Survival Recovery System Draft
Design
Overview:
The "Survival Recovery
System" will revolutionize email communication and slow down spam and
virus vulnerability. SRS will provide a
centralized communication collaboration system where all corporate workflow can
be done.
People join the SRS and are
allowed to post messages to channels.
The SRS operates on the assumption that the “people have the
answers”. Center leader are promoted from
the community and control the “workflow” of the message. Center leaders are trusted community members
and are expected to have integrity and promote the general welfare of the
community.
As the message advances
through time: all the work decision history is stored, auxilliary attachments
are connected to the message, drill down into feedback between channel groups
is possible, and all channel group comments are embedded in the message.
Keith Ogden is quoted to
say, "we must be able to measure time performance" between channel
groups. The message structure can be
analyzed to extract time and quality metrics.
Keith believes the SRS will become a CMM business intelligence
tool. Its possible to built ghant
charts for the time lines stored in the message.
Think about the message as
a piece of work on an assembly line. At
any point, a controller, in the SRS can see the progress of the work
message. Because the message is
associated with a priority status it will be possible to see which agencies are
being over run with critical messages.
The most powerful
feature of the tool will be the capability to correspond back and forth from the SRS
to anyone in the world and requesting a response, while maintaining all information
historical information within the confines of the SRS. No information is lost in a correspondence
of emails.
As companies start to rely
more and more on information, a centralized approach to information management
only makes sense.
This is the setup form for
the dynamic form.
The user will be able to
add or remove an unlimited number of fields on the data form.
Step 1: The user
creates a form and associates the it with a channel classification
Step 2: The user
enters in field information, such as, sort position, field type, field name,
field length, and field description.
If the field type is a list box, the user will be able to enter in list
box items.
Step 3: The dynamic
form will then generate the input html form to be stored in the database and an
output xsl to transform the inputted xml structure into output readable html.
The form transform component will take the definition and build an html form to be stored in the database. The html form will receive input from the form and transform it into a message xml structure stored in the central database.
Workflow manages the
channels of the Message and ensures the correct people are in the loop to work
the message. The channels are
represented as code numbers extending from point to another point, as
demonstrated in the following diagram.

For example, channels code
21 is the enter channel into the command center where it receives a priorty
number. The priority number inhibits
the level of responsiveness. Suppose,
we have a structure of channels codes as follows: (22) represents Accounts
Payable and (23) represents Inventory and (24) represents the controller and (25)
represents the SRC command central CEO.
Suppose individual X submits a message.
Individual X enters in information requests from the dynamic form. Individual Xs data entered information will
be a part of the message structure.
Also, some resource information about individual X will be a part of the
message structure.
In this case, Accounts
Payable (22) receives the incoming message.
Members in the groups (22) can add notes, documents, or request feedback
from various external groups through email collaboration. Now the message contains notes, uploaded
documents, feedback information, and decision information from both
groups. Only the center leader of group
22 can promote the message on to the Controller. The route of promotion will depend on the structure of the
company’s workflow steps. The
Controller group can review the notes, decisions, feedback and promote it back
for more rework or promote it on to the SRS Center CEO.
One and only one group
can manage a message, at a time. This
is the controller group. The controller
group will be able to cross talk with other groups while taking exclusive
ownership of the message. Ownership
transfers after the center leader promotes the message. So, if (22) becomes the controller group, it
can cross talk with anyone about collaboration information. Individuals receiving requests for
information will response through a public SRS response web page.
At command center, messages
can be queried and displayed by entering a channel. The channels queues will need to be completely mapped out, so
movement occurs in the prearrange pipe.
This mapping out should be a part of the Emergency Plan checklist.
People are associated to a
channels number. When new messages
arrive in the channel individuals associated with the channel are notified.
The important aspect of the
message flow is that it is treat like an assembly line
product. The message must work through the
system. It will show all the feedback
information and decisions made.
Decisions are (Yes, No, and Hold) rules.
In some cases, before
promotion acceptance can occur, a series of expert questions must be
answered. Depending on the results of
the logic tree, other channels may be recommended, by the system. The controller group can make the choice to
accept the channel advice or ignore it.
A history of the channels will be appended to the message. Additionally, one or more documents can be
attached to the message.
Features of a Channel
For example, if a message
involved accounting, the message may be need to route to in a formal promotion
route or deviate to other groups. A
search capability will allow searching and reporting for a specific message.
There are three roles a
user can play: basic user, center leader, or administrator. Only the center leader can promote the
message to another channel. The Center
leader can decide the different routes the message needs to take. Center leader may want to monitor the
message status being worked by other center leaders and coordinate handoff.
In many cases, having a
centralized point for the mixture of messages makes sense. So the different groups talk about one topic
and work through the issues together.
We anticipate the groups will generate a lot of cross talk and the cross
talk will always map back to the originating message. The cross talk remains as support communication. Cross talk may include two types of communication
coordination: general discussions and more department-specific communications. The user can segment the type of cross talk
communication by adding a user define feedback topic to post feedback too. Perhaps a gag topic will be created to talk
trivia and post personalized social information not relevant to a work topic.
