Chapter 4 Shared Workstreams

  • Value Streams: Research, Development, Operations
  • Workstreams: All
  • Workflow: All

Teams Channel Link

4.1 Team PSD Workflows

Team PSD has the following identified workflows. Descriptions of each are given below:

  • co-i_workflow: Supports the research value stream. Coordinated by Research & Development (R&D).
  • consult_workflow: VACO OMHSP Facilitators of the NIH & VA cluster randomized trials. Supports the research and operations value streams. Coordinated by PeopleOps.
  • grant_workflow: Team PSD workflow for grant pre-award activities.
  • hq_workflow: Shared activities across research, development, and operations value streams. Coordinated by R&D, PeopleOps, and DataOps.
  • ilead_workflow: Supports the operations and development value streams - MTL Live, MTL Video, & MTL Facilitate with VA Institute for Learning, Education, and Development (ILEAD). Coordinated by PeopleOps.
  • mixed_methods_workflow: Integration of QUAL + QUAN mixed methods research. Co-coordinated by R&D and DataOps.
  • msd365_workflow: Supports the operations and development value streams. Coordinated by DataOps.
  • quant_workflow: Supports the research and operations value streams. Co-coordinated by R&D and DataOps.
  • roadmap_workflow: Cross-cutting channel for Team PSD SAFe Roadmap events planned to occur in February, June, and October each year, to plan the subsequent 3 months (12 week “roadmap”).
  • sim_ui_workflow: This workflow provides design, maintenance, and operational support of the MTL Simulation User Interface (Sim UI) in support of development and operations. Coordinated by DataOps.
  • support_workflow: This coordinated workflow of both quant_workflow and sim_ui_workflow is in support of development and operations value streams. Coordinated by DataOps.
  • systems_sme_workflow: This is the workflow for modeling consultative field support of the QIIC team.
  • training_workflow: Shared activities across research, development, and operations value streams. Coordinated by R&D, PeopleOps, and DataOps.
  • vapor_workflow: The Veterans Affairs Partnership for Operations Research (VAPOR) is a group of Peer Support Specialists that ensure Veterans’ voices and experiences are represented in MTL and at the stakeholder table.

4.2 Workflow and Other Responsibilities by Role

Shared across R&D, PeopleOps, and DataOps:

  • all_teampsd: Shared activities across all value streams coordinated by R&D, PeopleOps, and DataOps.
  • training_workflow
  • hq_workflow

Co-coordinated by R&D and DataOps:

  • mixed_methods_workflow
  • quant_workflow

Research & Development is primary:

  • co-i_workflow
  • post_doc_mentorship: Supports the research and operations value streams. Coordinated by R&D.
  • post_bacc_mentorship: Supports the research and operations value streams. Coordinated by R&D.

DataOps is primary:

  • support_workflow
  • sim_ui_workflow
  • msd365_workflow

PeopleOps is primary:

  • consult_workflow
  • mtl_hawaii_samsha: Internal Team PSD meetings to discuss Data to Wisdom Grant with Hawaii Dept of Health. Coordinated by PeopleOps.
  • ilead_workflow
  • vapor_workflow

4.3 Manage teampsd_vha Workflows via Teams and Outlook

  1. Request Access to teampsd_vha (PI approves).
  2. On Teams click on workflow channel […] select “Manage Channel.”
  3. Navigate to mtl.help OR mtl.info shared Outlook calendars.
  4. Send updates via Outlook standing meeting series.

4.4 Edit a Guide via Pull Request and Plan DEV/TEST/PROD Quality Assurance Sync

  • Value Stream: Operations
  • Workstream: PeopleOps
  • Workflow: facilitate_workflow
  • Video: this video reviews how to update mtl.how via a GitHub pull request. Dr. Zimmerman and Mushiana review and post the updated MTL 3.0 Facilitator Fidelity guides for the partner phase to the MTL Blue s01-s04 facilitator folders.

Teams Channel Link - A cross-reference to MTL 2.4, Improve the MTL repo via a pull request and QA.

*Cross-reference: MTL 2.4

  1. Review QA dependencies via User Stories on Lucidchart.
  2. Scope out QA assignees/reviewers, labels, and story points on Zenhub/GitHub.
  3. Review Team PSD Manual for use of QA branch on GitHub.
  4. Create a feature branch via a pull request from the QA branch.
  5. Open feature branch from QA.
  6. Make edits in markdown on GitHub.
  7. Conduct QA on qa_branch using GitHub Actions.
  8. Merge into QA.
  9. Create a pull request from QA to Master and assign a PROD QA reviewer.

