DISCOVERY TO DELIVERY

• Technology approach
• Technical standards

Technology approach

The project will take a standards-based approach to the development of a Discovery to Delivery shared services infrastructure and adhere to the recommendations of the JISC IE Standards Framework. The project will use existing architecture and build links between services via simple APIs and Machine-to-Machine interfaces. All software delivered by the project will be covered by an Open Source License and will follow the open source development model.

The development aspects of the project will proceed according to a user-centred development approach. That is, user-requirements will be gathered at the initial stages of the work packages and inform development work, and then feedback from general users and the Evaluation Group will inform revisions to interface design and functionality. Developments will also be tested internally by the development teams at Mimas and EDINA.

The relevant technical team will define and document the technical architecture to be used in each work-package. The technical team will agree collectively on the standards to be deployed for development, and also on where further investigation is required. The project managers will ensure that these specification documents are shared with the larger EDINA/Mimas project team and that adequate feedback mechanisms are in place to ensure consensus over approach. Feedback will take place in the form of listserv discussion, shared documentation in the project’s collaborative workspace, and face-to-face meetings scheduled for each quarter. For each Work Area, a developer from each centre will work as a pair to ensure, where applicable, developments and standards are fit for purpose across the services and that no extensive recode is required for adaptation to a new service. Collectively, these pairs will undertake a technical review of work completed, including a code inspection and walk through. The output of these consultations and documentation will be fed into the project’s Progress Report and Quality and Evaluation Plans.