Exposing Digital Preservation and Access Workflows Through SIPOC, RACI and Brainwriting

Cliff Lynch: Welcome, everybody. Thanks for joining us today and we’ll be starting in about 90 seconds. Cliff Lynch: Welcome, everybody. Thanks for joining us and we’ll be starting in about a minute. Cliff Lynch: All right. Well, welcome everybody. I think it’s time to get started on Cliff Lynch. I’m the director of CNI and I welcome you to the Cliff Lynch: First Friday and the end of the first thematic week of project briefing sessions for the CNI virtual fall 2020 member meeting and I would just note that we will have some more sessions today and then Monday at four, I will lead a sort of a summing up session for the first week. Cliff Lynch: A couple of logistical things. There is a chat and please feel free to use that to identify yourself or make comments as the presentations unfold. There is also at the bottom of your screen.

A Q AMP a tool, please use that at any point during the presentations to 03:24 - Cliff Lynch: To our queue up questions will deal with all the questions at the end of the two presentations. When Diane golden Burkhardt from CNI will materialize and Cliff Lynch: Moderator Q AMP a session. I would also note that we are recording this session, it will be available. Subsequently, and closed captioning is also available. If you’d like to Cliff Lynch: Make use of that. Cliff Lynch: Let me with that introduce our speakers. We have with us today. Daniel Newman and Sue back both of the Ohio State University, excuse me, and they are going to explain some forbidding sounding acronyms. Cliff Lynch: Which you can see in front of you. Cliff Lynch: And also what brain writing is a term that I hadn’t come across until I saw their abstract, but really what this is all about. I think Cliff Lynch: At least as I understand it is about really thinking through what digital content and digital preservation mean to work flows and how appropriate workflows recognize those realities.

04:51 - Cliff Lynch: At many of our institutions, as you know, Cliff Lynch: Dealing with digital materials has just sort of been grafted on to very long standing workflows in ways that I would say are ever creakier as time goes on. So with that, I will welcome and thank our presenters and turn it over to Daniel to start the presentation. Daniel Noonan: Thank you, Cliff. Thanks for you all to come today to Daniel Noonan: Hear a presentation. So our first kind of public walkthrough of the work that we’ve been doing for the past six, eight months. Daniel Noonan: I’m Dan Noonan on the digital preservation library at The Ohio State University Libraries.

05:38 - Daniel Noonan: Today, Sue back and I will be discussing the use of Psy POC racy and brain writing and exposing our existing workflows. Daniel Noonan: That’s around digitization and born digital acquisition, as well as the arrangement description of providing access to and preservation. They’re up Daniel Noonan: To a senior systems consultant and I are members of the university libraries, information technology unit, we will be using a scripted presentation for the sake of future clarity as well as observing our commitments to the use of our limited amount of time most effectively. Daniel Noonan: We are gathered here in Columbus, the unseeded lands of indigenous people who have been coming to what is now the state of Ohio for thousands of years. Daniel Noonan: And the series of large scale geometric boundary in effigy or work still visible in central and southern Ohio.

06:24 - Daniel Noonan: bear witness to this region’s historical importance as a center of economic spiritual artistic and intellectual endeavor and exchange. Daniel Noonan: Be acknowledged Central Ohio as the traditional home and of the Shawnee Miami Hopewell y n dot and other indigenous nations, we have strong ties to the lands today individuals from broad range of indigenous backgrounds call Columbus in Central Ohio home. Daniel Noonan: At the beginning of 2020 when the university libraries was back at full complement with various roles that affect the management of our digital content. Daniel Noonan: A group of librarians and curators proposed the revival of a work group to provide a cross functional consistent approach to managing are born digital acquisitions and our digitized materials. Daniel Noonan: Various work groups over the past decade have come together around issues pertinent to our digital content with success in developing guidance.