4.5 Improve the Team PSD Manual

This section explains how to use GitHub to update a section in the Team PSD manual. It will also detail how to request a review of your changes and incorporate into the document-of-record.

This section explains how to:

  • Create a “feature branch.”
  • Make and save edits to a Markdown file.
  • Request a merge of the feature branch with the gh-pages branch (document-of-record).
  • How to update the bookdown.yml file to compile the Team PSD Manual in the proper chapter order.

4.5.1 Create a feature branch from the GH-Pages Branch.

  • Start by creating a feature branch with the beginning of the branch named “feature-gh-pages”. The “feature-gh-pages” must be written precisely - GitHub is triggering several automated functions using that naming.

  • Branch naming convention:
    • New chapter - If new chapter title is “My New Chapter” then name the branch “feature-gh-pages_my_new_chapter.”
    • Edit an existing chapter - If existing chapter title is “Using Markdown” then name the branch “feature-gh-pages_using_markdown_edit.”
    • If the chapter is being worked on by multiple contributors, or if the chapter is long, break down into multiple files that can be reconciled when compiling the publication. See the Compiling a Publication section below for more details.

4.5.2 Create a new markdown file in the branch.

  • If contributing to an existing markdown file, skip to step 3 below.
  • Create and name a new markdown file

4.5.3 Find and edit a markdown file.

  • Find the markdown file and open for editing.

  • Chapter Heading Structure. The software that compiles the markdown files into a published manual, takes information from the heading markers (#, ##, ###) to determine if something is a chapter or a subsection. For example:

    • “# Standard Operation” compiles as “Chapter 3 - Standard Operations”
    • “## Team PSD” compiles as “Chapter 3.1 - Team PSD”
    • “###”Open-source, Transparent, Reproducible” compiles as “Chapter 3.3.1 - Open-source, Transparent, Reproducible”

  • Add content. There are many features in markdown that support various formats and text emphasis. See markdown guide cheatsheet for more information.

  • Add a link. There are two components to a link, the description and the uniform resource locator (URL). It goes like this, description in in brackets [uniform resource locator] followed immediately by the URL in parenthesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL). So all together uniform resource locator.
    • The description in brackets is a Section 508 Accessibility requirement, so visually impaired people can use a browser reader to interpret what is contained in the link.
    • The link can be placed anywhere in the document. The term in the brackets will be the only visible element in the rendered document.
  • Add a graphic. Adding graphics are very similar to links because they both rely on a call to a URL.
    • Create and upload a graphic the the gh-pages_images folder. Team PSD uses the .png file format for still graphics, and .gif for screen-casts. When naming the image, describe what is contained in all lower case, separated by an underscore (ex., upload_image.png).
    • To render a graphic in bookdown, an html tag (img src = ) is needed before the link. See the graphic below to learn how to format a graphic link.

4.5.4 Update the “_bookdown.yml” file to reflect proper chapter order.

  • .yml. The “_bookdown.yml” prints out the manual in the order of the the markdown files listed in line 6. As explained earlier, the headers of the markdown files listed tells the _bookdown.yml file whether the markdown is a chapter or a subsection. The order of the files in the _bookdown.yml file will be automatically numbered sequentially by the yaml program.

  • Add a markdown file - with chapter heading. List the markdown filename in the desired chapter order of which, the file should appear in the manual.
    • Make sure to include quotations around the file name and a comma.
    • Note the last chapter does not need a comma.

  • Add a markdown file - with subsection heading.
    • Sometimes a team must break the work out into sections and it is easier if everyone has their own file. the _bookdown.yml file supports compiling subsections from files separate from the main chapter heading file.
    • This is a great way to check the formatting and output of your markdown file in the actual Manual before you hand off the review for QA Test.

4.5.5 Make a pull request to the gh-pages branch.

  • Check and resolve for errors returned by the markdown linter, spell checker and link checker.
  • Assign QA Test reviewers.
  • Once the reviewer has approved, then go to step 6 below.

4.5.6 Publish your Chapter to master GH-pages branch.

  • Merge the Feature branch into gh-pages branch.
  • Check the actions and ensure the bookdown rendering did not encounter any problems.
  • Resolve any bookdown problems.
  • See the new work! Go to Team PSD Manual

4.6 Manage Outlook Shared Calendars & Meeting Series

  1. Request access to shared calendars by emailing in Team PSD manual.
  2. Determine whether the meeting is Research or Operations.
  3. Navigate to mtl.help (operations) OR mtl.info (research) shared calendars & inboxes in Outlook.
  4. Outlook meeting series colors (green = co-plan, purple = prep, blue = MTL Blue, red = MTL Red).

