Governance

CONNECT governance is in a state of transition. There is currently a well-structured governance model in place for federal participation in CONNECT, but as CONNECT shifts into a public/private collaboration, the project’s governance will change. This page will be updated with new information on current and future governance as it becomes available.

 

Current Governance

The CONNECT Leadership and Communications Work Group sets the business agenda for CONNECT in line with federal needs. The business requirements are then handed over to the Change Control Board (CCB) to transform it into the related technical requirements. The CCB is currently responsible for the CONNECT solution which is released quarterly to the federal partners and the open source community. The goal of the CCB is to promote a smooth and harmonious enhancement of CONNECT over time. This is accomplished by ensuring that a structured process is used to consider proposed changes and incorporate them into a specified release of CONNECT.

The CCB is established to serve the following purposes:

  • Authorize the establishment of baselines
  • Authorize additions of user stories to baselines
  • Represent the interests of all groups who may be affected by changes to the baselines
  • Evaluate and approve, disapprove or defer proposed system changes
  • Set timeline for enhancements and changes to the baseline
  • Ensure implementation of approved changes

Currently, federal agencies that are working to deploy CONNECT are eligible for membership in the CCB. Each agency has one vote. Should agencies that are providing funding for the development of CONNECT non-concur on a vote of the CCB, this will result in the vote being moved to the FHA Managing Lead Partners Council (MLPC) for final decision, otherwise simple majority consensus applies.

 

Future Governance

The Federal Health Architecture is in the process of moving the CONNECT solution into a public/private governance model. The details of this model are still evolving, though it is clear that states and private sector organizations should have a role in setting the direction for CONNECT considering that its evolution will impact the industry at large.

FHA intends to set up a series of town hall meetings to discuss the governance process with all involved. Inputs will be welcomed from the community stakeholders, which include federal partners and members of the open source community. The result could be an expanded CCB, or an entirely new governance process may emerge. If the latter occurs and the federal partners so choose, there is an option for a hybrid model whereby CONNECT is officially governed by the new entity and the agencies continue to develop CONNECT in line with their own needs. This would mirror the way that many open source communities work (e.g., there is a single Linux kernel development process, but many different Linux distributions).

Meanwhile, as development is opened to the public and community enhancements appear, the CONNECT team will work to bridge any differences between the directions set by the CCB and the direction implied by those community enhancements.

There are several tools to assist with this. The CONNECT program can ensure clear communication of the CONNECT team's implementation priorities through the public issue tracker. It might also support not-yet-agreed-upon functionality by hosting and iterating experimental development as branches in the source code repository. The program will ensure the CCB is kept up to date on the ideas and priorities of the public contributors, and look for opportunities to incrementally open up the CCB to public input.