Others efforts have not necessarily seen the light of day. Daniel Noonan: Further, there was confusion at times as to where to find definitive University Libraries information regarding digitizing materials accessing born digital materials and where we will preserve and provide access to them. Daniel Noonan: One of the goals of this group, the digital preservation and access work group or DPA will be to provide a single point of access to find discover and manage the institutional knowledge. Daniel Noonan: Further, the DPA intends to provide transparency and decision making regarding priorities guidelines and standards that the libraries adopt in these areas. Daniel Noonan: We will define refine and clarify roles and responsibilities around preservation curation of digital collections.

07:59 - Daniel Noonan: Standardized the obsession and processing of born digital collections digitization processing for at risk collections and digitization prioritization and processing for providing online access to collections. Daniel Noonan: Will work to ensure consistent implementation of metadata profiles implement best practices for digital collection lifecycle management. Daniel Noonan: And continually evaluate University Libraries current capabilities and make recommendations with input from all stakeholders around the evolution of services. Daniel Noonan: Initial charge from our sponsoring associate Dean’s Jennifer Bender Paul and Carla stream meant to eventually achieve these loftier goals is something much more basic Daniel Noonan: To identify our existing workflows that affect born digital acquisitions and processing digitization providing access to digital materials and the preservation there of answering the question, what are the intersections gaps redundancies and areas for improvement. Daniel Noonan: But first we have to ask yourself, who are we doing this for who are stakeholders stakeholder is not a one size fits all category or just a singular target.

09:03 - Daniel Noonan: This is where we can often air not being transparent enough when contemplating who are stakeholders are we need to gauge their influence versus their interest. Daniel Noonan: Clearly are critical stakeholders are those that have been at have both high interest and influence and we need to keep them involved and most thoroughly manage them, but who are other stakeholders. Daniel Noonan: major stakeholders are those that have a significant ability to influence but possibly a lower level of day to day interest. Daniel Noonan: These are the types of folks, we need to keep satisfied by anticipating and meeting their needs. Daniel Noonan: Significant stakeholders are those that have an interest in what we’re doing, but do not have much influence our outcomes.

These are folks, we just need to keep completely informed. Daniel Noonan: And finally, minor stakeholders are the those that have a low interest in low minimal ability to influence is the folks, we need to provide a limited effort to keep informed to be a minimal contact Daniel Noonan: So who are our stakeholders. It is a long list. Clearly, this represents a wide swath of the university libraries and somebody suggested isn’t wide or complete enough Daniel Noonan: But it is a starting point. Are these all critical stakeholders that depends. It will vary as we work through the workflow mappings and analysis. Daniel Noonan: Some stakeholders may have a relatively static role.

For example, a couple of the major stakeholders who need 10:19 - Daniel Noonan: Who we need to anticipate meet their needs. Throughout the process our sponsors are associate Dean’s and by extension the Dean of Libraries and the rest of the executive team. Daniel Noonan: Whereas myself as representing digital preservation may have a more fluid stakeholder role, ranging from significant to major to critical depending upon the workflow or process. Daniel Noonan: We also do not necessarily see this as a complete list we hold expect reveal, and we have other stakeholders through this process that we may not have previously contemplated Daniel Noonan: Having identified our stakeholders, at least initially, what do we do next, we needed to begin to identify and differentiate our processes and workflows. Daniel Noonan: This initially should be conducted from a very high level point of view, identifying activities functions handoffs associated with our work around acquiring and processing born digital collections.

11:12 - Daniel Noonan: digitize their existing materials and addressing how we actually preserve and provide access to these digital materials. Daniel Noonan: By a high level point of view, imagine looking at a map zoomed out to show Ohio State in relation to Franklin County, Ohio and surrounding areas. Daniel Noonan: As opposed to being zoomed in to identify campus buildings and roads. Daniel Noonan: It is this broader abstraction that we’re aiming for, at the beginning of the process. Daniel Noonan: We have engaged in the utilizing three techniques to help us visualize and understand the workflow and processes that allow us to provide access to and preservation of our born digital and digitize content.