4.7 Improve the Modeling to Learn Repo via a Pull Request and Quality Assurance

  • Value Streams: Research, Development, Operations
  • Workstreams: All
  • Workflows: All
  • Video 1
  • Video 2 - an addendum to previous recording
  • Video 3 - validating changes

Teams Channel Link

*Cross-reference: MTL 2.4

Note: Team PSD 3.0 Manual Chapter 4.2 is covered for facilitators in the MTL 3.0 Manual Chapter 2.4.

  1. Review Team PSD Manual for editing gh-pages branch.
  2. Navigate to lzim/mtl/gh-pages and make a “feature-gh_pages_*” branch.
  3. Navigate to the new branch.
  4. Make desired edits.
  5. Open a pull request and fill out Pipeline, Reviewer, Assignee, Story Points, and any other appropriate labels. Make a note to the reviewer.
  6. Review any findings from the spell checker, markdown linter, or link checker and resolve.
  7. After review, merge request into the gh-pages main branch.
  8. Review bookdown action and check rendered MTL 3.0 manual.

4.8 Scope Workflow Dependencies Using User Stores and GitHub/Zenhub

Teams Channel Link

  1. Cake wrecks - Learning idea that sensitizes us to the need to tell stories to understand each other better.
  2. Roadmap of User Stories Program Increment (PI) SAFe 5.1: PI Objectives - Scaled Agile Framework.
  3. Dependencies - Synced, Stepped, Parallel, Serial development with handoffs.
  4. Vertical view (same weekly sprint) to have a valid horizontal (over time).
  5. Works in Progress (WIP Limit).
    • Reviewed our ZenHub Reports regarding our
    • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
    • Flow-based KPIs and user story & story point WIPs

4.9 Coordinate Train Workflow

4.10 Onboard New Team Member to VA

  1. Complete all VA New Hire Paperwork in USA Staffing (e.g., New Hire Questionnaire, OF 306, etc.).
  2. Complete Fingerprinting & TB Test at your assigned VA HR Office (Remote - closest VA to you, Local - VA Palo Alto HR Office on Middlefield Way).
  3. Complete Talent Management System (TMS) Privacy & Information Security Trainings and HIPAA trainings.
  4. Complete VA orientation (in-person at VA HR Office and some TMS assigned trainings).
  5. Schedule PIV Badge appointment.
  6. Request Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) laptop ticket on VA yourIT.
  7. Access VA email in person at VA HR Office.
  8. Track laptop, desktop, and phone details.
  9. Request access to the Team PSD folder (see steps below).

4.10.1 Request Access to the Team PSD Folder

  1. Open the Microsoft Outlook desktop app.

  2. Navigate to your calendar.

  3. Right-click on My Calendars.

  4. Click on Add Calendar.

  5. Click on From Address Book.

  6. Search for yourself (last name, first name).

  7. Right-click on your name.

  8. Click on Properties.

  9. Find and make note of your alias displayed in the Alias: field.

  10. If you are a remote employee/contractor, use this website to determine your home VISN (e.g., if you live in Colorado, your VISN is 19). Make note of your VISN.

  11. Compose an email to Mary Kwan () requesting permission to the Team PSD folder and include the following information:

    • Team member name
    • Team member VHA alias
    • Team member VISN
    • Team member VA email
    • The file path: \r01palhsm07.r01.med.va.gov_researchResearch

  12. You will receive email confirmation from Mary Kwan when you have been granted permission to the Team PSD folder.

  13. Check if this drive is mapped to your GFE or remote desktop.

    • Open File Explorer.
    • Click on This PC.
    • Under Network locations, do you see \r01palhsm07.r01.med.va.gov_researchResearch? If not, follow the steps in the next section.

4.10.2 Map a Network Drive to Your GFE or Remote Desktop

You may need to map a network drive to your GFE or remote desktop. The example used in this section is to map to the Team PSD folder.

  1. Open File Explorer.

  2. Right-click on This PC.

  3. Select Map Network Drive… . A pop-up window will appear.

  4. Select a drive letter.

    Tip: Be sure to select a drive that is not already in use.

