Organization (Assay Definition)¶
The assay definition is the basic unit for the organization of data management. The assay consists of a local vocabulary of parameters which allows scientists to translate from global to local usages and better define the rules for data entry.
An assay can have a number of queues associated with it, designed to link between requests for work and actual work performed. Each queue accepts a single reference type of data - e.g. samples, plates, compounds.
Parameters can be grouped together into a number of linked data contexts to create a data entry sheet, which is referred to as a Protocol. To manage changes to this sheet over time, the Protocol is implemented as an Assay Protocol with support for a collection of Protocol Versions.
Each Protocol Version may be linked to one or more Tasks where data is actually entered. As a simple rule a protocol version cannot be changed once it is linked to more than one task. To allow for release control a single version of the protocol is marked as the release version for general use. A released protocol version can not be changed.
Workflow is an enhancement to the process model supporting multi-step processes. This allows a workflow recipe to be defined, creating a whole set of related tasks in a single operation. In the domain model processes are split into two types, the simple single step ProcessVersion and multi-step WorflowVersion.
