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SOP02: Governance Operations

Owned by Anthony Pena
Last updated: Dec 19, 2024
7 min read

Revision Date: 2023.09.29

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Table of Contents

I. Description

 

This SOP describes the tools and processes used to manage Governance workflows from a program management perspective. Governance operations involve the management of governance activities to ensure streamlined and compliant work products. Key activities include:

  • Portfolio management,

  • Development of effective processes,

  • Maintenance of documentation,

  • Development and tracking of metrics to gauge project and program health and success, and

  • User support for research tools and platforms.

II. Objectives

 

The objective of this SOP is to describe the tools and processes used to manage Governance workflows. The goals of this document and its associated Reliable Methods and Templates are to:

  • Promote work visibility,

  • Create metrics and analysis systems used to evaluate the health of the Governance processes,

  • Promote accountability to internal and external customers through clearly defined expectations.

III. Scope

 

This SOP applies to all Governance staff, though individual contributions (e.g., activity in the portfolio or tracking tickets in Jira) may vary depending on role.

IV. Definitions & Acronyms

 

OKR - Objectives and Key Results

KR - Key Result

V. Authorities/Responsibilities

 

  • The Vice President, Research Governance and Ethics (VP), is responsible for setting priorities and expectations for all governance operations activities.

  • All Governance staff are expected to understand the overall operations foundations and structure for the Governance team. All Governance staff are expected to use this SOP and related Reliable Methods to ensure they have access to and use Governance tools according to the standard set forth by this SOP and related Reliable Methods.

  • The designated Governance Program Manager is responsible for developing and implementing the Governance Portfolio structure.

  • In consultation with the senior governance team, the VP sets expectations for when and how the governance portfolio is maintained. The VP will determine the frequency that each member of the senior governance team is responsible for making updates to the portfolio.

VI. Procedures

A. Tools and Applications

The main tools and applications used for Governance Operations are:

  • Confluence - where operational SOPs and Reliable Methods are housed. These are primarily on the Governance Confluence page.

  • Google Suite - where Draft documents and working documents are located.

  • AirTable - where IRB-related database information is stored. This is primarily used by the Regulatory and Compliance team for the maintenance of Sage IRB submissions as well as tracking of IRB work for the All of Us Research Program.

  • Jira - where incoming tickets are initiated and replied to both internally and externally. These tickets are primarily created and replied to via the Governance Software Project (SG), the ACT Service Desk (ACT or ACT SD), and the Synapse Service Desk (SYNSD); however, numerous other programs and projects will involve Sage Governance as needed.

  • Smartsheet - where program tracking is done, including the Governance portfolio and related tracking or database sheets.

 

Additional tools that may be used include:

B. Information Sharing Tools

  1. Confluence is a critical tool for Sage Governance to store and share SOPs, reliable methods, job aids and templates. As the Confluence page is further refined, Confluence is expected to become a central hub for governance reference documents.

     

  2. ACT Email. The Access and Compliance Team can be contacted via act@sagebase.org or act@sagebionetworks.org

See SOP02-RM04: ACT Email for more information on managing the ACT email and gaining access.

 

  1. Privacy Officer Email. External privacy concerns can be directed to privacyofficer@sagebase.org or privacyofficer@sagebionetworks.org. Like the ACT email address, this is also a Google Group address. Management of owners, members, and email subscriptions should follow a similar process to the ACT Google Group. Members of the Privacy Officer Google Group should be limited to:

  • Data Protection Officer (DPO)

  • Any backups for the DPO

  • Any email triage staff on the Governance team as determined by the DPO.

Responses to emails received on the Privacy Officer Email are generally handled by the DPO.

 

  1. Synapse is used as an information sharing platform through the following pages:

Synapse Documents (Synapse Docs). Some critical governance documentation exists within Synapse Documentation. Examples include:

 

Caution!: These terms are being revised as OneSage Terms of Service.

 

Caution!: This document will be taken down and revised soon. The new document will be instruction-based.

 

Caution!: This information will be integrated into the new Terms of Service.

 

Caution!: This document will be revised soon to reflect changes to the Terms of Service.

 

 

  • Conditions for Use Project (syn4297608)

    • This project is designed to record project-specific information for data sharing.

       

  • ACT Zone Project (syn2897380)

    • ACT Zone is a private project in Synapse. Main features include:

      • Access to the old Access Request Dashboard

      • Access to the Profile Validation Dashboard

Members of the Governance Synapse Team are granted edit and delete privileges. To gain access to the project, governance employees must either be added to the Governance team or be manually added to the ACT Zone project team by an administrator.

Caution!: ACT Zone information has not been updated recently and will be redesigned in the future. Much of the information in the ACT Zone will be replaced with SOPs and/or Reliable Methods.

