The Question Wall is a place to ask questions and get answers. It serves as a central hub for sharing knowledge and collaborating to solve any data-related problem, including governance and security The Question Wall helps connect people who need answers with those who can provide them. This way, everyone can learn, collaborate, and find solutions together.
The major entities involved are:
- Rooms
- Walls within the rooms
- Questions
What are Questions?
A question is anything a user would like to find an answer to. Users can post their questions or read questions posted by others.
Questions will be contained within a wall, and there can be many questions.
Questions can be organized into Open Questions that have not been answered yet and Answered Questions where somebody has responded to a question.
Characteristics of a Question
- It can be assigned to somebody to answer.
- Every question must be answered; until it gets answered, it will be in the Open status.
- Making it obligatory for the assignee to provide an answer.
What is a Wall?
A wall is an area where questions can be asked and answered. Users can ask questions, find answers, and look for the already answered questions to learn about that particular area.
Characteristics of a Wall
- A wall is defined by its name, and if required, one can edit a wall name. (Permissions are explained at the end of this document)
- An assignee/team can be assigned from a wall and post questions.
- A room can be expanded by adding more walls.
- Walls within the room should be of manageable size.
- If certain topics become obsolete, the wall can be deleted.
- A question can be searched within a wall.
What is a Room?
A room is a space of grouped walls related to a particular area where questions can be asked. Multiple walls can represent different topics in that area. An organization can define a room suitable for its governance journey.
Rooms are of two types:
- System defined
- Custom defined
System-defined rooms
The System-defined rooms are predefined areas that serve specific purposes for effective data governance.
System-defined rooms are broadly categorized into 2 types:
- Conversations
- Curation by AI
Conversations
This category offers three system-defined walls. The Business Glossary, Data Catalog, and Data Stories are defined and meant to serve a specific purpose. All the collaboration messages on the Business Glossary Terms and Data Catalog Objects (table, table column, Data Stories) will be shown under the Conversation Room on their respective walls.
Curation by AI
This room consists of a wall where the questions related to AI curation would be shown to the end user. The assignee or the stakeholders can answer the questions, prompting AI to generate descriptions of the data objects or terms.
This category offers two system-defined walls. The Business Glossary and Data Catalog are defined and meant to serve a specific purpose.
To learn more about Curation by AI, please refer here.
General
This room consists of wall which have migrated questions from the previous release of OvalEdge.
Custom-defined rooms
The Custom-defined rooms are specialized areas designed to address an organization's specific data management and governance needs.
The screenshot below shows the custom-defined room.
In short, Rooms and Walls follow a parent-child relationship. Rooms act as folders, with multiple walls inside. Questions are asked inside the Wall. This hierarchical structure ensures questions are organized within contexts. Additionally, each Wall is assigned a designated assignee responsible for addressing questions and timely responses.
Understanding Question Wall
Imagine a financial institution like XYZ Bank that needs to ensure robust compliance with various regulatory requirements governing its operations. XYZ Bank establishes a "Regulatory Compliance" room within its data governance platform to centralize efforts and ensure comprehensive oversight.
Walls within the Regulatory Compliance Room:
- AML (Anti-Money Laundering) Compliance Wall:
This wall focuses on questions and discussions related to AML compliance measures. Compliance officers, analysts, and other relevant stakeholders can post queries regarding suspicious transactions, customer due diligence, or regulatory updates. - GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) Compliance Wall:
Given the international nature of FinSafe Bank's operations, GDPR compliance is crucial. This wall is a hub for discussions on data protection measures, consent management, data subject rights, and breach notification procedures.
Configuring Rooms and Walls
Admins can create/edit/delete Rooms and create/edit/delete Walls within these Rooms.
To configure a room, need to enter its name and description.
Author-licensed users can configure walls within a room, defining attributes such as name, description, and default assignee.
Note: The assignee could be an individual or a team.
User-Specific Interactions: My Walls
My Walls provides easy access to discussions.
User-specific information is divided into three parts:
- Questions given to them
- Questions they asked
- Questions they were mentioned in
Assigned
This will display the questions assigned to the user.
Asked
This will display the questions asked by the user himself/herself on the walls.
Mentions
This will display the questions and answers where the user name has been mentioned.
Community Walls
Users can explore and contribute to Community Walls in addition to personal interactions. Rooms and Walls with existing questions from across the application can be viewed here.
Enhanced Collaboration
Previously, Collaboration was limited to posting a question to a Team, User, Business Glossary term, Data Stories, Data Objects, and Service Desk Ticket, as shown in the image below:
Previous Version
New Version
A new feature has been developed where a question can be asked by assigning an assignee/team. Also, there is an option to mention a team or an individual name in the asked question using the ‘@’ symbol. This helps to ask a question to the mentioned user/team along with an assignee. This feature has been developed for Business Glossary, Data Catalog, and Data Stories.
Posting a comment using the ‘@’ symbol is also available.
