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Display calculated rank status in Biotics - Input Needed
Montana
1. Yes, our 'ologists use the rank calculator
2. Yes.
3. Yes. Lots of dates can be confusing but if well-labeled and appropriately used, they actually alleviate confusion.
4. Same as above, it makes sense if well-labeled.
5. No opinion at this time.
Question: The 'ologists have asked if there is a way in Biotics to save different versions of rank factors to be able to see how they have changed over time. It does not appear to be the case in the current Biotics (correct me if I'm wrong?) Is this something that is intended for future development?
1. Began using a year ago and expect to continue using it in the future.
2. Yes, agree.
3. I think that would be very useful to see ‘Date Calculated because it would make it very clear when there’s disagreement between rank values which information was modified most recently.
4. I don’t think that is too confusing (or rather yes it is a little confusing but the benefit outweighs that). I appreciate the value of being able to view the Calculated Rank. For example I can imagine a scenario where you want to explore what would happen to the rank if a rank factor value is modified, but would not want to immediately overwrite the Calculated Rank. Being able to look at the Dynamically Calculated Rank in comparison to the previously Calculated Rank would help with that. You could see if a large change observed might mean a full-blown rank review is warranted. Only once ready would you press the ‘Store as Calculated Rank’ button.
5. No thoughts on this at this time except to say that your efforts are appreciated greatly. Thanks to the team working on all of this.
Replying to Karen - you can always make a report that looks up old values of the rank factors in the deleted schema. Everything is there, it's just getting it out that takes some work.
And I second Rachel's comment that it's great that you guys are working on this!
General comments from C. Eichelberger, PA: Any comingling between Biotics and the calculator would be
great in my opinion…. Even if it’s just a start.
If fields from Biotics could eventually automatically populate parts of the calculator so that the more subjective factors (mostly threats) would be the focus of expert review, that would really streamline things. I also think it would be great if eventually BIOTICs could be the “storage” for the calculators. Right now, storage of that information is kind of all over the place… server, individual hard drives, and even outside of the program. It would be great if eventually the calculator information could all be stored in Biotics, and that when it’s time for rank review and update we just download the most recent official version of the calculator factors and backing from BIOTICs. Likewise, if the reviewed calculators could automatically plug into BIOTICs, that would really make things smoother on the DM side I’d imagine.
Comments from Jessica McPherson, botanist: I agree getting things into biotics could ultimately add to the security of the data storage and I like that goal. Although from a plant perspective there will remain some accessibility issues.
I’d love to get rid of the clunky and kind of dangerous (easy to lose things, duplicate/confuse things, or overwrite; also crashes excel periodically) spreadsheet, but as long as we don’t have access to edit biotics we’re still going to need to work off it. A fair amount of tinkering is usually involved in completing an RC.
In my earlier comments I think I misunderstood what they are doing here – it looks like they actually are storing rank factors and their comments, and using their values to automatically generate a calculated rank just like the spreadsheet does. Are they adding all the rank factors, or just adapting fields that already exist in biotics? There isn’t a lot of detail in that section of the document.
Here are my answers to their questions; I don’t have any additional feedback.
1. Are you a regular user of the rank calculator? yes
2. We decided that automatic recalculation when a rank factor value is updated is preferable to a “Calculate Rank” button. Do you agree? Yes. That way you don’t have to wonder whether you did it or not, and can’t forget.
3. We thought the new “Date Calculated” field could be useful for things like checking to see if the Calculated Rank was updated without updating the Assigned Rank or Rank Review Date fields. But it could also be confusing and distract from the more important Rank Change and Rank Review Date fields. What’s your opinion? As long as you’ve got three rank fields, you might as well put a second date field in there to help keep it all straight.
4. Is it too confusing to have 3 rank fields (Dynamically Calculated, Calculated, and Assigned)? Is there any way we could make it less confusing? (We do think it’s still useful to store in the database the Calculated Rank used to assign a rank, separate from a dynamic calculation which will change without full rank factor review.) The only way to make it simpler is to have just one field for calculated rank. I’m not sure about the reasoning for keeping two, it kind of seems like going the other way from the choice made in question #2. Either it updates automatically, or it doesn’t. I do think this will cause confusion, and it should probably be just two fields. If you mean it when you’re making a factor change, it should show up; and if you don’t mean it, you need to be cognizant of that. You still have to review to change “assigned rank”, and that’s what matters.
