Roadmap

Warning

🚧 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


Completed

 Products we’ve completed with a minimally viable product (MVP) that we’ll continue to improve and work on.


In progress

 Products we are working on currently.


Planned

 Products we plan to complete within the current funding period (end of 2027).


Potential

 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,


Ongoing

 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. Right now, we don’t create any tutorials, so only the other three are listed below. 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).

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.

“Wishlist” of goal-type documentation products.
Status Guides or manuals


In progress

 guidebook.seedcase-project.org: Guidebook to doing research software engineering in a team-setting.


In progress

 sprout.seedcase-project.org usage guide: Using and interacting with seedcase-sprout.


Planned

 Flower usage guide: Using and interacting with seedcase-flower.


Planned

 Propagate usage guide: Using and interacting with seedcase-propagate.


Planned

 Garden usage guide: Using and interacting with seedcase-garden.


Planned

 Shears usage guide: Using and interacting with seedcase-shears.

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.

Important

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”.

“Wishlist” of informational-type documentation products.
Status Information resource


Ongoing

 seedcase-sprout: Reference docs for Sprout.


Ongoing

 design: General design principles and patterns for the organisation, teams, software, and data used throughout the Seedcase Project.


Ongoing

 team: Documentation specific to the Seedcase team, like onboarding, common configuration files, and meeting agendas and minutes.


Ongoing

 seedcase-website: Main website for the Seedcase Project.

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.

“Wishlist” of explanation-type documentation products.
Status Deliverable


Ongoing

 community: Content for community building, outreach, and news about the Seedcase Project.


Ongoing

 decisions: Archival records of decisions made about tools or processes we use in the Seedcase Project.


Potential

 Research data engineering: What is it and why is it vital for modern research?


Potential

 Challenges and barriers: Workflows and digital infrastructure for building software in a team-based research environment.

Examples that use our products

These are practical examples of how to use Seedcase software to structure datasets and prepare them to be used by others. The data is openly licensed.

Status Deliverable


Ongoing

 example-rhesus-monkeys: Example repository for making a data package with data from a study of maternal obesity in rhesus monkeys


Ongoing

 example-seed-beetle: Example repository for making a data package with data from a study of complex mitonuclear interactions and metabolic costs of mating in male seed beetles


Ongoing

 example-rainforest: Example repository for making a data package with data from a study of seed germination in the rainforest

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: