Heartland Network

Data Management in the Heartland Network

Background

– Centralized staff

– Protocols developed and implemented primarily in-house

– 12 of 15 network parks are fairly small and represent places and events of historic and cultural significance

– Integrated with prototype

Heartland Network

What Have We Learned?

Data management is hard work!

Heartland Network

Revisiting Priorities

– Data mining – NPSpecies and other service-wide

databases– Data management planning– ATR/COR on protocol

development projects– GIS/GPS support to monitoring

projects

In

– Data management needs assessment with project leads

– Managing data work flow and security

– Database development and maintenance

– Writing data management SOPs

Heartland Network

Establishing Clear Roles and Responsibilities

Our approach– DM is shared responsibility among Project Manager and Data

Manager

– Project Manager is expected to have working knowledge of relational databases and ability to independently conduct basic data queries and exports

Implications– Platform and design complexity are constrained

– Increases risk of data loss

– Creates some redundancy in database skills

– Increases PI interaction and ultimately results in a better customized product

Heartland Network

Managing Work Flow

Idealized protocol development time line

Pilot sampling

Internal review

Methodology

Finalize SOPs

Preliminary analyses

Objectives Peer review

Final protocolT – 1 yrT –2 yr

Final version DB

Beta version of DB

Write DM SOP

Database development times should be short, for each version, about 120 days. Keep PIs' involved and the initial database design simple. Add to the complexity later.

Heartland Network

Minimizing Complexity By Considering Return on InvestmentThe Subprime Syndrome

Database Complexity

Efficiency/Usability Ratio toDevelopment/Maintenance Effort

High

Low

HighLow

Heartland Network

Get The Data In!

Find a balance between data

security, ergonomics,

efficiency, and data management

capacity

Heartland Network

Get The Data Out!

Find a balance between

automated data analyses and simple data

export routines

Heartland Network

Inspirational Message Albeit Poorly Crafted

Data management is hard work!

Yes You Can!