The work message will
receive the following
There will be three levels
of authentication:
Each resource can be
assigned the following privileges
All
Privileges
Post
a Message
Promote
Message
Add
Note
Cross
Talk
Change
Priority
Upload
Document
Download
Document
Delete
Document
Resource Admin
Message Admin
Form Admin
Authentication
Channel Admin
Remove Note
Basic
Entry level User
Post
a Message
Cross
Talk
Add
Note
Download
Document
Super
User
Post
a Message
Add
Note
Cross
Talk
Upload
Document
Download
Document
Delete
Document
Form
Admin
Remove
Note
Administrator
Post
a Message
Promote
Message
Add
Note
Cross
Talk
Change
Priority
Upload
Document
Download
Document
Delete
Document
Resource Admin
Message Admin
Form Admin
Authentication
Channel Admin
Remove Note
The user will prompted the first time to take ownership of the system.
Center Leader Promotion:
The user applies for leadership promotion by entering in the authentication code. Only the system administrator can change the authentication code to avoid abuse by unauthorized promotions. A member list will show the leaders and the basic entry users, so the community will spot intruders immediately.
A way will be developed to
allow everyone to identify who's online.
Center leaders will be able to run reports to see if the right people
involved in the decision process and are notified about requested assistence on
a specific message.
Channels with a key symbol, will restrict entry, by assigned personnel. A Center Leader or Administrator will be
allowed to assign personnel to a channel. A channel can be viewed by anyone if no personnel are assigned
to it. However, once a channel has been assigned to specific personnel, only those personnel can
view the message. Anyone can post the message.
Command central will have a
series to “light signals” that tell if the group
Side conversations will be
possible through cross talk communication.
The “Cross Talk” feature will group members to talk offline about the
work message. This will keep the main
message structure from getting cluttered with trivia. Cross talk will allow group members to continue a side
conversation about the message. Members
can post messages to external individuals.
The system will generate an email notification to the external
individual letting them post a response back into cross talk. Only members are post Cross Talk messages,
but any external individual may respond.
So one will be able to see the posted messages and the external
responses. This feature provides the
ultimate security and traceability for logging email correspondence.
The system will be pre
structured when a certain message arrives on a certain channel number that all
members in the group will be notified by email that a new work message is
pending. An individual can belong to one
or more channel groups and it is possible for them to be working many messages
simulateously.
Each individual can filter
messages arriving in channels for which they have responsibility over. This will allow the individual to know
immediately when a message has arrived requiring their attention. It may become necessary to segment
individuals into roles and limit their privileges on the message, such as,
priority assignment, message promotion, and comments/document attachment.
The SRS email component
will allow feedback notification requests to be sent
from the orignator to a
specific individual or group. This
functionality will be a part of the cross talk. The cross talk feedback item will be posted in the database and
an email sent out telling the group, a cross talk item is awaiting their
response. The email will contain a
link back into the feedback message. So SRS will use email to notify and
coordinate activity occuring within the SRS.
Center leaders have the
privilege to promote a message to another channel. This is done from the message page by selected the target channel
and pressing the promote button. A
history note is append to the message with the following information:
So as, the message gets
promoted through the pipeline, messages with higher priorities get the highest
visibility. Also, the user can filter
messages according to a specific message priority. At a glance, you should be able to tell how someone is doing,
like on a scale of 1-5, if they're up and running or just barely
communicating.
Follow-up will be
critical. People can select how much
message traffic they want to see based on the priority system. They can ask for all traffic, only priority
1s, etc. If a hospital is burning down,
you don't want it to get lost in a thousand incoming messages. Filtering and deciphering information
quickly will be important. If their
state is '0', we know they're not okay.
Once the workload starts, keeping track of the progress becomes
critical. Estimates to completion
should be available to show progress.
The survival center might have a person delegated to review only
(priority 1) traffic. Another would
only get priority 2 traffic. Lower
priority messages can be moved to a low priority queue and worked when
convenient. The idea of segmentation
and integration is definitely required.
The Emergency Plan
Sometimes the center leader
will become overwhelmed. Other times
they will need to get more information.
The cross talk forum allows them to talk directly with relevant
resources to get more detail. A system
of color codes will help them understand their message status.
Each community will have a
different emergency plan. It is
important to careful review the emergency plan and make sure that a continuity
folder is created to document a series of checklist items to follow.
So the checklists represent
the sequential steps in the emergency plan.
Center leaders will be able to set up an checklist template and once the
template has been defined with questions it can be used to store the center
leaders responses. The structure of the
checklist is a set of questions with checkboxes for leader to click. The information is stored in the database.
Some
indicators would tell progress, others would tell workload, etc. Each community would have its own workflow
plan. Other indicator lights would
designate specific needs. The workflow
plan would need to be pre-set-up.
Messages that don't fit the pre-design workflow could go into an
overflow area where a specialist could decide where to route it. I think if the message goes to the community
and it does not fit a classification then they have a miscellaneous channel,
and then they research where to put it.
Reporting will be
important. We want the submitting
source to do a lot of the classification.
Reports need to be generated by the system like a to-do list. A generalized report could be based on the
color of the indicator lights on the state board. The message system must be comprehensive, versatile and easy to
use. People will be under extreme
pressure. There will be a lot of garbage
coming in. They will need to sort out
what is accurate and what is false. We
may think of all the ways they would use it, but in emergencies, they'll be
using it in even different ways we never thought of. Messages will need to be verified. Some kind of system of "margin of error" should come
with each message. Is the message
source credible or non-credible? Emergency
verification may be required. Send a
resource to see if the building is burning.
The SRC will need to be able to produce a number of helpful reports. A dynamic report generator may become helpful, allowing command center the ability to build reports on the fly, easily and intuitively.