NWS

Reviewing and Approving Improvement Ideas and Best Practices

The following process will guide VIT members in reviewing and approving improvement ideas and best practices.

1. Each VIT member reviews tickets with a Status of "New" that were submitted by someone in their organization using the following criteria:
   1. Is the ticket completely filled out?
   2. Is it clear what the user is suggesting?
   3. Is actionable?
   4. Falls within the scope of the VIT?
   5. Would the suggestion or best practice significantly benefit VLab users?
2. After working with the submitter to ensure the above criteria are satisfied, the VIT member changes the Status of the ticket to "Quality Controlled".
3. After the ticket has been quality controlled, the VIT member can change the ticket Status to one of the following states.
   1. Nominated Candidate: This change typically occurs just prior to a VIT meeting
      • Indicates that the ticket receives the support of the VIT member and is ready to be reviewed by the entire VIT
      • While in the "Nominated Candidate" Status, the ticket is reviewed by the entire VIT, decided if it is to be endorsed, and prioritized
   2. Rejected: If the ticket does not receive the support of the VIT member, the ticket Status is changed to "Rejected"
      • The VIT member should include their rationale for rejecting the ticket
      • The submitter receives an email indicating the ticket was rejected
      • The submitter can change the Status to "New" and resubmit an updated version of the ticket that takes the VIT member's feedback into account
   3. On-Hold: Tickets that have merit but cannot be endorsed by the VIT member for the current review cycle, have their Status set to "On-Hold"
      • When the ticket is ready for review by the entire VIT, the responsible VIT member can change its Status changed to "Nominated Candidate"
4. Prior to each VIT meeting, VIT members will review all tickets with a Status of "Nominated Candidate" and rank them based on benefit to users and the following 1 to 10 scale

   1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
   Some Benefit to Users				Significant Benefit to Users					Great Benefit to Users

5. VIT members enter their rankings into the consensus aggregation spreadsheet
6. Once a quorum of members, as defined in the team's Terms of Reference, has ranked candidate suggestions,VIT members will work to reach consensus at the next meeting on which tickets to recommend to the VLab Director for his/her consideration and the priority (ranking) of each issue
   • Once approved by the VIT, the VIT Executive Secretary will change the approved tickets' Status to "Endorsed"
   • The VLab Director reviews VIT approved tickets and integrates them into the Virtual Lab Support Team (VLST) prioritization and assignment process.  This process results in an implementation ticket with a Status of "New" and a "Related To" link pointing to the VIT ticket that initiated the new VLST ticket.
   • Tickets for which the VIT could not reach consensus are transitioned to a Status of "On-Hold" or "Rejected" by the VIT Executive Secretary. depending on group preferences.  If "On-Hold" the ticket's champion can once again change the Status to "Nominated Candidate" setting up another review by the VIT
7. Once the VLST implementation ticket reaches the Status of "Feedback", VLST staff will coordinate with the VIT member who submitted the issue to ensure the implementation meets with their satisfaction
8. After the VIT point of contact is satisfied with the implementation, both the VIT and VLST tickets have their Status changed to "Closed"