We’re Taking an ART Sabbatical: Temporarily pausing ART development
We’re taking an ART sabbatical, or pause in ART report production for 6 months. Starting November 2020, we will pause all requests for new ART report builds, feature enhancements, and bug fixes. Instead, ICA staff will invest time in reporting alternatives that may support users long-term.
The ART sabbatical is the next iteration of our strategy to decrease our dependence on our software vendor regardless of their progress, doing so in context of partner and user demand.
In preparation, ICA will enhance some highly used ART reports, develop ART data extracts, and lay plans to engage partners and users along the way. You will notice changes to our website and available reports, including REPORTcollection and data request improvements mentioned in this news post.
We will also retire reports we believe are no longer in use. These changes will help ensure that the ART reports we maintain are accurate, are no more than what has value, and are clearly prioritized for a reporting tool transition.
Will my reports go away?
No. ART reports will continue to function as normal. HMIS users can schedule and run reports that exist. If a report that you use is retired, contact our Helpdesk for assistance.
Why is ICA pausing ART report production?
ICA is preparing for the eventuality of an HMIS reporting tool transition. With no clear replacement for ART available, this proactive effort is our next best option. In previous news posts, we shared the outcome of our initial discovery process in January 2020, as well as answers to HMIS reporting tool transition FAQs for HMIS users and partners.
What will you do instead?
This will allow us to research and develop reporting alternatives that may support users long-term, and to develop new non-ART reports (e.g. Tableau dashboards, toolkits for interpretation) to support our community in better monitoring their own performance.
ICA will develop new and enhanced dashboarding tools, document critical ART reports, and prepare and display ART data extracts in alternative tools.
It is important to ICA that we consistently deliver value to our partners and users. Pausing ART report development may be a jolting notion, yet we must invest time in ways more sustainable in long run.
Throughout this journey, we’ll work to ensure that our partners and users feel supported. As we learn, we’ll reset strategy iteratively, assessing utility and application of the tools we produce, and Wellsky’s Qlik development progress.
What if I have an urgent request?
We understand there are exceptions to consider. Rather than maintaining a queue of ART requests to which we are consistently responsive, we will dedicate a percent of our Reporting & Evaluation capacity to ART development once every 6 weeks.
We have developed this strategy with careful consideration to the twin challenges of improving equity within the homeless response system and combating the housing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. If something is truly urgent, let us know.
ICA will exercise discretion in these cases, and consult the HMIS Governing Board when needed, to strike balance between holding true to the intent of this sabbatical and dire software needs to retool and emergency plan, and the very real emergency unfolding that requires our homeless response system to reinvent and the parallel need for HMIS to keep pace.
I have a request in queue now, will it be completed?
In-progress projects or builds will remain on target or negotiated directly with the partner involved. Most new requests will be considered for prioritization after the sabbatical, or in the limited ART development time reserved.
Thank you for embarking on this journey with us. As we shared in early 2020, we will continue to inform our community on progress.