5. Threats Calculator requirements have not yet been developed, but we do plan to add to Biotics the calculation of individual threat impacts in the threats grid and the calculation of overall threat impact are planned. The trigger for calculated overall threat impact will likely be with a button, but input about implementation of this is welcome now (or let us know if you would like to provide input when we have a mockup). Yes threats should still remain separable from the overall calculated rank, mainly because I have a major problem with how the threat affects the overall rank that no one seems to want to listen to. Every time I bring it up to NatureServe staff they tell me I either don’t understand or it was planned that way. I do understand, and I don’t like the outcomes because they are inconsistent with traditional understanding of the meaning of the various ranks; so if it was planned that way it needs to be re-planned.
Reply from B. Leppo, Pa Invertebrate zoologist:
1. Episodic user
2. I’m not sure. See #4.
3. I’m ok with that
4. I couldn’t access the support site, so may be missing information on what dynamically calculated means or the advantages of it. I’m not sure why we’d want to change one rank factor without reviewing the other fields at the same time. I think the ranking process should be done as completely as possible during each review. If someone changes one factor, do other users know which factor was changed to cause the rank to automatically update, and if other fields were also reviewed but just not changed, etc.
5. ...
Vermont:
No, Vermont does not regularly use the rank calculator. We’ve done a few test cases but I don’t believe anyone intends to use it for most rank reviews. More importantly, we don’t regularly use the Element Ranking record, including the Rank Factor fields.
Given that, I won’t comment in detail about the rest, but everything you’ve laid out seems logical to me. It’s not particularly confusing, though I’m not sure it would ever be used here. If our rank reviewers (generally a staff member and a Scientific Advisory Group doing a review of a whole taxonomic group at once) ever do decide to use the calculator, I suspect the Excel version will still be friendlier.
New York
1. Yes, we regularly use the Rank Calculator.
2. Yes, we agree that automatic recalculation is desired.
3. We think a “Date Calculated” field is fine.
4. It’s somewhat confusing to have three rank fields. It might help if “Dynamically Calculated” were named to distinguish it better from “Calculated.” Something like “Temporary Calculated” or "Provisional Calculated" or “Automatically Updated” or “Rank Based on Current Rank Factors.”
5. We are interested in having the threats calculator implemented, and can provide input when there’s a mockup.
Maine. Wow, we're late to reply, sorry!
1. No, Maine is not a regular user of the rank calculator. It was used to calculate ranks for all of the bumblebees a couple of years ago, by one of the biologists at Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, but I haven't used it, nor has anybody at Maine Natural Areas Program. However, I'm about to help an MDIFW biologist calculate ranks for butterfly species in ME. I played around with the rank calculator spreadsheet a couple of months ago, making up species and what their factors might be to see how the rank calculator worked...
2. I think an automatic recalculation is good, because who has time to keep up with all of the rank factors for everything? But only if there's a date calculated next to it, so we can know when it happened. Or maybe a date calculated (initial calculation) and another field for date updated (for any automatic updates)? Or is that just WAY too many dates? ... Looking at question 4, I might be confused about dynamically calculated and calculated ranks.
3. I think having all of the dates is important, just be sure it's clear which goes with which rank.
4. Ah, re-reading the entire question with the parenthetical statement... perhaps Dynamically Calculated, Calculated/Reviewed, and Assigned? Or some clear hover/help text distinguishing dynamically calculated vs normal calculated? I think all 3 are good to keep, but need better distinction in naming.
5. Not having worked much w/ the calculator/spreadsheet, I'm not sure I have an opinion on this. Maybe seeing a mockup would be helpful.
Thank you all for your feedback! We considered all your comments and made some modifications to the proposal as a result. The functionality was released Dec. 26 (Biotics 5.11.5) and updates to online help have been published (http://help.natureserve.org/biotics/#Record_Management/Element_Files/Element_Ranking/ERANK_Overview_of_Conservation_Status_Rank.htm). Further updates to help are planned, but let us know if it does not answer the questions you had.
We plan to do a demo once the import from Excel calculator tool has been released and threats grid updates have been made, but if there is enough demand for an earlier webinar, we can do that.
Here are answers to the questions you asked in this ticket.
