FHIR Ballot Process

This page is a draft as we refine the FHIR ballot process. This is a working page; the final version may be published in some other form.

Submission of Ballot Comments

• ballot comments are submitted through the standard ballot procedure (e.g. excel spreadsheets)
• as befits the FHIR publishing differences, the spreadsheets have slightly different columns. Columns:
  •  ?? (docunent differences from normal spreadsheet)

Reconciliation Process

• Reconciliation occurs following the HL7 GOM, bylaws, and processes, and also subject to the various committee DMPs
• The only difference between the FHIR ballot reconciliation process and other ballots is that FHIR uses gForge to track the status of the ballot line items

The FHIR gForge process:

• once the ballot closes, the spreadsheets are consolidated (including text comments from the ballots), and one of the FHIR editors checks each entry for integrity (is the line item understandable, is the vote valid, are the references correct. Non-valid line items are marked
• initial triage is performed in the spreadsheet - assigning responsible committees, cross-linking related ballot line items, assigning priorities
• all valid line items are uploaded to gForge, one task for each line item
• committees work on ballot line items like any other gForge comment - they are prioritised / resolved / etc
• for ballot line items, when the items are approved by committee, the disposition details are recorded in the appropriate fields for subsequent extraction
  • gForge fields are named the same as in the ballot spreadsheet

Why FHIR uses gForge:

• scale the ballot reconciliation process to involve multiple committees
• provide far greater visibility and transparency to the process
• integrate the ballot issues with other standing issues
• provide open public traceability for all changes to the specification