Problem Statement

Sahana Eden should be easy to use out of the box, accessible to new users and quick to configure in preparation for or response to a disaster. Sahana Eden is currently difficult to use unless customized to a specific context. DSO aims to identify and document the common requirements for different types of users, which Sahana will implement, so that users can deploy and customize the software in an easier manner.

Scope

DSO will deliver requirements for Sahana Eden feature sets based on personas, scenarios, and user stories. Each deliverable will be validated through the Sahana community and documented on the Sahana Eden Wiki.

The time scope of the project is the Stanford Winter and Spring Quarters in 2015.

Feature Set / User

In order to facilitate the future development of a configuration tool (by a Sahana developer) that will ease Sahana set up, we plan to outline feature sets. These feature sets will define and encompass key features of Sahana that a deployment of Sahana may employ. There is a need for multiple feature sets as different disaster scenarios require different tools, mobilization of personnel, etc.

User Personas

To understand what Sahana modules and features ought to belong together in a feature set, we took a user-centric approach and developed user personas. These personas are intended to be an imagination of what different Sahana users would be like, including their backgrounds, job scopes, and goals - and to that end, what Sahana modules the would find most valuable in their job.

We developed personas for different roles, including DRR Project Officer, HR Coordinator, Red Cross Volunteer, etc. These personas can be found here: ​User Personas

Interviews

In order to verify the accuracy of the developed personas, we will conduct a user study on users and potential users of Sahana. Many of these people (​User Study Participants) fit the user roles we seeked to define personas for. Interviews are ongoing. A list of interview questions can be found here: ​Interview Questions (Take note that these questions are non-exhaustive and the interview is open-ended)

Product and Technical Requirements

Stakeholders

Within Sahana:

Market Assessment

Product Overview and Use Cases

Functional Requirements

Defines what the web setup toolkit should do

Usability Requirements

Technical Requirements

Defines security, network, platform, integration, clients

Environmental Requirements

Support/Maintenance Requirements

Interaction Requirements

Defines how the web toolkit should work with other systems

Assumptions

Constraints

High level workflow plans

Timelines and Milestones

More info in our project plan/scope: ​https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BCGrEnTtgKCWCrvI9XQl1_ePkJdz8QYCd88hKIBOC78/edit#

Evaluation Plan and Performance Metrics

Data Sources

Currently there is data (predominantly Location Hierarchy/Boundaries atm) available to load into Sahana instances here: http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/wiki/GIS/Data

This works well for anyone comfortable with system administration using the command line, however it is currently inaccessible to users who don't feel comfortable in that environment.

Configurations / Deployment Process

At this time, Sahana architecture does not allow the default Sahana template to be deployed as-is. Often, deployments override the default template based on case specifics; Sahana does not have generic templates for standard scenarios which can be easily configured via web setup and rolled out by any community or organization without additional code development. Hence, DSO hopes for our work to contribute to the future development of the web setup facility of Sahana and the development of multiple standard scenarios and turnkey-templates for them.

(Our understanding is based on ​this conversation with seasoned Sahana developers)

Out of Scope

1) Code/HTML
2) Data mining
3) Data organization
4) Data presentation
5) Baseline data repository
6) Turnkey templates