SOME SPECIFIC QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NEW FUNCTIONALITY
Q: Is "Store as Calculated Rank" button necessary? (You can cut and paste.) (OR)
A: You can cut and paste if you want, and enter Date Stored manually, but we think the button makes the workflow more self-explanatory and allows Date Stored to be populated without the user needing to think about it. In the future we may expand the functionality of the button to allow for entering Assigned Rank, Rank Change Date, and Rank Review Date that are currently only editable on the Tracking page.
Q: Popup when rank changes could be distracting and possibly cause user bias. (OR,WA)
Answer: We considered this and decided that the benefit of being warned that you've changed the Automatically Calculated Rank outweigh the possible distraction or bias. The popup message is pretty subtle.
EDITING ASSIGNED RANK
Q: Why aren't Assigned Rank, Rank Change Date, and Rank Review Date editable in the Ranking Page? (AZ,OR,WA)
A: These values have been read-only on the Ranking page since Biotics 4 and maybe earlier. Adding the ability to edit them on the Ranking Page was more work than we could fit in to the rank calculation implementation, and until now the functionality had not been seriously considered when prioritizing development resources.
Further explanation: The Biotics data model places Assigned Rank in the tracking table in order to require a rank for each element at each geographic level. (It is possible to create an Element without an associated ranking record, so moving the field to the ranking table would allow it to be blank.) We agree that with the current methodology it does make sense to populate these fields in the Ranking page, but the change will take about 4 days of development time as it requires a new method of saving data. We will need to prioritize that work with other development needs.
BIOTICS-EXCEL IMPORT/EXPORT
Q: The epic is called Import and Calculation, but there is no information or opportunity for feedback on how the Import piece will be implemented. (NV)
A: We did not feel that the Rank Calculator Import required feedback from member programs. The functionality is a bit of a "quick fix"; it's in Excel rather than Biotics, and will require some manual steps. It should be coming in January.
Q: Will there be an "Export" functionality to complete the circle with the Excel calculator, pending full implementation within Biotics? (NV)
A: The ability to export from Biotics and import into the rank calculator has existed since the early days of the rank calculator. The instruction are on the "Export from Biotics5" tab.
Q: Will Date Stored be populated with an initial value if/when imported from the Excel calculator?Will it be the date stored in the calculator, or the date imported?Would it be appropriate to also store the basis for the date (Imported from Excel; Date of import; Changed in Biotics)? This information might facilitate quicker interpretation of the Calculation Date.) (NV)
A: The import date will be stored in the Date Stored field with imports from Excel. That and some documentation updates are the only steps needed before the import functionality can be released. We need to consider how the field should be populated; we're thinking that the date imported will be best because no calculation date is stored in the calculator. But let us know if you have an opinion. Update: we decided to use date imported.
The Rank Methodology Used field (http://help.natureserve.org/biotics/#Record_Management/Element_Files/Element_Ranking/ERANK_Rank_Methodology_Used.htm) can be used to distinguish ranks calculated in the Excel tool vs. Biotics, so we don't think a field for the basis of the date is needed.
CALCULATED RANK VS. ASSIGNED RANK
Q: When would Assigned Rank differ from Calculated Rank? (BC)
A: See the "Review and Assign Conservation Status Rank" section (pp. 22-24) of http://help.natureserve.org/biotics/#Methodology/natureserveconservationstatusmethodology_jun12_0.pdf.
Q: It's really important to have some sort of flag or warning when the assigned rank is different than the calculated rank, whether it was a conscious change or not. If the exceptional case has been made where there calculated rank (dynamically or otherwise) is overwritten with an assigned rank, then there needs to be a warning to fill in the “Rank Adjustment Reasons” and some sort of message to indicate that this is to be done only in exceptional cases. (BC)
A: There is a warning in the Excel rank calculator, and we do hope to add a warning to Biotics in the future, but it would be awkward with the layout now available in Biotics. The workflow is to first store the calculated rank and then to assign a rank, and the appropriate timing to see a warning is after the Assigned Rank is updated, as is done in the Excel calculator. (Otherwise users would see the warning after storing the calculated rank but before they are able to update the Assigned Rank.) But in Biotics Assigned Rank must be edited on the Tracking page where Stored Calculated Rank and Rank Adjustment Reasons are not visible, so it would be confusing to see the warning there. (Also, some users still update Assigned Rank without storing a calculated rank.)
