Tooling Work Group

Tooling WG

The Tooling Work Group supports the HL7 mission by overseeing the tools that facilitate the development, adoption and use of HL7 standards, according to the requirements of the HL7 Board and membership needs.

Standing Conference Calls

The Tooling WG will hold a Conference Call at 2 PM Eastern time, each Thursday except during scheduled face-to-face Working Group Meetings unless otherwise noted at Telecon_Agendas.

Conference Call: Uses HL7 Conference Call Service

Dial 770-657-9270 and enter pass code 586935#

GoToMeeting at 482-299-629

The main HL7 Tooling Work Group page has:

• the Tooling Work Group Mission and Charter
• list of Co-chairs

Agendas and Meetings

• Agendas for Teleconferences that are held every Thursday at 2:00 PM ET
• Working Agenda for the next WGM and Agenda for Chicago, Sept 2014
  • Tuesday_Tooling_-_May_2014
  • Tuesday Tooling Nights lists historical agendas from Tuesday Tooling nights which are led by Andy at each WGM
• Approved Tooling Work Group Minutes are on HL7.org; draft minutes are on Telecon Agendas
• Past Tooling Agendas
• HL7 List Services Welcome Center is the HL7 list server where you can subscribe to any of the Tooling lists

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Overview

What we are responsible for

(description is Work In Process - see Tools List discussion)

From Tooling Work Group Web Page Overview - Work Products and Contributions to HL7 Processes:

• The Tooling Work Group, will make recommendations to the HL7 Board and Technical Steering Committee regarding tools support for the HL7 standards.
• This work group manages the policies and processes that accomplish the functions of requirements management, configuration management, and deployment management of HL7 developed, endorsed, or fostered tools. This includes mechanisms for testing, evaluating, managing releases, funding, and harmonizing tools work from independent sources.
• For HL7-owned technology and support, this work group will provide guidance for architecture and technical standards, configuration, development scheduling, technical support and infrastructure.
• Liaises with tool vendors providing software for HL7 member's use and manages license allocation.
• This work group will provide a forum for tools input and questions from the HL7 membership.
• This work group will provide tools training and documentation (in cooperation with the Education Work Group).

Tooling Work Group’s responsibility covers tools developed by and for HL7, as well as those tools that HL7 has fostered the development of either by direct solicitation, or by collaboration with HL7-specific projects outside of the organization. It is expected that the Tooling Work Group will provide a more precise framework and guidelines for licensing future HL7 tools.

Rene: this excludes any work done by this WG to review, categorize, or recommend the use of any public domain HL7-oriented tools that haven't been created under the (partial) responsibility of HL7 International. The group may wish to add specific wording to public domain HL7-specific tools created by third parties (e.g. HAPI, probably the most often used HL7 toolkit, or MARC-HI Everest).

How we work:

(description is Work In Process - see Update the Tooling Work Group wiki page)

Tooling Work Group Mission:

• The Tooling Work Group supports the HL7 mission by overseeing the tools that facilitate the development, adoption and use of HL7 standards, according to the requirements of the HL7 Board and membership needs.

• The Tooling Work Group supports the HL7 Board by recommending priorities for expending HL7 resources on tooling activities. Tooling activities involve both paid resources as staff or contracted individuals working on funded projects. All Tooling projects require approval of a Project Scope Statement that is approved by the Tooling Work Group, The Technology and Services Support Steering Division, the HL7 Chief Technology Officer, and for those involving HL7 budget expenditures, the HL7 Board. Contracted resources are acquired through an open process with projects announced on the contracts@lists.hl7.org listserve. Tools provided by volunteers are made available on a "as is" basis but toolsmiths are encouraged to provide appropriate user and system documentation.

Resolved 2011Sept: we prioritize tools:

1. firstly, based on the critical path to ensure standards are produced on a regular basis according to schedule,
2. secondly, based on Board direction and
3. thirdly, subject to available funding to complete an existing tooling project so as not to dilute the ability to fully complete a project.

The HL7 Requirements, Configuration and Deployment Management is found on GForge. This document will be updated in a new project.

HL7 is a charter member of Open Health Tools (OHT), an open source consortium and many of the emerging tools are OHT projects.

The Tooling Work Group follows these Decision Making Practices.

EST Liaisons

EST liaisons are those participants that provide communication and coordination between the EST Work Group and other Work Groups.

Work Groups with interest in tooling should appoint a liaison with the expectation the liaison should provide a liaison update once per month. The intent is to make sure EST is aware of other groups' tooling requirements.