11:52 - Daniel Noonan: These techniques come to us from the realm of process improvement roots in total quality management that continued to be used in Lean and six sigma programs. Daniel Noonan: The side pocket sized sighs provides for a very high level view of our workflow process, the steps in the process are aggregated up to a level of extraction that still allow us to understand suppliers inputs, outputs handoffs and customers. Daniel Noonan: The intent is to ensure that all processes are represented Daniel Noonan: Following up on the sidewalk each group will be asked to conduct a race to determine for each step with inner process, who is responsible accountable consulted or needs to be informed. Daniel Noonan: And finally we will engage in brain writing the further tease out the granularity of the steps identified within the sidewalk. Daniel Noonan: And with that I’ll turn it over to sue.

12:37 - Sue Beck: Site box simply stands for suppliers inputs process outputs and customers, suppliers, okay providers of inputs to the process. Sue Beck: Inputs defined a material service Android information that are used by the process to produce the outputs. Sue Beck: It processes defined as a sequence of activities that usually add value to inputs to produce the outputs. Sue Beck: Or transform it puts two outputs for the customers in a traditional side POC, they are at a minimum, four and maximum of seven high level steps that should be constructed in a verb, noun structure. Sue Beck: outputs are the products, services, our information that is valuable to the customer, the customers are users of the outputs produced or transformed by the process.

It can be people, organizations machines or even software. Sue Beck: Consequently, si Park looks on like a table and it lends itself well to being documented in a spreadsheet, however. Sue Beck: The interesting thing about side pockets that is not created in the linear manner that the acronym suggests Sue Beck: The creation of a side Park actually happens inside out. The first phase is to identify the name and identify a name, the high level process or workflow. Sue Beck: This is followed by moving to the middle and mapping it in four to seven high level process steps there has to be a first step and Alaska.

14:20 - Sue Beck: With a minimum of two and a maximum of five additional steps. Next we move to the right side to identify the outputs of these process steps. Sue Beck: Which is followed by identifying the customers that will receive these outputs. Now we jump to the left side in order to identify the inputs required for each of the process steps to function properly. Sue Beck: Finally, we identified the suppliers of the inputs that are required by the process steps.

14:54 - Sue Beck: Once you complete a side Park, it can be reviewed with project sponsors champions and other involve stakeholders for verification Sue Beck: Identifying and articulating the process steps, maybe the most difficult part of the process as participants can get sidetracked in a granular details, instead of abstracting this steps up to a higher more marginalized level. Sue Beck: This is an example all the completed side pop for our archives group archives digitization Sue Beck: However, Sue Beck: This is where they started from naming the process and starting with the first step request for digitization, followed by identifying the last step storage of material, then they fill the remaining steps in between. Sue Beck: After recording the process steps we begin to identify outputs of those steps. Sue Beck: Which leads to identifying the customers of those outputs. Sue Beck: From there we jump back to the other side of the matrix and begin to identify the input to the process steps.

16:14 - Sue Beck: Before finally identifying the suppliers of those inputs, leading to a completed sidewalk. Sue Beck: After completing the sidewalk, we can begin to conduct the racy exercise. Sue Beck: This exercise allow us to identify the rules and the accompanying responsibilities that they may have for each process step this acronym stands for Responsible accountable consulted and informed. Sue Beck: We need to make a distinction. However, between a role and individually identify people it role is a descriptor of an associated set of tasks that an individual is capable of completing these may be performed by many people. For example, enroll might be a scan technician. Sue Beck: Where as an individual is one person that performs a particular role or roles individual one could be a scan technician while individual to could be a scan technician and maybe a conservations to technician. Sue Beck: In a receipt.

