HL7 Leadership Announcements

Confluence Duplicating Page Content

We are aware of the content duplication that is occurring on some pages within our Confluence instance. Currently it appears to be related to Synchrony (the process responsible for handling collaborative editing). This erroneous content duplication seems to be related to updating pages with attachments; this includes copy and pasting attachments. We are scheduling a Confluence upgrade with identified fix currently. If you see this duplicate content behavior, the current fix is manually editing the page again and removing the erroneous content. 

Jira and Confluence Upgrade

Jira and Confluence have been updated to the latest long term support releases for Data Center.

Jira Updates:

• 8.13.11
• Security Updates
• Tomcat Connector Fix for sustained High CPU usage 

Confluence Updates:

• 7.13.0
• Major Security fix against Confluence Server/DC Webwork OGNL Attack

Jira PSS Workflow

The PSS Workflow in Jira has completed 3 successful pilots and will now be rolled out for new Project Scope Statements.  Thank you to all of the Work Groups that have participated in the pilots and who provided feedback.

Work Groups and Project Teams can start to create Project Scope Statement/Proposals Project in JIRA for new Project Scope Statements immediately. Effective November 1, 2021, all Project Scope Statements must be created in the Jira Project.

Projects for reaffirmation and withdrawal ballots will continue to use the PSS form in Confluence at this time.

The HL7 Essentials Space has been updated with a new process flow that describe the steps for a specification through its’ lifecycle. https://confluence.hl7.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=111117149

The following “How To” documents will help with the process to create and review the Project Scope Statement in Jira:

• Create a PSS: https://confluence.hl7.org/display/HL7/How+to+Create+a+Project+Scope+Statement+in+JIRA
• Review a PSS: https://confluence.hl7.org/display/HL7/How+to+Review+a+Project+Scope+Statement+in+Jira

If you have an existing Project Scope Statement to be updated, the TSC has approved the following process:

• PSS originally created as a Word Document – create a new PSS in Jira and include a reference to the original PSS ID in the Summary
• PSS originally created in Confluence – update the Confluence form and distribute for approvals as needed

If you have questions after reviewing the documentation, please email Melva Peters (melva@hl7.org) 

Jira Specification Feedback

Jira Specification Feedback has been implemented to support the capture of comments on specifications in all product families and for those specifications not part of a product family.  Projects have been set up for each product family and for “Other” specifications at jira.hl7.org and are ready for use.  FHIR was previously migrated to JIRA for specification feedback, so many of you will already have experience with it.  The new projects have the same look-and-feel and workflow as the FHIR Specification Project.

• V2 Specification Feedback
• CDA Specification Feedback
• Other Specification Feedback

What does this mean for your Work Group?

Specifications have been set up in the relevant projects where the project is in development or the specification is in an active Standards for Trial Use (STU) period or where an STU period expired in 2020 have.  Comments from the STU Comment page have been migrated to Jira for all active STU specifications and specifications that expired in 2020.

In addition, comments captured for HL7 V2 changes and CDA changes will now be captured in Jira.  Gforge comments have been migrated to the appropriate Jira Project.

Going forward, the set up and management of specifications in JIRA will be the responsibility of the Co-Chairs of the Sponsoring Work Group and may be delegated to the Project Team.  Specifications can be set up in JIRA when it is ready to gather feedback.  When a new version of a specification is ready for feedback, only the new version is added. Documentation for setting up new specifications or version in JIRA can be found on Confluence: Configuring Jira Specification Feedback

Once JIRA Specification Feedback is rolled out, you will manage all specification comments in JIRA. For more information on managing feedback in JIRA: Managing Specification Feedback

What does this mean for commenters?

 Comments that you wish to make on specifications will be entered into JIRA.  You must register as a user on HL7’s Confluence and Jira systems. 

You can find more information about how to comment in Confluence: Specification Feedback and in these short videos: 

• How to Create an Issue - HL7 JIRA
• How to Comment - HL7 JIRA 

Does this change how comments are made and managed for HL7 STU Specifications?

Comments on STU specifications will now be made in JIRA and not on the STU Comment Page.  The Expired STU page will continue to be available as read-only. Existing comments for Active STU specifications and STU specifications that expired in 2020 have been migrated to JIRA.

Links to the appropriate JIRA project have been added to the Product Brief for each STU Specification that is accepting feedback.  In addition, a link to the JIRA Specification Feedback Projects has been added to the HL7 Website on the Standards Page.

You will now manage all specification comments in JIRA. For more information on managing feedback in JIRA: Managing Specification Feedback.

Does this change how comments are made on HL7 Ballots?

For now, no changes will occur with the HL7 ballot process.  You will continue to gather comments in spreadsheets as part of a ballot. As with the FHIR Specification Feedback process, submitters may add their comments in JIRA for specifications that are part of the ballot (assuming the specification exists in JIRA), but they must also submit a spreadsheet that references the JIRA issue. 

