Kryštof KomanecThe FAIR Wizard is a powerful tool. When dealing with research projects, there are two possible approaches. One approach is to simply prepare the Knowledge Models and Document Templates, leaving everything else for the researchers to figure out. The other, and in our opinion better, approach would be to prepare Project Templates. In combination with User Groups, these templates can be used to provide specific access to certain Project Templates for designated groups of users. When everything is prepared correctly, the researchers' job becomes very easy and straightforward.
One of the strengths of the FAIR Wizard is that almost everything can be customized to meet an organization's needs of Data Management Planning processes. A Data Steward's job is to prepare a Project Template for researchers to work with, and using this blog post as a guide makes this task easy for the Data Steward.
The process of creating Project Templates was already described in our other blogpost. This blogpost focuses on additional options related to Project Templates: User Groups and overall project settings. When combined, these options can create a clear and straightforward work environment for Researchers. By preparing the Project Template in this manner, researchers only need to click a few times to create a project, without having to spend much time deciding what to select.
When the Project Template is combined with User Groups, we can restrict access to the template, making it visible only to specific groups of users.
User Groups can be set up in the Admin Center app of the FAIR Wizard. Adding Users to a group allows us to assign them to a project all at once, without the need to select individual Users. This also ensures that no one is forgotten. User Groups can be used, for example, at the department or research group level.
After selecting User Groups from the menu, we can either create a new User Group or edit an existing one. The group can also be private, meaning only its members and Users with the Administrator role will be able to see it, or public, which can be seen by everyone in the FAIR Wizard instance.
To effectively use Project Templates, we should review the options in the project settings within the Data Management Planner app.
If we want researchers to use only Project Templates for their projects, we can block them from using Knowledge Models when creating a new project, restricting them to Project Templates only. Once Project Templates are the only allowed method for creating new projects, the option to use Knowledge Models will disappear to prevent any confusion. However this only applies to Researchers. Data Stewards and Administrators will still be able to create Projects from Knowledge Models.
When all previous steps are complete, we can create the Project Template itself by following the steps in our blogpost Project Templates in FAIR Wizard. However, when sharing the prepared project with other Users, we will use the option to share the project with a User Group. We recommend selecting only the Viewer role so that researchers can't modify the project that serves as a template. Selecting the Commenter role is also an option if, for example, we want researchers to provide feedback on certain questions within the template.
After this, every User who is a member of the User Group will be able to use the Project Template when creating their Project.
User Groups and comprehensive settings options, in conjunction with Project Template functionality, provide an easy way to share projects with specified groups of users. This makes starting a project very simple. Setting up a project is a matter of seconds for the researcher and is very straightforward and clear.
