Workplan summary

From DigiRepWiki

Digital Repositories Support Workplan September 2005 - August 2006: summary

NOTE: This Workplan has been superceded by the new Repositories Research Team workplan.

Introduction

The Digital Repository Support Team has been assembled to support the JISC Digital Repository Programme. The support team will support the programme by working alongside the project manager.

The following define the scope of the workplan for the DR support team:

1. Objective and activity area (v) from the 3/05 Circular: “Defining repository functional components and developing and synthesising frameworks”. This includes
   1. collating use cases and documented workflows, and working toward usage models for repositories-related processes
   2. developing a clear definition set for the repository ecology.
2. Objective and activity area (vi) from the 3/05 Circular: “Developing guidelines and exemplars for the implementation of relevant standards, specifications and good practices in the repository area”. This includes
   1. offering technical advice and support to the JISC Repositories projects;
   2. scoping the role of a possible repositories certificating authority.
3. Programme synthesis, outside the e-Framework-related work described in (1)
4. Advice on future directions, including advice on scoping future development programmes, and internal and external partnerships.
5. Programme dissemination and liaison with the wider community
6. Consultation and validation of work via wider development (including standards development) communities.
7. Identified areas of common interest with international partners.

Workpackages

WP1 - Repositories Support Management

• Reporting to JISC
• To establish working methods and structures for the support team, including discussion lists, wikis, websites
• Ensuring delivery of other workpackages

WP2 - Collation of projects’ process-oriented outputs

• Development of guidelines for writing scenarios (stories) to document project findings
• Collection of scenarios, and rendering in a standard format where necessary
• Development of guidelines for writing use cases (individual human-computer interactions), including use of UML where appropriate
• Collection of documented use cases, and rendering in a standard format where necessary
• Reviewing good practice with respect to documenting workflows (business processes).
• Collation of documented workflows that are produced by projects, and rendering these according to good practice (working with SURF on this)
• Identifiy projects use of standards, map practice to JISC IE Standards Catalogue, recommend conformance set of standards for repositories.
• Using the above work as a foundation to scope (a) reference model(s) for repositories, with reference to the e-Framework.
• Validating this scoping work with reference to the projects and their outputs
• Drawing from and collaborating with international partners as appropriate for all the above

WP3 - Support for JISC strategic direction

• Drawing on appropriate sources, to maintain and validate a roadmap for a repository infrastructure, to include:
  • A typology of repositories, their scope, policies, standards, etc
  • A visualisation of the repository ecology, or repository and service interactions
• Advising JISC on the scope and direction of future development programmes, studies and other activities, and internal and external partnerships.
• Advising JISC on the potential for, and scope of, particular services identified as being relevant to repositories (certification, metadata authority, etc)

WP4 - Advice and support to projects

• Offering technical advice to projects on standards and specifications, service architectures, etc.
  • The team would be expected to provide this advice in a scheduled way, rather than answering queries directly. Initial queries from projects would in the first instance be directed to the programme manager, who would, if necessary, direct them appropriately in consultation with the UKOLN and CETIS support teams.
  • This work will be informed by and use the standards catalogue being developed by UKOLN, once this has been accepted by JISC
• Identifying and meeting selected training needs of projects, in consultation with the programme manager
• Supporting groups / clusters that include repositories projects, but also projects outside the programme, helping them exploit synergies, minimise duplication, manage dependencies, etc.

WP5 - Programme dissemination

• Undertaking thematic syntheses of programme outputs, along the lines of the FAIR Synthesis. Precise details to be agreed at the time.
• Disseminating the programme-level outputs of the Repositories projects (note, excludes project-level dissemination)
• Repositories demonstration and advocacy package
  • To roll up various outputs from the repositories projects (if available), JORUM, RELOAD, X4L1/2, FAIR and elsewhere into a package that can be distributed to institutional managers for (e)learning, (e)research, information services, enterprise systems, and institutional strategists, to enable them to demonstrate the value, methods and potential of using repositories to manage, share, exploit, reuse and repurpose the intellectual outputs of their institution. This would include (eg) guides, best practice, codebases to install and play with, step-through visualisation, videos, pointers to further resources. It would be structured with a single narrative, though with a facility to jump within the resource, much like an enhanced Infokit. It may be divided into sections devoted to elearning, research, etc, but these should be linked together to demonstrate the value of joined-up thinking.

WP6 - Consultation and validation of work

• Working with the programme manager on a programme-level quality plan, and ensuring that programme-level outputs are of an acceptable quality by validating them via wider development communities.
• Participating in standards development communities with a view to promoting evidence-based good practice as revealed by the projects
• Advising and assisting projects as they liaise with development and standards communities.