Roadmap
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. We also often update this roadmap as we progress through the project.
For a more detailed and regularly updated roadmap, see our GitHub Roadmap.
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 |
|---|---|
|
Products we’ve completed with a minimally viable product (MVP) that we’ll continue to improve and work on |
|
Products we are working on currently |
|
Products we plan to complete within the current funding period (end of 2027) |
|
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 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).
- Uploaded to a software archive (like PyPI) if they are within a software product’s repository and are executable (the code within runs).
Just like with the software products, these documentation products continue to evolve and improve over time. They are not static. So even though they have a “done” status, we continue working on them and continuously release updates to them.
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 |
|---|---|
|
guidebook: A guidebook for team collaboration on GitHub |
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 usually classified as “ongoing”. If they are part of a software product, they are considered “done” when the software product is released on an official software archive (like PyPI for Python packages).
| Status | Information resource |
|---|---|
|
design: Principles and patterns for development in the Seedcase Project |
|
team: Internal docs for onboarding and admin information |
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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.
| Status | Deliverable |
|---|---|
|
community: Community building, outreach, and updates on the Seedcase Project |
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decisions: A record of decisions on tools and processes 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 |
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 |
|---|---|
|
example-rhesus-monkeys: Example repository for making a data package with data from a study of maternal obesity in rhesus monkeys |
|
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 |
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example-rainforest: Example repository for making a data package with data from a study of seed germination in the rainforest |
Collaborations and users
As we now have working packages, we are currently collaborating with several other projects to integrate our software and build data packages for their data. The projects we collaborate with are:
Other groups have also expressed interest and may become future collaborators. These other projects are:
- ADDITION
- Health in Central Region
- DARTER (register-based research project at Steno)