We find responsible accountable consulted and informed as follows. Sue Beck: A row is responsible if they are those who do the work to complete the task, there has to be at least one role that is responsible, although others can be delegated assist and they’re required work. Sue Beck: The role is ultimately answerable to the correct and thorough completion of deliverable or task is deemed accountable. Sue Beck: They ensure the prerequisites of the task or mad and delegate the work to those responsible Sue Beck: There must be one and only one accountable roles specified for each task or deliverable. Sue Beck: The first of the two optional roles are those that are consulted.

18:11 - Sue Beck: These are roles, whose opinions or saw typically subject matter experts and with whom there is two way communication. Sue Beck: The second optional final role is that of inform these folks are kept up to date on a progress often only on a completion of a task or deliverable with and with whom there is just one way communication. Sue Beck: The racy can be completed by creating a matrix where the rules are at minimum, the process steps from this side Park, but could be augmented with more granular steps. Sue Beck: As in our example here, based upon that archives digitization side Park Debbie’s just shared the first step along with step three, four and five have been further broken down due to a divergence in actual workflow and applicable roles. Sue Beck: The receipt can be completed in one of two manners in version one Sue Beck: Which we see here the columns represent are a CI and for each process. The roles or persons are identified.

Each step must have at least one responsible, but only one accountable ruler individual 19:35 - Sue Beck: In this version, one can quickly identify who is responsible accountable consulted and informed. Sue Beck: Particularly to verify that there is one and only one accountable person or role for each step. While there may be multiple roles for people, or people responsible consulted or informed. Sue Beck: In our example, it was an initial path that identified multiple accountable roles for a few process steps which led us to further dividing those Sue Beck: Inversion to the columns represent the various roles and can be further broken down by individuals. Sue Beck: For each step one indicates if their role or individual is responsible accountable consulted on orient formed Sue Beck: In this version, one can see how it rule or an individual’s participation changes throughout the process as well as the aggregated aggregate of their responsibilities both versions provide us with valuable insight into workflow and his processes.

20:48 - Sue Beck: The race is an important bridge to the brain writing process. It helps us die helps us identify who needs to be in the proverbial room for the brain writing exercise. Sue Beck: We are using the term of brain writing not brainstorming. What is the difference Sue Beck: In a brain storming session we approached the exercise with an open mind where the sky is the limit, trying to get all the potential ideas on the table from various points of view. Sue Beck: However, the objective in front of us is to determine and document the now and what we are currently doing not what we want to be doing, regardless of whether we are doing the right thing or not.

21:33 - Sue Beck: Brain writing allows us to dive deeper beyond those four to seven process steps and examine our processes with finer granularity. Sue Beck: There are various brain writing methods available, such as 365. Well, we decided on a simplified version we selected this method with the following benefits in mind. Sue Beck: fast and efficient less social anxiety and competing personalities and avoiding the groupthink consensus this process would ensure that all ideas were recorded by the individuals who sought of them. Additionally, eliminating the recorders bias and control.

22:20 - Sue Beck: If you want to conduct this exercise in a traditional venue, we would be in a conference room with a whiteboard and folks in the room would have pads of note the post it notes in front of them. Sue Beck: We would ask them to itemize all the micro processes and activities involved in each of the process steps identified in a sidebar on a series of posted notes and then have them all placed on the whiteboard. Sue Beck: However, we are currently in the throes of coven related restrictions and only which only allows us to meet virtually therefore we look, we look for virtual whiteboard tools in order to accomplish this activity. Sue Beck: Having settled upon Google’s jam board as a not as a no cost alternative we quickly run into some limitations. Our problem was twofold. Sue Beck: The first the tool itself whether jam board or other like tools were cumbersome for some average users.