If spreadsheets are submitted, at the conclusion of a ballot, co-chairs will be responsible for consolidating feedback into a single Excel spreadsheet, ‘cleaning’ that spreadsheet to meet Jira import rules and then importing the feedback into Jira prior to reconciliation.  See Confluence for more information on how to complete this process: Importing ballot results from spreadsheets. In the short term, help for preparing spreadsheets for import can be requested via Confluence: https://confluence.hl7.org/display/HL7/Request+Help+Uploading+Ballot+Spreadsheets

We appreciate your patience as we transition to this new process.  If you have questions or have problems finding the appropriate project or specification in the project, please post to the Jira/Confluence Stream on Zulip.

Project Scope Statement (PSS) Workflow Pilot

The new PSS Workflow is in Pilot.  With this new process, the PSS is created in Jira and will transition through the workflow from draft to WG approval to Consensus Review and finally to approved or rejected (rarely).  

Consensus Review will be open for 4 weeks and during this time, those groups identified in the PSS (co-sponsors, Product Management Groups, Steering Divisions, US Realm Steering Committee) as well as all Work Groups will have an opportunity to review and comment.  In addition, if the PSS includes external content, external terminology or a joint copyright, the tasks associated with those activities will be completed.

Project Teams and/or Sponsoring Work Groups are expected to be monitoring the PSS as it goes through the process and respond to any comments that are made.

Additional co-sponsors can be added to the PSS during the process.

At the end of 4 weeks, the PSS will transition to TSC Review.  During this time the TSC will ensure all comments have been reconciled and may contact groups who have not responded before a decision is made to approve the project.

If you have comments on changes to the process based on your experience during the pilot, you can enter them in Confluence: PSS Workflow Pilot 2021 Feedback

Project Proposals

Effective November 1, 2020, a Project Proposal is a mandatory step prior to the creation of a Project Scope Statements for any project creating a Release 1 Specification. 

A Project Proposal is not required for:

• Updates to previously balloted or published specifications
• Reaffirmation, withdrawal or recirculation ballot projects

For more information: https://confluence.hl7.org/display/TPTF/Project+Proposals+Home

The second UTG session geared towards the HL7 community can be found at the links below:

HL7 Education on Demand (free access): https://www.pathlms.com/hl7/courses/22235

HL7 YouTube: https://youtu.be/iuc6PAsmVxY

Co-Chair Meeting Slides found here: Webinar Series: Updates from the TSC

Project Proposals

The TSC is implementing a new Project Proposal process which is now available for use.  The goal of this process is to provide early insight for Work Groups into potential projects, to identify Work Groups who want to be involved as a sponsor, a co-sponsor or an interested party, and to identify if there are other projects underway in or outside of HL7 that overlap with the proposed project.  We want to enable project proponents to find a sponsoring Work Groups without the need to go from Work Group to Work Group until a sponsor is identified.

We are asking that newly-introduced potential projects start with a proposal before submitting the Project Scope Statement, but it is not mandatory at this point. At some point in the future, Project Proposals will be required for all new projects at HL7 that are producing Release 1 of an artefact but not for updates to previously published material.  Each proposal is expected to provide:

• A description of the project with sufficient detail for reviewers to understand its intent and scope as well as the types of artefacts expected to be developed, and how much of the content is already created;
• Potential sponsoring work group or work groups, if known; and
• A target ballot cycle, if known.

This information is intended to eventually feed into a draft PSS form once accepted.

When a new proposal is created, Work Group Co-chairs will be notified via an email and an announcement will be made to the Announcements stream on Zulip.  The notification will provide a link to the proposal in JIRA.  Work Groups are asked to review and comment on the project using the following questions as a guide:

• Does this project fit into my Work Group's Mission and Charter?
• Is my Work Group willing to sponsor this project?
• Is there an ongoing project(s) in my Work Group that are similar to this one that may overlap?  If so, provide details in your comment.
• Is there a project(s) underway in other Groups that are similar to this one that may overlap? If so, provide details in your comment.
• Are you aware of a project(s) outside of HL7 that may overlap with this project?
• What other Work Groups should be considered as co-sponsors or interested parties?

Once the project is accepted (i.e. a sponsor is identified and no barriers to the project are foreseen), a Project Scope Statement (PSS) must still be created and approved through the current HL7 PSS processes. It is important to note that this project proposal does not replace the actual Project Scope Statement and is not sufficient for work to begin, but is intended to quickly give early visibility into proposed new work.  When a Work Group accepts being included on a project proposal, they are accepting that they will be a sponsor for the PSS.  Further discussion and agreement with the project proponent are expected to take place to determine the next steps for the actual project.

You can review the How To Documentation and How to Videos for Project Proposals on Confluence:https://confluence.hl7.org/display/HL7/How+to+Create+and+Review+a+Project+Proposal  and view the submitted Project Proposals in JIRA https://confluence.hl7.org/display/TPTF/Project+Proposals+Home

If you have any feedback about this new process, please add a comment to the Project Proposal Confluence page:https://confluence.hl7.org/display/TPTF/Project+Proposals+Home