Case Study Approach

The HTMDEC data management system requirements and design are informed by detailed profiles developed for each seedling. We use an informal case study approach applying qualitative data collection and analysis techniques.

Profiles are developed based on the following:

• Meetings with data representatives and researchers from each seedling

• Documentary evidence including including seedling presentations, lab documentation, technical reports, and software documentation.

• Research artifacts including data, software, and publications

A typical data management meeting involves an open-ended discussion motivated by questions such as:

• Can you walk through the overall research workflow?

• What are the primary sources of data?

  • Are there any examples or related documentation that I can access today?

• What are your current data management practices?

  • How is data organized? (databases, file systems, naming conventions, tagging, etc)

  • How is data acquired?

• What types of computation and analysis do you perform and what resources do you use?

  • How do you manage software artifacts (code, scripts, etc)?

  • What languages, frameworks or environments do you use?

• How do you share data…?

  • with colleagues in your lab?

  • with colleagues outside of your lab?

  • associated with research publications?