User needs

This section is not part of the standard

The content in this section is only included to help explain the standard, provide examples or make recommendations about use.

It does not contain requirements for complying with the standard and is not governed by the formal standards process.

The information may not have been updated to accurately reflect Government policy.

The tariff data standard is designed to meet a variety of user needs, including the Form, Quality, Management, Access to, and Lifecycle of the data. These user needs will vary considerably depending on the type and experience of user. Below we discuss the user needs in these categories for different levels of user

Discover

These users will be coming to the data standard for the first time, they will want to know the basics of the standard including what it covers, where does the data authority come from, is the data current, how they get it and who is using it.

Evaluate

These users will be starting to explore the data and what it contains. They will want to know what meaning the data contains, is it reliable, how much notice is there of changes, what restrictions there are, and whether it will change in a way that they can no longer support.

Integrate

These users will be starting to use the data and extract value and meaning from it. They will want to know how to extract the meaning they need, how to handle quality issues, who to contact with questions, how to integrate updates, how to ensure they meet their own SLAs, and how to find out about changes to the standard.

Maintain

These users are the most experienced with the data, they have already extracted meaning from it and want to understad how to maintain that. They’re needs include how to handle changes in the meaning of the data, how to provide feedback on identified quality issues, what changes may be coming up and what to do with them, how to ensure stable long term acess and how to get involved with changes to the standard.

How these are met

The standard aims to meet these user needs through a variety of methods. By providing a comprehensive overview of the data and where it comes from, including any reference data, along with what gaurantees there are of quality, detailing the validation rules that govern the data and providing the semantic meaning of records and fields.

By providing shcemas that detail the data entites and the relationships between them, instructions on how to access and use the data, including API codelist, along with examples. By providing a comprehensive changelog, along with a schedule of changes, desemination of information about stadnard changes via mailing lists and publications, and detailing how changes to the standard are made and agreed. By detailing how the quality of the data is measured and highlighting typical quality issues and recommendations. And by faclitating an open invite working group and maintaining an explicit open licence.