Second, there is no way for the individuals to create their set of posted notes before sharing them. Sue Beck: They are they are right out there in front of everyone. And folks start to react to them without doing their own brain writing so stifling the progress. Sue Beck: So we went back to the drawing board, pun intended. We constructed a spreadsheet option that would allow each team individual to itemize the steps as well as identifying general notes, no dependencies. Sue Beck: Additionally, as Dan and I review these these brand writings. We are we are adding our own notes and questions or clarifications, it is from these spreadsheets that we will begin to diagram. Visualize process maps and workflows. Sue Beck: Dan, you’re muted. Sue Beck: There we go. Daniel Noonan: Yep, I knew I do that. Sorry. Thank you. So Daniel Noonan: Once we have our site box for UC and brain writing and complete we’ll be able to analyze the data along with validating and confirming it Daniel Noonan: Based upon the validated confirmed results, we will be able to develop process maps with accurate information about the steps within the process, the roles and individuals involved and where there are intersections in handoffs as well as missed opportunities. Daniel Noonan: Soon I are taking the information gathered in the brain writing exercise to begin to visualize the actual workflows. Daniel Noonan: As but the brain writing exercise we had originally hoped to use online tools for drawing the visualization of the workflows.

25:11 - Daniel Noonan: But we ran into the same issue of them being time consuming cumbersome for the average user. Therefore, we have gone old school, as can be seen here with the hand drawn visualizations. Daniel Noonan: Once these have been validated with the particular groups, we will turn these over to someone who is competent with drawing tools to finalize our visualizations, probably in Vizio Daniel Noonan: The ultimate goal will be to assemble a larger visualization of all the processes identifying not only the steps within the processes. Daniel Noonan: The roles and individuals involved and where there are the intersections of handoffs but he organization redundancies gaps and best practices is Daniel Noonan: It is the intention that this will allow us to chart a more holistic cohesive approach to acquiring accessing and processing born digital materials digitizing our existing content and then actively preserving and providing access to that digital content. Daniel Noonan: So as a recap of the steps involved in so overall project, we will be identifying all existing processes related to providing access to and preservation of are born digital and digitize content.

26:14 - Daniel Noonan: We are utilizing sigh POC racy and brain writing tools to complete the list of process steps capturing roles and individuals and handoffs Daniel Noonan: leading to the development of a process map the draft process maps be shared and validated with our stakeholders presented to our digital preservation access work group for final considerations before sharing with our sponsors and the greater University Libraries community. Daniel Noonan: This is an ongoing project, you can track our progress at the goal link is on the slides, which is also been put into the chat. Daniel Noonan: As with any project. There are challenges and benefits that we can identify as we progress. Daniel Noonan: On the challenges front we had to pivot early on as the pandemic disrupted. How we intended to conduct this exercise, and we had to determine ways to transforming typically Daniel Noonan: Tackle face to face test into one that is conducted in the virtual environment aside pocket activity can be extremely challenging to get participants to focus on modeling the process in a series of limited macro steps and not get caught up and granular minutia.

27:16 - Daniel Noonan: And then transitioning them back at a later date to focus on was microprocessors minutiae inevitably leading to response. Don’t we already discussed this, and you didn’t want this detail. Daniel Noonan: But the answer is yes, but now is the time to discuss it. Daniel Noonan: And as discussed by utilizing tools within the virtual environment instantly putting it into shared spreadsheet on jam board. The fact that it’s right there out in front of everyone. Sometimes stifles the discussion.

27:42 - Daniel Noonan: On the flip side, we have been told by many participants that this has created the opportunity to examine contemplate interrogate the processes and workflows for the first time. Daniel Noonan: It is encouraged systems thinking among our libraries colleagues. Well, we’ve had to revise our approach for data collection as we progressed, we now have the side pop racy and brain writing consolidated into a single workbook for each workflow. Daniel Noonan: We have been able to document gaps that we kind of knew were there as well as ones that weren’t or we didn’t know were there. And finally, we learned that the need to be up the pivot is a challenge and not an obstacle. Thank you. And we are open for questions.