Current liaisons, their represented Groups, and the areas of interest are:

Group	Liaison Name	Area of interest
AID/RIMBAA	Michael Van der Zel	Tooling for implementers. See RIMBAA_Tooling_Liaison and Implementation Tools for details & status updates.
CGIT	Rob Snelick	CGIT interest is any tools involving conformance and best practices for writing IGs
CIC	Abdul-Malik Shakir	MAX Project
CS (Clinical Statement)	Rik Smithies	Ontology
EHR	John Ritter	EHR-S FM Profile Designer (PI 1040) and R3 preparation
Education	Diego Kaminker	Tooling Education planning
FHIR/FMG	Lloyd McKenzie	FHIR Tooling
Mobile Health	Matt Graham	tbd
Patient Care	Michael Van der Zel	See Patient Care Tooling Liaison for details & status updates.
Publishing	Brian Pech	Tooling for publishing.
Structured Documents	Andrew Statler	Template definition tool
Templates	vacant	Primarily interested in a Templates registry, a subset of type of artifacts for the Shared Artifact registry/repository.
HL7 Board	David Burgess	Overview of the state of HL7 tooling, proposed and current projects and feedback from users on tool requirements and utility.
Open Health "group"	Ken Rubin	Monitoring status of Open Health Tools projects of interest to HL7 and participating in the OHT Architecture Council representing HL7's interests.
Vocabulary	vacant	Vocabulary tooling is the highest priority for funded tools if we had funding.
CIMI	Michael van der Zel	NEW

Named individuals are expected to provide two-way communication to their respective groups and help the Tooling Work Group keep up with the varying schedules, priorities, interests and issues so that recommendations made to the HL7 Board are consensus recommendations of the entire HL7 community.

• liaison responsibilities with OHT, SMD, MDHT, IHTSDO WB

Toolsmith Ribbon Recipients

The Tooling Work Group would like to recognize the volunteer efforts of people who have worked on tools used by HL7 and it`s members to design, publish and then adopt HL7 specifications. The tools are available either on HL7`s Gforge site or as Open Health Tool projects. Please notify the co-chairs if you become aware of other volunteers and their tools. Toolsmith ribbons are being included in Working Group packets to increase awareness and recognition for their efforts.

Toolsmith Name	Tool	Purpose
George 'Woody' Beeler	RoseTree & Design Repository	RIM and Vocabulary Browser, Combined Publishing/Generator Tool Suite, RMIM Designer, V3 Generator
Lloyd McKenzie	RMIM Designer, MIF & V3 Generator	Visio Static Model Designer, Model Interchange Format and V3 Generator
Dale Nelson	V3 Generator	Generates V3 Schemas
Michael Van der Zel	Detailed Clinical Modeling Tool	Detailed Clinical Model templates and UML Profile MDG Technology for Enterprise Architect. An extension for creating consistent DCM's conform ISO 13972
	EHR-S FM Profile Tooling	UML Profile MDG Technology for Enterprise Architect. An extension to Enterprise Architect for creating and validating the FM and Profiles.
	MAX	Implementation of the MAX idea as an EA Extension
Jean Duteau	V3 Generator	Generates V3 Schemas
Frank Oemig	V2 Access Database	V2 Messaging structures
Grahame Grieve	Data Types MIF	Model Interface Format definition for Datatypes
Charlie McCay	Ramsey Systems' Schema Validator & V3 Generator	V3 Schema Validation Testing and tool to generate V3 schema
Adam Flinton	NHS V3 XML Processing Utilities	V3 XML Utilities at Open Health Tools
Paul Biron	HL7 V3 XML Publishing	V3 Publishing XML Transforms
Stacey Berger	MAX Prototype	Enterprise Architect Model Automated Extract Prototype
Robert Worden	V2-V3 Mapping	Maps V2 & other data structures to V3 structures
Dave Carlson	Model Driven Health Tools	CDA Templates Designer with UML output
Harold Solbrig	Vocabulary Manager	Manages HL7 V3 Vocabulary structures
Russ Hamm	Vocabulary Manager	Manages HL7 V3 Vocabulary structures
Ted Klein	OID Registry	Manages HL7 OID Registry
Cecil Lynch	OID Registry	Manages HL7 OID Registry
Austin Kreisler	Pub DB	Publication Database
Ewout Kramer	FHIR Pub	FHIR Publication Tool
Andy Stechishin	EHR-S FM Profile Tooling	UML Profile MDG Technology for Enterprise Architect. An extension to Enterprise Architect for creating and validating the FM and Profiles.
Matthew Graham	Messaging Work Bench (MWB)	V2 Messaging utility, Delphi-based
Michel Rutten	FHIR Forge
Marten Smits	FHIR Profile Registry

How you can participate:

• Requests for new tools should come from a Work Group's Tooling Liaison, if they have one, or from a Work Group's co-chair (if no liaison has been named).
  
• Requests for new tools should be added to the Tooling Requests wiki page
  

• Requests for enhancements to an existing tool should be added to that tool's GForge tracker. The standard GForge project for each tool should have "Bugs", "Support Requests", and "Feature Requests" trackers. This is also addressed in the Tooling Requests wiki page and also described in the publication on Tooling Requirements on GForge.
  
• Participation in testing tools
• Contributing to user documentation, FAQs, and other feedback mechanisms for tooling.