  5. In the Folder: field, copy/paste in the drive or folder breadcrumb trail: \r01palhsm07.r01.med.va.gov_researchResearch

  6. Be sure the Reconnect at sign-in checkbox is checked.

  7. Click the Finish button.

  8. You should see the mapped drive in File Explorer. If it does not, you may need to restart your computer (GFE) or log off/log back into VA Citrix (remote desktop) to see the mapped drive.

4.11 Onboard a Team Member through PAVIR

  1. HR sends offer letter to hew hire.
  2. New hire signs offer letter.
  3. HR sends Without Compensation (WOC) process email with instructions on completing WOC packet & onboarding paperwork (TMS, Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative [CITI training], and fingerprinting).
    • VA Palo Alto’s WOC Point of Contact: Linda Wester
    • A Research Service Without Compensation employee is an individual who performs research-related duties without any direct monetary compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
    • CITI training is a basic research ethics online training course that all Team PSD partners must take and pass.
  4. Schedule fingerprinting, & TB test.
  5. PI registers RDIS profile for new hire.
  6. Complete all assignments in RDIS, TMS privacy & information security trainings, & complete HIPAA trainings and CITI.
  7. Submit WOC packet to Linda (or equivalent point of contact in Palo Alto VA).
  8. Complete fingerprinting & TB test.
  9. PI or R&D adds new hire to IRB (see 6.7) and other platforms (GitHub/ZenHub, OSF, Lucidchart).
  10. Schedule a badge appointment after WOC packet is processed.
  11. Attend badge appointment and receive badge.
  12. Complete PAVIR orientation.
  13. PI or PeopleOps requests GFE laptop.
  14. PI or PeopleOps requests VA email.
  15. Request access to Team PSD folder by emailing Mary Kwan () with the team member’s VHA alias (find it in the GAL in Outlook Calendar), member’s VISN (also found in GAL), VA email, and the file path: NCPTSDResearch.

4.12 Create or Edit GitHub Issue Template

  • Value Streams: Research, Development, Operations
  • Workstreams: All
  • Workflows: All

Teams Channel Link

GitHub Documentation is located here.

  1. Workstream Lead logs in to lzim account for relevant GitHub repository (or repo).

  2. Scroll down to Features.

  3. Click Set Up Template.

  4. Scroll down to edit and existing template for click “Create new Template.”

  5. Templates needed:

4.13 Export Lists of Identifiable MTL Team Data for Research Analysis

  • Value Streams: Research, Development, Operations
  • Workstreams: All
  • Workflows: All
  • Video

Teams Channel Link

  1. Identify/create lists of members, clinics, facilities, and team names (all identifiable data).
  2. Export team members from CRM.
  3. Review data ui clinic selections for MTL 2.0 teams (Team PSD > Clinics folder for legacy data ui files) and MTL 3.0 teams such as sta3n, division, and clinic selections in Microsoft Teams chats.
  4. Review MTL 2.0 team notes in sunsetted https://mtl.how/team_tracker (IRB mod?).
  5. Analyze for Story A aim 2 (see issue #454).

4.14 Configure mtl.help and mtl.info Email Settings

  • Value Streams: Research, Development, Operations
  • Workstreams: All
  • Workflows: All

Teams Channel Link

  1. Add and inboxes to Outlook.

Note: Default settings on both accounts only show emails for the last year. Once this process is complete, you will receive calendar and email notifications for all inboxes added to your account.

To see emails older than one year, follow the following steps. You will be adding these emails as accounts which is different from adding their inboxes in Step 1 above.

  1. Navigate to the File menu (in Outlook) and select Add Account.
  2. Enter the email you want to add and select Connect.
  3. Wait for the next pop-up window to appear, then select Sign in as current user.
  4. You should see a confirmation that the account has been added.
  5. Close Outlook.
  6. Reopen Outlook; you will now see the newly added email in your Account Information (File > Info).
  7. Navigate to Account Settings.
  8. Double-click on the email address to modify its settings.
  9. Change Exchange Account Settings to download email for the past by clicking on the slider and moving it all the way to the right.
  10. Select Next.
  11. Click Done.
  12. Close Outlook.

You have now configured this inbox to download all past emails.

Note: This change may take several days to take effect.

