Framework Organization
Although each process area can be considered separately, the collection of practices across process areas work together to ensure that the organization has comprehensively addressed fundamental data management best practices. Process area relationships and dependencies exist but are not explicit, because each process area is designed to be evaluated individually; however, these relationships are addressed in supporting informative text and also implied by the collective example work products.
Each process area is composed of the same components, as illustrated in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Process Area Components
For evaluation purposes, only consensus answers to the key questions are recorded and scored in the accompanying scoring spreadsheet. The introduction to each process area and the explanatory content following the key questions provide additional context for which to interpret the question.
Collectively, the existence of work products helps the organization to determine the extent to which processes are defined and being followed. The example work products provide insight into typical artifacts – documents, templates, mechanisms, metrics, etc. – which are created as processes are developed, established, maintained, and improved. They are presented as helpful examples for the organization to consider. Key questions, reflecting capabilities within a process area, are organized in successive levels of achievements, synthesized from the experience of hundreds of organizations over the past three decades. The PDDQ Framework organizes these progressive levels in ‘Tiers.’ Tier 1 Foundational address capabilities that are typically accomplished first, Tier 2 Building questions target capabilities that build on the foundation of Tier 1, and Tier 3 Advanced features capabilities that comprise completion of the practices necessary for a sound and sustainable program for managing patient demographic data across the lifecycle.