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Hot Topics

• Eclipse Architecture discussion
• Tools List discussion - action item assigned to Andy - what the Tooling WG is responsible for, a list of HL7 Tools and links to their documentation,
• HL7 - Tooling & Electronic Services alignment Andy to do a draft proposal for review in San Diego, to align the requirements gathering and tool selection processes to ensure resources are available to develop or enhance requests for tools that come to either group that may impact the other group. See PI# 801
• Update and upgrade Tooling Communication - Jane will draft a PSS for 2011Sep WGM to review current communications, create a communication plan to ensure interested parties can be fully informed about the Tooling Work Group processes and tools whether they are HL7 supported or available through other sources including Open Health Tools. See PI# 802
• Tooling Dashboard - Jane will draft a PSS for 2011Sept WGM to create a visual summary in the form of a “dash board” that provides a snapshot of what tools are available and what tooling projects are in process and what progress has been made. See PI# 803
• GForge evaluation - Andy will draft a PSS for 2011Sept WGM to describe the intent to evaluate in depth the change to our GForge provider, seeking the widest possible input. See PI# 804

Current Projects/Work

• HL7 Tooling Challenge
  • See last year's HL7 Tooling Challenge 2013 for more information on the UML Profile for MIF Static Models
• Tooling Strategy and Process Revision
• Tooling Communication Plan
• Tooling Dashboard
• HL7 Participation in the OHT HingX Project
• Migration of CA Generator to UV Requirements
• Tooling Project Role Descriptions
• Static Model Designer:
  • OHT - NHS sponsored Static Model Designer
  • Implementing OHT Static Model Designer in HL7 - essential enhancements needed - on hold pending funding
  • Preparation for Tooling related Tutorials - part of a plan for rolling out the new SMD
  • Derived Static Model Designer Architecture - Desirements for architecting an Eclipse-based model designer whose contents are derived from the HL7 RIM and/or static models that is, in turn, derived from the RIM.
• MAX - Model Automated eXchange - current project
• OHT - IHTSDO Workbench - OHT related project that is part of the strategic plan
• EHRs FM Profiling Tool
• OHT - HL7 UML Modeling Tools
  • HL7 Project #752 for Publish CDA IGs from Tooling; originating in MDHT_Template_Sub_Project need a statement of when MDHT tool should be used compared to the new Trifolia tool - invite Bob Dolin to a call and discuss - the Trifolia tool is a short term stop-gap for US template designing specs for ONC - MDHT generates code too
• Templates Registry Pilot - pilot suspended for lack of funding - current focus is revise the business requirements as informative document
• MIF-OWL Constraint Validation Tool
• Messaging Workbench

Products/Documents

Overview

• A variety of tooling documents, including an excellent overview of HL7 tools are maintained as file releases under the Tooling Documentation Project on the HL7 GForge site.
• User level documentation of many of the HL7-specific tools are listed as entries in the "How to" Category that is also linked from the right side of the Wiki Main page.
• Documentation of HL7 Internal Tooling Structure, Metadata, and Semantics, Release 4 is available on GForge as of 9/1/2011
• HL7 Tooling FAQs
  • To be evaluated as part of the acceptance of Wilfred's new Tooling documentation - Woody maintains the FAQs
• Migrate RIM Maintenance to OTS UML Modeling Tool
• Model Interchange Format (MIF) informative publication
• Migration of "Domain" Publishing to MIF2 foundation
• Subversion FAQs
• HL7 - CDA Template requirements package File:NLM - CDA Template tools requirements.zip

Acquisition and Installation

• Installing and Configuring HL7 Tools
  • Eclipse Tools Installation Instructions (for tools users)

Tool for Publishing and Static Model Design

• UML Profile for MIF Static Models
• RMIM_Designer_(Visio)_Documentation
• Using the Combined Publishing and Generator Tools (for Facilitators)

Other Documentation

• Source Code for most HL7 Tools is maintained in project-specific Subversion Repositories. These can be located through the SVN tab on the left side of each project page on the HL7 Gforge site.
• GForge Site Administration
• Creating and Using a Document Tab Control on HL7 Wiki
• draft SWOT update for 2012-01-12

Historical Links

links to old project wiki pages (no longer active)

• Tooling Tactical Steps (2010)
• Tactical Action Items
  • Tuesday Tooling Nights lists historical agendas from Tuesday Tooling nights which are led by Andy at each WGM
• gForge related projects
  • HL7 Project Homebase reorg
  • Tooling GForge Re-evaluation
• Historical info re the HL7 Tooling Collaborative - now superseded by Open Health Tools
  • HTC Tools Roadmap
  • Requirements for the MIF, Repository and Processes HTC Requirements
• OHT Architecture Project Value Proposition Survey
• Structured Document Template Design Pilot
• Vocabulary Harmonization Tool
• Update the Tooling Work Group wiki page - update 2011