Handbook for SRS Information Technology (IT)
Want to skip the documents and jump straight to software?
The
Quick Start Guideprovides a step-by-step process to spinning up all SRS IT tools for experimentation and implementation!
The overarching goal of the IT Handbook is to equip countries with clear, practical, and accessible IT guidance that supports the successful design, launch, and sustainability of SRS. To achieve this goal, the Handbook will pursue the following objectives:
- Identify core IT concepts that underpin SRS operations
- For each core IT concept, provide three key pieces of information to support country decisionmaking in planning SRS IT:
- Describe and define, in broad terms, the processes, procedures, and goals that apply to this concept
- Detail relevant tools or software
- Highlight country experiences
After using this Handbook, users from Country X should be equipped to ask and answer the following questions with their SRS teams:
- Which steps of the SRS process are supported by IT tools that Country X needs to support, whether by standing up an existing tool or modifying a system to fit the purpose?
- What system-focused IT design decisions does Country X need to make or clarify with organizational stakeholders?
- How does Country X operationalize this process? Specifically, in what order should Country X plan things and how does Country X estimate the work?
- How have other countries done this?
Intended Audience
What type of country should use this handbook?
The IT Handbook is aimed at a country in the late stages of planning or early stages of implementation of a SRS. It is most useful for a country that has completed situational assessment and is in the SRS design phase – where country stakeholders are determining what specific parts of SRS will be implemented and how that implementation will occur.
Who in that country should use this handbook?
The IT Handbook is most appropriate for members of a country’s IT team who have experience with the core IT concepts. This handbook aims to give those IT staff information about how SRS IT is intended to function, equipping them to advise the larger SRS program teams on IT-specific decisions. This section (constituting the Handbook) is intended for the audience of system architects, software engineers, programmers, and data managers who are tasked with building and running the system.
Are you more of an epidemiologist or a programmatic stakeholder in SRS?
Read the documents in the main VIVA 12-steps! The content in those steps is, in some cases, identical to the content here; however, it is organized for a broader audience and includes other content more relevant to an overall programmatic view.
Structural Framework
The following subsections detail the core IT concepts underpinning SRS operations, attempting to map those core concepts to steps of the SRS process. Then, this section discusses and defines the four types of information that will be provided for each core IT concept.
Core IT concepts underpinning SRS operations
Six core IT concepts underpin all SRS operations. While many of them are not dependent on each other and therefore can be worked in parallel, the ordering shown below is intended to help prioritize. SRS IT teams typically have limited staff who cannot work on items in parallel, and developing and SRS IT solutions in this order is recommended best practice in such a situation. Additionally, a job title is highlighted to indicate the person best qualified to lead the effort. These areas all require collaboration with other team members, but the title listed is meant to identify the core skillset(s) of the person best positioned to lead the task.
The IT handbook is organized with a section for each of these six core IT concepts, with an Appendix that follows detailing miscellaneous tools and IT sustainability.
- Infrastructure and databases (System Administrator; Programmer)
- Creation of the electronic forms (Data Manager)
- Case Management (Programmer)
- Operational Reporting (Data Manager; Programmer)
- Data Science (Data Manager; Statistician)
- System Compatibility, Integration, & Interoperability (Programmer; Data Manager)
SRS development timeline
The following table illustrates a possible development timeline, organized by the six core concepts described above. This timeline follows the prioritization highlighted above, with Infrastructure being worked first and Data Exchange being worked last. This timeline might not apply to every SRS program; however, it can be a starting point. 
Four types of information that constitute the Handbook
Each section covering a core IT concept strives to follow a common structural framework, to enable easy searching for information and comparison across sections:
Guide
A Guide is a succinct overview description of the specific step or IT process. What does the IT process seek to accomplish? How does that IT process fit into the larger SRS workflow? How might this IT process map to existing frameworks or steps such as the already-released IT checklist? This section should be written in plain language whenever possible and, while aimed at a member of the IT team, content should mostly be understandable to someone with a limited IT background.
Tools
Tools are products that have already been developed by previous SRS programs that could aid in the implementation of the content described in the Guide. Some tools may be nontechnical artifacts – workshop materials and user persona definition worksheets would also be described within this category. Technical Tools are distinct from Software (see next section) in that Tools are not executable programs; rather, they require some level of manual work to run and configure. For example, sample R code to analyze causes of death or an XLSForm questionnaire specification to gather birth outcome information from a reported event would be considered a Tool.
Software
Software is an executable program that can be used to accomplish the relevant steps in the Guide. Some software will be SRS-customized and specific (such as Verbal Autopsy Explorer [VAE] or the SRS Case Management System [CMS]). Other software will be open-source recommendations to accomplish certain steps. Software could relate directly to tools; for example, R and an OpenDataKit (ODK)-supported database such as ODK Central or Kobo Toolbox will be recommended software for the example tools described above (sample R code and an XLSForm questionnaire, respectively).
Stories
All content described in Guides, Tools, and Software describes the recommended path towards accomplishing that specific SRS process or step. However, countries may follow a different path that should be highlighted. Stories seek to capture exactly that – did Mozambique do something particularly interesting related to this step? Zambia? Sierra Leone? India?
| Last updated |
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| 13 January 2026 |
| Portions of this page are © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved. Approved for Public Release #25-2779. Distribution Unlimited. The source of this information is the Technical Assistance for Sample Registration Systems (SRS) Planning Grants, a joint project of the CDC Foundation and Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute through the Gates Foundation SRS Grant. |