Guide for Government IT Departments

Owned by Christian Crumlish
Last updated: Jun 05, 2020
5 min read

Background

  1. Word went out on a Salesforce internal channel that we could use help with documentation (for our github page) from someone with knowledge of the Salesforce platform.

  2. Ruth Sears-Blajez replied offering to help and @Sam Zimmerman pointed her at our repositories, early MVP documentation, and some contacts to follow up with (@Christian Crumlish @Jeff Whatcott.

  3. She got up to speed on our current infrastructure, met with Sam and Rachel Mahan (another Salesforce tech writer) and learned that a top priority is “a guide government IT departments” interested in adopting our open-source code (on a github page). This would explain how to

    1. download and customize your code (for their state or country)

    2. set up the app and a server for themselves

    3. list these apps in the app stores (Apple App Store and Google Play Store)

  4. She also had four five questions:

    1. Would these states or countries each be building their own versions of the Safe Paths and Safe Places apps (or building their own apps that depend upon the Safe Paths and/or Safe Places code)? If so, how would end users know which version of the Safe Paths app they should install on their phones?

    2. Would any of the states or countries be using out-of-the-box versions of one or both of the apps? If so, how would people reading the docs decide whether they need to build their own versions or just implement the default versions?

    3. Who would be the best people to work with to hammer out the details about what these government IT people need to know and do?

    4. Also, the Salesforce-internal post that I saw about your looking for writers to help with this project mentioned that you were hoping to find people with knowledge of the Salesforce platform. I didn't see anything about Salesforce in the materials that Sam sent. How does Salesforce's technology fit into the picture?

    5. How soon do you expect to want to publish these docs?

  5. Sam’s answers:

    1. Re: deployment: as it stands now, due to Google and Apple's restrictions on API access:

      1. For the GPS app, we intend for countries to use our app, but they can fork as deploy (at their own risk). The list of HAs supported is contained in our health_authorities.yml file.

      2. For the GPS app the state/nation IT Dept will need to deploy their own server (or work with partners to deploy it).

      3. For BT app, we will need to deploy each app separately for each state/nation. [This is upcoming]

      4. For BT app, we will need to deploy at least two servers for their BT deployment. [This is upcoming]

    2. Who to talk to/hammer out details. Ultimately, Jeff Whatcott (cc'd) as he's just getting up to speed, I added DC Schipps to review too.

    3. Salesforce integration: for now, we’re working out exactly where this next bit, and will update you soon.

    4. Timing: Right now we have rather little by way of materials and are having these conversations multiple times a day, so an MVP or start in the next week would be wonderful, but understand if that's not possible!

Proposed Plan

Ruth was blocked on moving forward at this point:

  • I've been having trouble finding time to dig in to your materials and try to figure out exactly which information the government IT departments would need as they try to set up apps and servers. My workload for my day job is pretty heavy right now. 

  • I'd volunteered to help with this project because I'd heard that you were looking for a technical writer with knowledge of the Salesforce platform (who has ideally worked with JavaScript and on open-source projects), but it sounds like your Salesforce integration isn't ready for documentation.

  • Given how little time I have available, and how much I'd need to learn in order to be able to write docs for this project, I'm afraid that I might not be the best person to work on this at the moment. Rachel had also said that she'd be able to contribute only in a very limited capacity, and she doesn't have the time to spearhead this project right now either.

So she made this proposal:

  • Perhaps your team can put together a draft of the docs that the government IT departments need, and we can provide feedback on them?

  • Then, when the Salesforce integration is ready for documentation we can try to help you with the docs for that piece of the puzzle? Do you have a rough idea of when the Salesforce integration might be documentable?

Sam agreed:

  • Ruth - thanks much for the thoughtful response. Your recommend course of action makes sense; will plan on that.

Two weeks went by before we managed to reach out to @Patty Michaud (or @Patty Michaud (Deactivated) ?) and @eagerux re this project.

Summary of Ask to Content Specialists

Patty wrote:

It sounds like you need some documentation. I can help. I have 8 hours left to donate, so a focused task sounds great. I'll need an SME, audience, and purpose for these docs. Sounds like you want them in Github? My guesses on what you need:

Did I get that summary right? Sorry, the chain is a good source of info, but a bit hard to follow coming in cold. Any other helpful info?

Next Steps

Patty asked:

  • I write tech docs daily, but I don't install servers or deploy apps. Ever. So I could use some help. 

  • Where do I even start to find how to deploy?  There were some small nuggets in the resources list I started with, but I have no idea where to start digging up info. I looked at the GitHub links and didn't know where to start. 

  • Basically, I'm lost and the linked resources aren't helping. Can you give me a bit more direction on where to look to pull this information together? 

  • Thanks for your help.

(Note from @Christian Crumlish : We need to connect her with the Safe Places backend team, possibly @Sherif Kozman or @Satoshi Kawase / @Satoshi Kawase)

Sam replied:

  • Adding Jeff who is managing Product Marketing, and Jen who is a PM for MVP1.

  • To start, if you just documented the Safe Places application (I'd confirm with @Jennifer Schnidman (Unlicensed)) that you've got the latest materials but I'm gathering some here for you to start with. We can handle deployment later!