Success Prevails! Day 2 of the HIS Unconference

Today is Tuesday and the second day of the unconference, where everyone really focused on training. We split into three main tracts for the training: one on DHIS , one on iHRIS and one on openMRS and open ELIS .

As this is a western African regional conference, we have both French and English speakers. A huge thanks goes out to Romain Tohouri who provided excellent translation to and from French. This is pretty amazing when you think that the topics ranged across some fairly technical domains in Human Resources, Software Development, as well as Health Sector terminology.

Getting into the training, we started with Kabelo Bitsang, who gave an introduction to the iHRIS Manage software and discussed how he is using it at the Minstry of Health in Botswana.

Next, we engaged in discussion in the data map for the iHRIS Software. We explained how the different data elements are represented in the system, as well as how different HR processes are modeled.

Following this, we had a discussion of the security model for iHRIS. We saw how iHRIS, through its user-authenticated role and task system, as well as the LAMP architecture that iHRIS runs on, follow the Secure by Design model and discussed the merits of this as opposed to the often more familiar Security through Obscurity model.

Next came a technical session on the PHP data management framework, I2CE, that is the basis for the iHRIS Software. This discussion will serve as the basis for tomorrow's training on customizing the software.

Following this, we had a very rousing discussion around Use Cases , with some examples from iHRIS. We talked about their uses for both software developers as well as users of the system. It was the concensus of all participants that use cases were very important for them for managing and documenting the iHRIS Software. For communicating with stakeholders, they also suggested that we also have a flow-chart to map out the software functionality. We even had someone volunteer to do this!

We rounded out the day with a group-session on installing Ubuntu and iHRIS software on Windows using the VMWare Virtual Machine Player. This was a great way to expose Windows users to using Ubuntu and the iHRIS software.

A thank-you for the suggestion to use VMWare goes to Kofi Afari, Information Manager at the Human Resource Department of the Ministry of Ghana.

Closing the iHRIS tract was an unexpected and very welcome surprise. Dykki Settle asked how many of the participants were excited to come back tomorrow. There was a universal and sincere enthusiasm that lets us know, more than anything else, this is all very worthwhile.