Slides for an initial requirements gathering exercise for the use of CKAN to manage research data.

1. CKAN for Research Data
Management
Workshop, London,
18th February 2013
Joss Winn, University of Lincoln
http://orbital.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk

2. “There are no such things as
requirements, there are only wishes.” Kent Beck, 2000.
Requirements = wishes
Let’s split into different types of users and create
wish lists. If you like, you can be a ‘proxy
user’, taking on the role of someone else.

3. Essential components of a
requirement
• What should the required function/feature do?
• Who is intended to use it?
• How does it provide value?
• What major constraints affect the design?
Requirements evolve through negotiation and as further clarification is
provided during development. Today, we’re going to create ‘stories’
that can be returned to at a later date.
Taken from Cockburn(2005) Crystal Clear. A Human powered Methodology for Small Teams

4. Examples
Format: As a X user, I want to X, so that X
e.g. Who, what, why?
“As a Publisher I want to Archive resources so that old or out of date
resources can be hidden”*
“As a User I want to Browse and search for other users so that I know
about others active on the site” *
Go here for actual requirements from workshop: http://lncn.eu/mxz2
* Taken from the (old) CKAN wiki list of user stories

5. The Constraints
“What major constraints affect the design?”
• Resourcing: “That would take four developers 6 months to
implement” < Break it down!
• Existing design/technology decisions: “The software is
designed for the web, not a desktop application.” < Can
desktop apps be written to use the web APIs?
• Social constraints: “Most of our existing users would find that
feature confusing/irrelevant.” < Create an extension for
esoteric features.

6. Creating Use Cases
Can we group our requirements into use cases?
How do certain requirements relate to one
another? e.g.
• Data store requirements
• Data repository requirements
• Data catalogue requirements
Example use case: http://j.mp/Y6uWvD

7. Quick Gap Analysis
CKAN for RDM