Conversations
Business Glossary
This wall contains questions for all the terms. Users can ask questions about the term from the term summary’s Collaboration by assigning an assignee or a team. The steward, the governance roles, or the user having at least meta-read access to the term can answer the questions from the Question Wall ‘Conversations’ for the ‘Business Glossary.’ Users can ask questions about the term and tag the necessary steward or assignee to answer the questions in the Question Wall. That particular assignee/team can view the answer in the Business Glossary. Questions cannot be moved from one room to another, and post questions in ‘Conversations’ from the Question Wall.
Data Catalog
This wall contains questions for all the data objects. Users can ask questions about the data object from the data object summary’s Collaboration by assigning an assignee or a team. The steward, the governance roles, or the user having at least meta-read access to the data object can answer the questions and curate the data object from the Question Wall ‘Conversations’ for the ‘Data Catalog.’ Users can ask questions about the data objects and tag the necessary steward or assignee to answer the questions in the Question Wall. That particular assignee/team can view the answer in the Data Catalog. Questions cannot be moved from one room to another, and post questions in ‘Conversations’ from the Question Wall.
Data Stories
This wall contains questions for all the data stories. Users can ask questions about the data story from the data story summary’s Collaboration by assigning an assignee or a team. The steward, the governance roles, or the user having at least meta-read access to the data story can answer the questions from the Question Wall ‘Conversations’ for ‘Data Stories.’ Users can ask questions about the data stories and tag the necessary steward or assignee to answer the questions in the Question Wall. That particular assignee/team can view the answer in the Data Stories. Questions cannot be moved from one room to another, and post questions in ‘Conversations’ from the Question Wall.
Curation by AI
In this room, users can view questions on which they have been tagged as an assignee from the AI Prompt description generation. It has two walls: a Business Glossary and a Data Catalog. Questions cannot be moved from one room to another, and post questions in Curation by AI from the Question Wall.
Business Glossary
Users can configure questions for the Business Glossary term’s Business and Detail descriptions. Questions are visible to the steward on the AI prompt. Steward can add more questions to get answers from the stakeholders, and better prompts will be given to AI. All the questions assigned from the AI prompt will be visible to the assignee/team on the Question Wall > Curation by AI > Business Glossary section. The steward, the governance roles, or the user having at least meta-read access to the data object can answer the questions. That particular assignee/team can view the answer in the Business Description.
Data Catalog
Users can configure global or specific connector questions for the Business and Technical descriptions of the Data Catalog object. Questions are visible to the steward on the AI prompt. Steward can add more questions to get answers from the stakeholders, and better prompts will be given to AI. All the questions assigned from the AI prompt will be visible to the assignee/team on the Question Wall > Curation by AI > Data Catalog section. The steward, the governance roles, or the user having at least meta-read access to the data object can answer the questions. That particular assignee/team can view the answer in the Data Catalog.
For more details on Curation by AI, Please refer to the DDA here.
General Wall
The General Wall contains all the migrated questions from OvalEdge's earlier versions. Users can add new questions and select the assignee/team from whom they want a response or answer.
Custom Wall
Admins can create a custom Room and Walls within that room of their choice for general discussion.
All the users can ask the other users/teams questions to get responses.
Administrating the rooms and walls
Move Questions
The Move Questions functionality helps to move questions from Custom and General walls. This feature categorizes questions in the correct walls so the questions and their answers are easily accessible.
Copy Link
A copy link is provided for each question. This can be used as a reference for another question's answer.
For example, suppose a certain question has already been answered, and a new user asks the same question again. In that case, the assignee can tag the link to the previously answered question in the new question as a reference.
Notifying the Users
Notifications can be configured for the Question Wall in My Profile > Notification Settings. Notifications can also be configured for Email, Slack, MS Teams, and Google Chat. Once configured, the respective assignee will receive a notification.
Note: For self-assigned questions, notifications won't be received.
User Roles and Permissions
Different user roles and permissions govern interactions within various features. These roles determine who can initiate and respond to conversations, ask and answer questions, and manage content. Here's a breakdown of the roles and permissions across different contexts:
Conversation
|
Action |
Description |
|
Ask Question |
Any user having access to the data object |
|
Answer Question |
Default Assignee or MR users of the object Admins, Governance roles |
|
Update Assignee |
Existing Assignees Admins Governance roles |
Curation by AI
|
Action |
Description |
|
Ask Question |
Object Steward (Author) OE_Admins |
|
Answer Question |
Governance roles, Admin, Current Assignee, MR users of the object |
|
Update Assignee |
Governance roles, Admin, Current Assignee |
General Room
|
Action |
Description |
|
Ask Question |
Any user |
|
Answer Question |
Admin (Default Assignee) Other users ( Author and Business) |
|
Update Assignee |
Any User Current Assignee |
|
Move Questions |
Admin, Author User |
Custom Room And Walls
|
Action |
Description |
|
Ask Question |
Any user |
|
Answer Question |
Any User |
|
Update Assignee |
Any User |
|
Create Room |
Only Admins |
|
Delete Room |
Only Admins |
|
Create Wall |
Admin |
|
Delete Wall |
Admin |
|
Delete Question |
Creator/Admin |
|
Edit Wall |
Admin |
|
Edit Room |
Admin |
|
Move Questions |
Admin |