Software Development
Software Development
(In a small-scale research context)
There is much sophisticated methodology for software development, it mainly addresses the needs of large software companies and enterprise-scale systems. And no question: once development is the task of teams, and the systems become larger than what one person can remember confidently, in the absence of a well structured process failure is virtually guaranteed. But our work usually does not fit this paradigm, because nowhere do the requirements change faster and more radically than in the bioinformatics lab. The reason is obvious: most of what we do are one-off solutions. Once one analysis runs, we publish the results, and move on. There is limited value in doing an analysis over and over again and even if we think our database or service is the next and greatest thing, the funding panel who pays the bill won't agree. However, this does not mean we can't all profit from applying the basic principles of good software development. Fortunately that is easy. There actually is only one.
Make implicit knowledge explicit.
Introductory reading
Contents
Make implicit knowledge explicit. This maxim has many implications. It means to list out the requirements. It means to write down your stakeholder objectives. It means to specify the versions of your dependencies. It means to comment, and to document and to draw and to plan. [TBC...]
Further reading and resources
