As LINQ users develop more and more content within the LINQ platform sketch management can become a challenge. This is particularly difficult when multiple LINQ analysts are collaborating on sketches to deliver a wide view of an organisation’s information flow. To make it easier to work with multiple LINQ sketches, we will be adding descriptive ‘metadata’ fields to sketches. This will make it easier for users to communicate the purpose and intent of their work in LINQ.
Sketch metadata will be editable via a new popup dialog from either the Canvas or Explorer. The current plan is to add the following fields:
- Sketch Description
- Status of the sketch – Draft, Proposed or Authoritative
- Visibility of the sketch within the organisation – Confidential, Normal or visible to the whole Organisation
- Custom fields that can be tailored for each organisation. We anticipate these will be used for things like “Who is the custodian of the sketch?”, “What department does the sketch belong to?” or “What is the purpose of this sketch?”
- Sketch Tags – users can select tags from a list of standard tags used in the organisation, or create their own tags.
The goal for sketch metadata is to add a powerful layer of information that can be used to manage and organise sketches. Sketch metadata will be used in a number of ways:
- the information entered will help other people (or your future self) understand what a LINQ sketch is all about
- the metadata fields will be searchable in the new LINQ Explorer, allowing better discovery and management of sketches
- Sketch metadata will enable the new Organisation Library feature; sketches with ‘authoritative’ status and ‘organisation’ visibility will be listed in the library.
- Sketches with authoritative organisation content will participate in the Organisation Palette feature.