 

  1. Slack is used regularly by the Governance team for informal communications, conversations, reminders, and announcements. Some key channels used for Governance Operations are:

  • #sr-gov-team (senior/management team members only)

  • #governanceonly (governance internal team only)

  • #sagegovernance (open to all Sage employees)

  • #act (open to all Sage employees but generally limited to the ACT group)

 

  1. Smartsheet is used for:

  • Governance Portfolio. See VI.C for more details.

  • Programs/Projects sheet, which centralizes direct-funded, indirect-effort and pending projects at Sage that will require governance support. This sheet includes project descriptions, links to project attachments and Synapse pages, key points of contact at Sage, Governance deliverables, funding details and notes.

  • Conferences - Webinars - Courses sheet for professional development tracking. See SOP02-RM03 for details on how this sheet is used.

Smartsheet access:

All Governance staff should create a Smartsheet account. Smartsheet accounts are created individually by each user and should be linked to each individual’s Sage Bionetworks email account. To sign up:

  1. Navigate to smartsheet.com. Click on the “Try Smartsheet for free” button at the top right of the browser window.

  2. Enter your Sage Bionetworks email address.

  3. Follow the instructions provided in the invitation email.

 

  • Free accounts, 30-day trial, and licensed accounts.

    • All Sage Bionetworks staff are provided with a free 30-day license when the account is issued. However, a license is not required for most common Smartsheet users. On the Governance Team, there will generally only be a small group of licensed account holders. Free account users are able to view and edit existing sheets, and interact with dashboards; however, only licensed users are able to create new sheet columns and create or edit dashboards.

    • Contact your manager if you feel that a licensed account is more appropriate for your work contributions.

Smartsheet Marketing Warning:

During the 30-day free trial, representatives from Smartsheet will contact you to push their features and to promote additional licensed users. Communicating with these representatives is completely optional. The representatives can be informed that you only need the free account for your work and will contact them if that changes.

C. Sage OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)

  1. General / Purpose

    1. OKRs represent the company’s current priority objectives and collect metrics to display progress. Objectives are a way of expressing what the company wants to accomplish in an allotted time as a translation of the company’s mission. Key Results (KRs) are specific, quantifiable, time bound (generally, measured by annual quarter) goals that express how the company plans to achieve the objectives.

OKRs are reported on during monthly All-Staff meetings. The Google Sheet is generally a viewable document for all Sage Employees.

 

  1. Reporting Structure

  • OKRs are set by Sage’s President in alignment with the Sage Leadership Team (LT).

  • Presently, Governance OKRs are tracked at the Department level by the Vice President of Research Governance and Ethics (VP).

  • The Senior Team reports progress on OKRs to the VP, which are then reported on a master Google Sheet visible to and tracked by Sage’s President.

 

  1. Alignment with Governance Objectives

    1. Sage Governance is engaged in many additional objectives and tasks that do not necessarily roll-up to the shorter list of annual OKRs. Sage Governance will therefore have many tasks and functions that are not reflected in the organization-wide or departmental OKRs.

    2. In consultation with the senior governance team and the President, the VP will set departmental OKRs and goals that align with Sage-wide OKRs. The terminology and exact processes around these goals may change in the coming year as the organization becomes accustomed to the OKR model.

D. Governance Portfolio Management

  1. Purpose

    1. SageGov has a diverse and expansive scope of work involving many different projects, initiatives, and centralized services. Maintenance of the Governance portfolio helps ensure that this volume of work is tracked from an operational perspective for internal metrics and reporting, and communication purposes.

       

  2. Components

    1. The Governance portfolio is comprised of the following components and features:

       

       

       

  3. General Expectations and Processes

    1. The designated Governance Program Manager is responsible for developing and maintaining the Governance portfolio structure. Members of the Senior Governance team are expected to contribute to the portfolio on a regular basis to ensure that the content is up-to-date.

 

SOP02-RM01 (currently in draft) will further detail how the Governance Portfolio is managed and used.

 

E. Jira Tracking

Jira is a software application developed by Atlassian that allows teams to track issues, manage projects, communicate with customers, and automate workflows, among other functions. Sage Governance interacts with Jira to perform cross-team task tracking as well as to communicate governance-related issues with both internal and external customers.

For internal (Sage employee) customers, the SG Software Project is primarily used to communicate Governance-related requests such as adding an access restriction to a Synapse entity, or initiating a data sharing agreement.

For external customers, the ACT Service Desk is primarily used to receive support requests from Synapse users either through the Help Desk, or through the act@sagebase.org email address.

More information and step-by-step instructions for using Jira for Governance are found in the following Reliable Methods:

  • SOP02-RM02 Jira Basics and Workflow

  • SOP02-RM03 Jira Management and Customizations

VII. Associated Documents and Resources

 

  • SOP02-RM01: Governance Portfolio Management

  • SOP02-RM02: Jira Basics and Workflow

  • SOP02-RM03: Jira Management and Customizations

VIII. Revision History

Version #, Date

Description

V1, 2023.09.29

Original version