Data Management Plans are now considered a key element of Open Science. They describe the data management life cycle for the data to be collected, processed and/or generated within the lifetime of a particular project or activity. A Software Management Plan (SMP) plays the same role but for software. Beyond its management perspective, the main advantages of an SMP are providing clear context to the software that is being developed, and raising awareness. ELIXIR has developed a low-barrier SMP (https://biohackrxiv.org/k8znb/), specifically tailored for life science researchers, aligned to the FAIR Research Software principles. The ELIXIR SMP has been implemented through the Data Stewardship Wizard, the expert system that helps users through smart questionnaires, and is now available as a Software Management Wizard (https://smw.ds-wizard.org/).
Beyond the availability of the service however, equally important is for people to learn how to use the ELIXIR SMP. This project aims to build upon the structure already designed within the ELIXIR Tools Platform task (https://github.com/elixir-europe/elixir-smp-lesson), and produce training material for the use of the ELIXIR SMP, across the five main stages of software development: Stage 1, Inception (concept, proposal writing, planning and inception); Stage 2, Construction (prototyping, construction and implementing core functionality); Stage 3, Application (release and quality assessment); Stage 4, Production (production software working on real-world data in a scalable and stable manner), and; Stage 5, Publication (Publishing software and/or research results obtained with the software). In each stage, priority will be given on highlighting which parts of the SMP are the most critical, why these are important and what are the main considerations when providing the relevant information. Ultimately, having training material for the ELIXIR SMP will facilitate its adoption by the wider community.
Bioschemas Tools Platform Training Platform
Project Number: 8
Allegra Via [email protected]
A first full version of a lesson on the ELIXIR Software Management Plan
Trainers Researchers involved in research software development (in any role/capacity) Experts in FAIR (for research software, training, etc.) Experts from the Train-the-Trainer community
Number of expected hacking days: 4