RANK FACTOR VERSIONING
Q: Is there a way in Biotics to save different versions of rank factors to be able to see how they have changed over time. Is this something that is intended for future development? (MT)
A: There is no rank factor versioning in Biotics, nor is any planned. You can query the audit log to see change over time. Here's an ESR rank factors query you can use as is or modify:
/* ESR Rank Factor history */
SELECT es.element_subnational_id,
est_elcode(es.element_subnational_id) elcode,
getsciname(sname_id) sname,
alc.column_name,
al.audit_date,
alc.old_value,
alc.comments,
al.action_code,
al.user_name
FROM
AUDIT_LOG al,
AUDIT_LOG_COLUMN alc,
ELEMENT_SUBNATIONAL es
WHERE
al.audit_log_id = alc.audit_log_id(+)
and al.primary_key_id = es.element_subnational_id(+)
and alc.column_name in('D_RANGE_EXTENT_ID','D_AOO_DIRECT_DEFAULT_ID','D_AOO_DIRECT_SMALL_ID','D_AOO_DIRECT_MATRIX_ID','D_AOO_4KM_ID','D_AOO_1KM_ID','D_NUMBER_EOS_ID','D_POP_SIZE_ID','D_NUMBER_GOOD_EOS_ID','D_AOO_PERCENT_GOOD_ID','D_THREAT_IMPACT_ASSIGNED_ID','D_SHORT_TERM_TREND_ID','D_LONG_TERM_TREND_ID','D_INTRIN_VULNERABILITY_ID','D_ENVIRO_SPECIFICITY_ID')
and alc.old_value is not null --comment out to see when values were first populated
and al.table_name = 'ELEMENT_SUBNATL_RANK'
-- and es.element_subnational_id in(375047) --uncomment and list IDs to limit to specific ESRs
ORDER BY elcode, sname, column_name, audit_date;
RANK FACTORS IN BIOTICS
Q: It looks like they actually are storing rank factors and their comments, and using their values to automatically generate a calculated rank just like the spreadsheet does. Are they adding all the rank factors, or just adapting fields that already exist in biotics? (PA)
A: Rank factors have been stored in Biotics since Biotics 4. The 2012 revised methodology was incorporated into Biotics 5. The preferred workflow until now was to enter rank factor data in Biotics, export to the rank calculator, calculate and assign the rank, and then enter the calculated and assigned rank (and associated data) in Biotics. (See "Workflow for Assessments Using the Calculator" (p. 26) in http://help.natureserve.org/biotics/#Methodology/natureserveconservationstatusmethodology_jun12_0.pdf.) That workflow can still be used, but now there is the option of calculating the rank directly in Biotics without needing to use the Excel tool. Full implementation of the Excel tool layout and workflow in Biotics is a future epic.
THREATS GRID
Q: We wonder why the conclusion [to use button] for threat calculator is different from the overall rank, why not do this dynamically too? (NC)
A: Good point. We will consider this while working on the mockup. We plan to provide a demo of our proposed functionality in the next few weeks.
Q: Does this mean that once the threat grid is completed, that the overall threat can be popped into the rank calculation portion of Biotics? (BC)
A: A button allowing users to update Overall Threat with the calculated threat is part of the implementation being considered.
Kristin Snow and Margaret Ormes
Shelley Cooke
Display calculated rank status in Biotics
In the Biotics development roadmap, most of you agreed that it would be useful to implement certain aspects of rank automation prior to the much larger task of fully implementing the rank calculator in Biotics. These are specified in the "Rank Calculator: Import and Calculation" epic circled in the section of the roadmap below. Note that the "Rank Calculator: Full Implementation" epic is later, at the bottom left in orange.
We are now preparing to implement the "Rank Calculator: Import and Calculation" epic, and we need your feedback on the "Calculation" piece. This is simply a calculation of rank based on the rank factor fields in Biotics. The same rank calculation logic that is in the rank calculator will be used, but no other functionality of the rank calculator will be replicated at this time.
The wireframes below show the proposed implementation in the Biotics User Interface at all three levels (in the Element G/N/S Ranking table). Please let us know what you think, and also answer these specific questions:
NOTE: this implementation does NOT replace the current workflow that is used with Excel Rank Calculator; rather, it provides an alternate work flow that can be used alone or in conjunction with the Excel Rank Calculator.