"Let's keep it clean, gentlemen" - How to use your SIS to validate user-entered data

I was on an Aspen demo yesterday with a couple of local Virginia school districts and one of the attendees was curious how the Aspen SIS could support the tech departments goal of getting uniformity and standardization of data.

Well, ensuring data cleanliness with multiple (and distributed) users entering data is like herding cats -- if you don't create a narrow, defined passage for those feline wanderers to pass through, you're going to lose your herd! (Not sure what the penalty for losing a herd of cats is, but let's just assume for the sake of the metaphor that it is SEVERE!)

So how to create that herd-controlling narrow and defined passage way?

Make sure that you dig in to find out what kind of "pre-input" data validation tools your SIS provides you with. The effective use of these will keep you from tearing your hair out because users "do what they do" when entering data...which is whatever the system allows them to do. The more structure you (are able to) provide, the less time that you'll have to spend cleaning up the mess (or rounding up the herd).

Aspen's robust and extensible data dictionary, for example, allows administrators to create controls for all user input fields - whether those are the "standard" fields or the over 250 user defined fields that can be placed anywhere on any template in Aspen. What that means is that you are completely in control of what data your users are able to input.

Want it to be a 3 character numeric field? Done.

Want a 17 option drop down menu? Your wish is Aspen's command.

Want a 3 month mediterranean cruise as a surprise bonus as a reward for your amazing job as your district's CTO? Absolu....Hey...wait a minute!

The takeaway here is to fight to ensure that you understand the tools that your system has available to support you.

The tools in your system may or may not be as robust and flexible as those in Aspen but that doesn't mean that they - as they are - can't help you in your cat herding endeavors!