Here are some questions you can ask when deciding if a new page should be created. We'll use the example of a church who wants to track their "Elders".
What is my "noun"? This is the thing you want to track.
Elders: Officers of the church who is tasked with specific shepherding responsibilities.
What do I know about my noun?
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There are nearly 300 elders at any given time in this church.
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These are different types of elders.
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Each elder is supervised by a “Supervising Elder”.
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There is a relationship between elders and the people/families they shepherd.
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There is a ministry department that oversees and manages these elders.
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Elders serve for terms with defined start and end dates.
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Elders can take a sabbatical.
Why do I think it needs to be a separate page?
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This is very high priority to the church.
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An existing ministry is struggling to manage with existing structures. They have already promised to manage this new page.
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There is a lot of special data related to elders that doesn't apply to other groups/group roles:
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Elders need to be assigned to households: **
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Elders need to submit confidential notes related to their interactions with those they shepherd: **
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Elders need to be assigned a "Supervising Elder" and this relationship is not easily or clearly expressed right now in the database.
**In the above list, reasons 4 and 5 are compelling reasons to introduce new data structures
Do I have the correct semantics?
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Is "Elders" sufficiently broad for a new page? What about Deacons? Should I call this page "Officers" instead of "Elders"?
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Are there other churches that use different terms, but accomplish similar things? Maybe we should talk to Think Ministry. If they have already built reports and tools around a similar semantic, adopting that semantic might save us time and money.
Do I have a plan to get data into this new page?
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Initially, migration from existing structures (groups/relationships).
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Post launch, the team will add/update.
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Long term we need an app for elders to add notes (visits and calls made).
Do I have a plan to change how we currently manage this data?
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Simplify the group structure for elders:
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Cease tracking "Relationships" between elders and the individual contacts they shepherd as soon as we start assigning elders to households.
Do I have a plan to get data out of this page?
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Have I mocked up my summary/overview reports?
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Can I use existing reports? (e.g., Selected Labels)
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Can I use existing core tools? (e.g., Contact Log Tool, Text Messaging Tool)