4.15 Team PSD Onboarding to Cadence Cycles (the why/how of who does what, when)

  • Value Streams: All
  • Workstreams: All
  • Workflows: All
  • Video 1 - onboarding + DSMB grant development
  • Video 2 - co-deciding using our diverse lens
  • Video 3 - user personas
  • Video 4 - user personas, part 2
  • Video 5 - user personas, part 3
  • Video 6 - user personas, part 4
  • Video 7 - user personas, part 5
  • Video 8 - user personas, part 6

Teams Channel Link - onboarding to cadence cycles

Teams Channel Link - onboarding Day 5, 200, 1800, 3100

Teams Channel Link - onboarding welcome: why, how, who does what, when?

Teams Channel Link - user-centered Team PSD workflows & user personas

7 Domains of User Personas: 1. Person (name) 2. Team PSD workflow(s) 3. Time (FTE, experience/knowledge) 4. Role 5. Interacts with other workflow users 6. Platforms 7. Why (value)

4.16 Develop Personal and Professional Goals to Make Meaningful Team PSD Progress

Teams Channel Link

Annual reports, user story mapping, and annual reviews (processes to make progress).

  • Reports and reviews are like what we learned from Patton’s User Story Mapping book,

Family vacation photo

  • They are just documents reflecting important processes to achieve key goals.

Annual Report:

  • What matters is that we make continual progress.

User Story Mapping:

  • Last quarter before report we ask what else would we really like to include.
  • The report itself is just the documentation of the entire year.

Annual Review

  • What matters is that we set goals and work together to achieve them.
  • Quarterly 1:1s* and coach_chat** are used to get specific support related to you thriving in your role (your P.D.).
  • Coach chats are mini-check-ins related to the 4 Ps.

The 4 Ps - Project - People - Process - Pattern

Team-level: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) - work flows delivering our value streams.

Team-member level: S.M.A.R.T. - personal & professional goals.

4.17 Roadmap of User Stories - User Story Mapping

Teams Channel Link

Story H - Hiring / Story T - Training

User Story Mapping - Discovering the whole story, build the right product (Patton).

Cake Wrecks - Learning idea that sensitizes us to the need to tell stories to understand each other better.

Roadmap of User Stories Program Increment (PI) SAFe 5.1 - PI Objectives, Scaled Agile Framework

NIH F2F <> IIR Progress/DSMB

  • Dependencies: synced, stepped, parallel, serial development with handoffs

  • Vertical view (same weekly sprint) to have a valid horizontal (over time)

  • Works in Progress (WIP) Limit

    • Reviewed our Zenhub reports regarding our
    • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
    • Flow-based KPIs and user story and story point WIPs

“Making and meeting small commitments builds trust.”

-Nonaka and Takeuchi, The Knowledge-Creating Company (from SAFe website)

4.18 Update Team PSD Website

  • Value Stream: Education
  • Workstream: All
  • Workflows: All
  • Video

Teams Channel Link

  1. Log on to Forio Epicenter.
  2. Find the administrator_login group.
  3. Add users to the administrator_login group as needed.
  4. Update the Team PSD website in Sim PROD.

Tip: Colors on the website are aligned with the value streams, not the workflows.

4.19 Offboarding a Team PSD Member

  • Value Stream:
  • Workstream:
  • Workflow:
  • Reference: #709, 2023_aug_epic #portfolio: Update Team PSD Manual to include offboarding/close out
  1. Notify team members of departure.
    • Work with and notify team of handoffs.
  2. Remove from shared Outlook inboxes and calendars.
    • Decline shared calendar invites.
  3. Remove leave from calendars and story maps.
  4. Remove from Lucidcharts license.
  5. Remove from GiHub and Zenhub licenses.
  6. Remove from Ci2i Admin Sharepoint,
  7. Remove from NCPTSD Staff trees.
    • Remove NCPTSD Teams channels.
    • Remove NCPTSD email groups.
  8. Remove PAVIR account statement distribution list (if applicable).
  9. Remove access to Team PSD shared folder.
  10. Move outgoing team member to alumni section of Team PSD website.
  11. Revoke ReQlogic access.
  12. Revoke RDIS/DAPA access to VAPAHCS/Zimmerman (email ).
  13. Remove Hawaii access.
  14. Remove [access to] Zotero.
  15. Request Craig (?) to end sponsorship of SUNet ID.
  16. Remove Team PSD Teams channels:
    • Remove all TeamPSD.
    • Remove TeamPSD Portfolio (if applicable).
    • Remove MTL Teams channels.
  17. Remove from TeamPSD email list.
  18. Request Lindsey to remove from Lindsey calendar share.
  19. Palo Alto Research WOC closeout.
    • Remove Ci2i email lists (done after WOC closeout).