28:25 - Diane Goldenberg-Hart (CNI): Thank you so much, Dan and Sue, that was really interesting overview of what sounds like a very complex process but yield some really useful results. It seems that you’re finding which is wonderful. Diane Goldenberg-Hart (CNI): So it’s really interesting and we appreciate you coming to see an eye to chat about it and I would like to invite our attendees to Diane Goldenberg-Hart (CNI): type your questions into the Q AMP a tool and I’ll be happy to pass those along and share them with Dan and Sue, so that we can hear more about what they’ve learned. And thank you also to our attendees for taking time out of your day to spend a little time with us here at CNI Diane Goldenberg-Hart (CNI): I was curious to know, while we’re waiting to see what kind of questions we have from our audience. So you’re in the process of drawing together all your findings and Diane Goldenberg-Hart (CNI): You’ve got your mapped your handwritten map that you’re going to be translating into something more. Diane Goldenberg-Hart (CNI): Polished and this is going to be sent along and finalized.

So what happens when steps in the process change as invariably, they will look what happens at that point. Daniel Noonan: Well at this point we’re trying to get the sense of what we’re actually doing. And because of that, we know there’ll be gaps. We know there will be changes. So part of what comes out of this ultimately is a recommendation for process improvement within the libraries. Daniel Noonan: And so, you know, we’ve been looking at everything from the way our special collections folks look at Daniel Noonan: Whether it’s it’s a digitization project or potentially accessing born digital materials. Our metadata. Daniel Noonan: Folks interact in that process, how the digitization group works with that how our copyright interests or collection management.

30:25 - Daniel Noonan: So, and we’re still in the process of conducting even some of the initial cyborgs shed as begin to Daniel Noonan: Piece these things together as we move down the road. So the map that you saw there is just one small workflow. We’ve got a lot more maps or to all come together in the larger maps and and you know Daniel Noonan: Do we see in somebody’s sigh POC where they were doing this or consulting that person. Daniel Noonan: That three or four others or not. Is that the right thing to be doing, or maybe those other ones are supposed to be doing it or maybe that one.

It’s like, why did you do that nobody else 30:58 - Daniel Noonan: So we’re still that’s that’s ultimately what we hope to get out of this is so that we can improve the process, but at the same time then is, is make this visual so that Daniel Noonan: Everybody in the libraries understands how the processes work and how we’re part of a bigger project management exercise than just in our local areas within the libraries. Diane Goldenberg-Hart (CNI): That makes sense. So it’s bringing a lot more transparency to the elements in the process itself. Diane Goldenberg-Hart (CNI): Right. Okay, that’s really interesting. Thank you. And what does the staff say about this method. Sue Beck: It’s been interesting especially some of the Sue Beck: I’m sure everybody else kind of felt the same way that when they heard the acronyms and what they are and a yeah you know just trying to for the first time, as Dan mentioned someone won’t were exposed to thinking about their process, thinking about Sue Beck: Things that are happening in the process beyond what they’re very specific part of the process that they were responsible for Sue Beck: And that’s what the system thinking kind of came in, like, then let me think beyond the silo of me and what comes across my desk. So it’s been we’ve heard that it’s been an eye opening.

It’s been like an aha for a lot of folks just think about the bigger 32:21 - Sue Beck: Cumulative effort that goes into getting something, you know, from, you know, from the paper to the hands of the user in a digital manner. And this is just hopefully goes beyond the, the digital preservation and access and you can be thought about like everything that happening at the libraries. Diane Goldenberg-Hart (CNI): Well, that’s really interesting. Diane Goldenberg-Hart (CNI): Well, thank you so much. I see we’re right at time. So I’m going to go ahead and close down Diane Goldenberg-Hart (CNI): The recording of this session and thank everyone for attending and just invite any of our attendees who are still around.

If you would like to approach the podium and have a chat with our 33:05 - Diane Goldenberg-Hart (CNI): Speakers, please feel free to do so, just raise your hand and I can unmute you. And we will be back again and half an hour, two o’clock eastern time for our next webinar. That’s part of the CNI fall membership meeting hope to see you there. Thank you again. Dan and sue. Take care. Daniel Noonan: Thank you. .