Software Development Manager Joe Sango recently joined the Melbourne Genomics Innovation and Technology team, to further develop the shared system for genomics, GenoVic.
To ensure GenoVic delivers benefits to Alliance members as soon as possible, Joe is integrating formal and sustainable processes for defining and acting on user needs.
We asked Joe a few questions about this work.
What have you been working on?
I’ve been very focused on establishing formal processes to understand and articulate what Alliance members – specifically laboratories – need to ensure the genomic testing workflow is as efficient and painless as possible. The software development team can then realise these needs into tools to enhance GenoVic.
How did this work come about?
When Melbourne Genomics started building a shared system for clinical genomics five years ago, there was no precedent for what this system might look like or the functions it could potentially perform. At the time, there was an overarching understanding of the many challenges genomics presents for scientists and clinicians, but because GenoVic is the first system of its kind, it was difficult to articulate specific needs and wants.
Now that we have GenoVic in use across five organisations, laboratories have a more practical, nuanced understanding of their needs in genomics. We are now able to establish formal processes to gauge user requirements (through workshops and interviews) and to gather user stories (case-studies). The result will be more realistic expectations for software development and more effective tools to improve users’ experience and system operations.
A formal structure for gathering the user experience means we can create a sustainable working process for our team, ensuring we deliver the highest value to users as soon as possible.
Where is the project at?
The GenoVic team kicked off the first of a series of workshops in mid-July. We sat down with laboratory representatives (our ‘end-users’), to understand their requirements for a clinical data sharing platform.
Building this capability would make GenoVic the first platform to facilitate clinical data sharing across organisations. In the past, clinical data sharing would have either been a very manual and laborious process or not occur at all.
Gathering user stories and pain-points enables the GenoVic team to articulate what the best possible solution is. By the end of the current workshop process, we should be able to realise a function within GenoVic that allows laboratories to share data across organisations efficiently and securely.