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The Deployment WIKI

The deployment WIKI provides a knowledge base of deploying Sahana for different types of disasters, scenarios and roles. It also provides some best practices for the particular situation. Please also share your experiences so that we can make this knowledge base richer and more effective.

Best Practices

The following best practices are based on past Sahana deployment experiences including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Peru and US. (target) Org in the paragraphs below refers to those who can apply Sahana to improve efficiencies in coordination either internally or within a network of relief groups. They can include Government, NGOs, UN, Spontaneous Volunteers.

Deploy Sahana off a stable branch

Justification The disaster coordination domain is a mission critical domain and we cannot afford to have systems failing in the middle of disasters. Thus irrespective of how old the stable branch is, you should customize Sahana off a stable release and not a development release such that you have some degree of assurance on reliability.

Deploy Sahana on an environment comfortable to the target organization

Justification There have been many instances where the Linux OS has not matched the target organizations ability/capacity maintain the system. In this instance we recommend you install Sahana on an OS familiar to the target organization (usually windows) or all issues including non-Sahana ones will be propagated back to you. Sahana is available to be installed on windows as a WAMP package or the portable App version.

Understand the security constraints of the target organization __early__ and match Sahana to it

The data being served by Sahana is often very sensitive, so an effort needs to be put in place to secure the data to only authorized people. The orgs usually have their own security policy and restricted ports & practices. Sahana can be configured flexibly with an authentication and authorization (access control) that matches the environment. Don't leave this as a last moment task or it becomes a show stopper.

Understand the IT literacy and vocabulary of your target audience

There is no point giving Sahana to those that do not have basic IT literacy. It is better to appoint one IT savvy person to act as a Sahana helpdesk and center point for those that are not IT literate. The terminology used on the system should also match the target user group.

Spend time to understand the requirements and get it in writing

It is important to spend sufficient time upfront to clearly understand the requirements and to document them should further clarification be required later. Always communicate this documentation to the target org before you begin to set expectations and schedules. It is better for the team doing the customization to meet the members from the target org onsite rather than doing this remotely.

Understand the problem first and if Sahana is a match and not visa versa

Understand the real problem being faced by the target org and match/customize Sahana to that, rather than use Sahana like a hammer looking for a nail. It is better not to deploy Sahana, than to deploy a solution that does not match the coordination problem.

Use bug trackers, capture change requests to prioritize and schedule tasks

Bugs will prop up as you customize Sahana for the target org. Ensure you have a quality process in place to track & fix bugs. Also you can expect a lot of changes from the target org especially during a disaster, so be ready to track them effectively such that none are missed and schedule them effectively based on priority. At the top end you can use a project management tool such as dotproject to schedule the team.

Clearly understand maintenance and training needs and ensure it is covered by someone

Sahana and the XAMP system it is deployed on needs to be maintained and administered. A good training program is also needed so that users get a good understanding of how to use the system. Ensure there is someone or support group responsible for the above after deployment as you can expect a lot of queries (mostly trivial) and minor configurations once the system gets deployed.

Support the main releases by putting bug fixes and new modules back to the Sahana codebase

Please continue to support Sahana as you build new modules, create enhancement and fix bugs for target organizations by submitting that code back to the code base according to the standards specified, such that a minimal amount of work is need to integrate it. The sooner you can do this the better it will be before the codebase diverts from the deployment customization.

Deployment Modes / Usage Roles

Any specific details for the deployment of Sahana for the following usages (roles)

- all modules active

- just needs Organisation Registry & Inventory Management modules

Disaster Types

Any specific details on Sahana configurations for the following disaster types


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