Roadmap
🚧 This section is still in active development and is subject to changes 🚧
This is a high level roadmap for products we want to create in the Seedcase Project. We do not include timelines or estimates for completion in this document.
For a more detailed and regularly updated roadmap, see our Long-term Planning GitHub Board.
Product roadmap
This is a non-exhaustive list of products or outputs that we believe can fill multiple strong needs within the research community. These products, we believe, have the capacity to substantially improve how research is done. However, given our current timelines and resources, we can’t complete all of them. We list them here to show our visions and goals.
They are split into three main categories: software and software-related, technical documentation, and outreach.
Products are listed in the order that we plan to work on and complete them. Beside each product is one of the following status icons:
Status | Description |
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Products we’ve completed with a minimally viable product (MVP) that we’ll continue to improve and work on. |
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Products we are working on currently. |
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Products we plan to complete within the current funding period (end of 2027). |
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Products we’d like to work on, but probably won’t finish within the current funding period (end of 2027) due to limited time and resources, |
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Ongoing products without a final release (e.g., not archived or officially published). |
Technical documentation
Following the diátaxis method, we split documentation into four types: tutorials, how-to guides, reference, and explanation. A brief description of these types are expanded upon in the sections below. These technical documentation products reach MVP and done status when they are either:
- Uploaded to an archive like Zenodo (to generate a DOI).
- Taught to participants in a workshop setting.
- Uploaded to a software archive (like PyPI) if they are within a software product’s repository and are executable (the code within runs).
Tutorials are learning-oriented documentation that includes workshops, online tutorials, and learning shorts. These will be developed as open educational resources.
Status | Learning resource |
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rostools/github-intro : An introductory workshop on using GitHub |
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rostools/git4cats : 🐱 Git for Collaborative Teams: An introductory workshop on using Git and GitHub for team-based collaborative workflows and practices |
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Workshop: Introduction to building research software using Python as a solo developer in research environments. |
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Workshop: Iterative project management and development for effective collaboration and work. |
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rostools/r-pkg-intro : Build research software using R as a solo developer in research environments. |
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Workshop: Building research software using Python in a team setting. |
How-to guides are goal-oriented documentation that helps the reader get something specific done. These include how-to guides, usage guides, and user manuals.
Status | Guides or manuals |
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sprout.seedcase-project.org usage guide: Using and interacting with seedcase-sprout . |
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Flower usage guide: Using and interacting with seedcase-flower . |
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Propagate usage guide: Using and interacting with seedcase-propagate . |
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Garden usage guide: Using and interacting with seedcase-garden . |
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Improving the research software development lifecycle by integrating DevOps practices. |
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A guided walkthrough: Team-based collaborative practices and workflows in a research environment. |
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Sprout data extensions usage guide: Installing or creating extensions for seedcase-sprout . |
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A guided walkthrough: Iterative and incremental project development and management in a research environment. |
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Using DocOps workflows and infrastructure to reduce time between writing and dissemination. |
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Building DataOps pipelines and infrastructure for improving research data quality and reduce time from collection to analysis. |
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Integrating research operations in organizations to improve quality and speed up research. |
Reference material is information-oriented documentation that are technical descriptions of how things work or why things are done a specific way. These include reference manuals, API documentation, and technical specifications, design documentation, as well as documentation for how we work together, decisions made, or any community contributing guidelines we have.
Because of the nature of reference documentation, they don’t really have a “done” status nor do they have clearly defined “endpoints”, like uploading to an archive to generate a DOI. For these reasons, these products are all classified as “ongoing”.
Status | Information resource |
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seedcase-project/seedcase-sprout : Reference docs for Sprout. |
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seedcase-project/design : Overall architectural design documentation for Seedcase software. |
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seedcase-project/team : Documentation specific to the Seedcase team, like onboarding, common configuration files, and meeting agendas and minutes. |
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seedcase-project/community : Content for community building, outreach, and contributing guidelines for the Seedcase Project. |
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seedcase-project/seedcase-website : Main website for the Seedcase Project. |
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seedcase-project/examples : Practical examples of how to use Seedcase software to structure datasets and prepare them to be used by others. All data is either fake, synthetically generated, or completely open. |
Explanation material is understanding-oriented documentation that focuses on reflection and broadening knowledge or understanding. These include opinion pieces, explanations, theoretical or thought-provoking pieces, and outreach materials.
Status | Deliverable |
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seedcase-project/community : Sharing knowledge and skills learned from attending conferences and workshops in research software and data engineering or operational management |
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seedcase-project/decisions : Archival records on the decisions made for tools or processes we use in the Seedcase Project. |
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Research data engineering: What is it and why is it vital for modern research? |
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Challenges and barriers: Workflows and digital infrastructure for building software in a team-based research environment. |
Outreach and events
These are activities involves engaging with the research community, mainly through in-person seminars, symposiums, or other events.
Given the expertise and resources needed for these types of “products” (e.g. hosting and coordinating people), we will likely not be able to work on these types of activities in the near future. However, we believe that they are important for bringing greater awareness to the research community about the various topics we work on and advocate for.
Status | Deliverable |
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Seminar series: Unmet needs for research data engineering and current challenges in implementation |
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Symposium: Current state of data engineering in research environment |
Collaborations and users
Once we have a minimum viable product for any of the software deliverables, we aim to test and deploy them in real-world projects. We have several potential projects lined up for this:
- DP-Next
- ON-LiMiT
- ADDITION
- Health in Central Region
- DARTER (register-based research project at Steno)