and identify statutes and legislation that authorize the data provider to share your data with the requesting department/program.
Identifying the statutes that allow data- sharing increases the probability the BUCP will be approved. Citations are also helpful in resolving data-sharing concerns.
If a statutory consideration impacts data sharing, ask the data provider for their concerns and references to the impacting statute(s).
Specific information allows data requestor and provider teams to work together more effectively.
Your legal team’s interpretation may also help your business, data, and technical teams identify alternate solutions. For example, when the data provider cannot share data on individual program participants, an alternative solution may be for the data-provider to combine the target datasets and provide aggregated data.
Engage your department’s information security team early in the data-sharing planning.
Early engagement mitigates potential schedule impacts from security reviews.
Develop a thorough understanding of the security approval process.
A complete understanding of your information security team’s requirements lets your team assemble required information in a planned manner.
Identify a data transfer method that addresses security requirements and with data provider/recipient technical capabilities early in the BUCP creation process.
Early identification of a data transfer method mitigates delays in data fulfillment by allowing time for potential technology changes. Early identification of a data transfer method mitigates adjustments to security approvals.
The subsequent section, Data-Sharing Plays, Play 8: Prepare to Receive Data, provides a guide to identify data transfer mechanisms proactively.
If the data provider and recipient don’t have viable data transfer options, investigate the use of California Department of Technology (CDT) services.
CDT services provide an option that reduces the time and cost to establish data transfer capabilities.
In the subsequent section, Data- Sharing Plays, Play 8: Prepare to Receive Data provides examples and links to the CDT SAFE file transfer service.
Provide data recipients with data descriptions to promote data understanding.
Descriptions allow data recipients to work more efficiently with shared data and improve the accuracy of data analysis.
Descriptions benefit data providers by reducing time spent answering data- related questions.
The subsequent section, Data-Sharing Plays, Play 6: Describe Your Data, provides a guide to creating data descriptions for use by data recipients and other teams (e.g., Analytics Development) within your department.
Create curated datasets for commonly requested data.
Curated datasets address specific business subjects/topics and are well- described. Creating curated datasets promotes data requestors' understanding and reduces the time to produce shared data.
BUCP processes, tools, and standard content may have been developed organically at the program level and easily accessible. Create a centralized BUCP repository.
A centralized BUCP repository distributes the data-sharing assets developed by individual programs across your department. The repository also provides a library of previous BUCPs for reference and potential content reuse. In the subsequent section, Data- Sharing Plays, Play 1: Establish Data-Sharing Metrics and BUCP Tracking, describes creating a centralized BUCP repository.
Collect internal lessons learned at the program level for inclusion in your department-level BUCP repository.
A centralized repository provides department-wide benefits from lessons learned by individual programs and data teams. You can use this Guide as the starting point for your department’s collection of lessons learned.
Track BUCP processing metrics such as approval times. Track the business outcomes from sharing data.
Collecting metrics and outcomes helps justify departmental investment in staff and data-sharing improvements.
In the subsequent section, Data- Sharing Plays, Play 1: Establish Data-Sharing Metrics and BUCP Tracking, provides ideas to create a platform to track BUCP-related metrics and data-sharing outcomes.
Create procedures and training materials that reflect your department’s BUCP processes.
Departmental procedures and training build awareness of data sharing across your department to reduce the learning curve and establish consistency.
The CalHHS Open Data Portal’s is a source for identifying datasets and their related department.
Check the to determine if an existing open dataset addresses your requirements.