Instructions for Creating a Team

The primary reason to form a team is to quickly produce and begin using vendor-neutral, performance based Information Exchange products. There are two other types of products produced by teams, Informational products and Best Practice products.

To get your team running as quickly as possible the Alliance has developed a simple set of requirements and requests some information to help the you:

1. organize the problem so that phased product deliverables can be produced in 12- to 24-month cycles,
2. coordinate expected results with intersecting stakeholder communities,
3. allow support service and software vendors plan how they may connect with team efforts, and
4. coordinate the expected products with related national standards and international model view definition projects.

The procedure for creating a team is:

1. A group of subject matter experts self-identifies the need for interoperability solutions.
2. The group of subject matter experts selects a point of contact to contact who will contact the Alliance. While not mandatory, at this stage, this contact should be a member of the Alliance.
3. The point of contact identifies the appropriate Alliance Program Director and/or Project Coordinator and holds informal discussion about the group's interoperability needs.
4. The point of contact completes brief the Project Creation Form has it approved by their subject matter expert group and submits the form to the appropriate Alliance Program Director and Project Coordinator.
5. Projects fully sponsored by other organizations that directly support Alliance goals will be co-listed by the Alliance following a brief coordination conference call with appropriate Program Director, Executive Director, and Project Coordinator. The Executive director work with the other organization's project point of contact to determine how Alliance members will be apprised of the teams' progress.
6. Projects requesting partial Alliance sponsorship will require approval by the Alliance Executive Committee. The appropriate Alliance Program Director or Project Coordinator will present the Project Creation Form to the Alliance Executive Committee at the next regularly scheduled meeting as new business.
   1. A response to the point of contact will be provided via email within 30 days.
   2. If there is a related Alliance, the Program Director will direct the team leader to that existing effort.
   3. If there is no related effort, the Program Director will request submission of the Team Planning Form.
7. The point of contact completes the Project Creation Form, has it approved by their subject matter expert group and submits the form to the appropriate Alliance Program Director and/or Project Coordinator. The Team Planning Form is coordinated with related Alliance members and the full Work Group is identified. Often the team will include professional and trade associations, business process stakeholders, software manufacturers, analysts, and software engineers.
8. The appropriate Alliance Program Director or Project Coordinator will present the Team Planning Form to the Alliance Executive Committee at the next regularly scheduled meeting as new business. A response to the point of contact will be provided via email within 30 days. In general team plans will be approved with comments regarding the need to fully coordinate the project with specifically named organizations, standards, or stakeholders.
9. Following approval of the team the related Program Director will work with Alliance staff to:
   1. issue an Alliance Press Release about the project.
   2. establish a team web page to help distribute information about the project to other Alliance members,
   3. establish a team file exchange repository to streamline information exchange among group members, and establish a team list server to streamline the maintenance of emailing lists and contact information.

Updating the Plan

While team members are expected to become members of the Alliance, the Alliance does not currently charge teams for the administration and consultation required to coordinate team activities. These Alliance efforts are currently provided on a volunteer basis. As a result, the Alliance does not have staff to tracks the progress of your project(s).

For the Alliance to continue to provide support to teams it is critical for the entire Alliance to have a good understanding of the team's progress toward its goals. As a result, the Team Planning Form requires that point of contact briefly note any changes or updates to the plan on a monthly basis.

To make sure that the Alliance provides supports only to active teams, that respect the collaborative and primarily volunteer nature of the Alliance, those teams not reporting progress over the course of six months will receive two notifications and then be de-listed from the Alliance project page.