Guidelines for Software Quality: CLARIAH Task 54.100

TY - UNPB

T1 - Guidelines for Software Quality

T2 - CLARIAH Task 54.100

AU - De Gompel, Maarten

AU - De Valk, Reinier

AU - Noordzij, Jauco

AU - Scharnhorst, A.M.

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - CLARIAH aims to deliver a digital research infrastructure made explicitly accessible for re- searchers from the social sciences and humanities (SSH). This makes the development of advanced ICT tools a core activity within CLARIAH. To be able to assess the quality of the research infrastructure as a whole, we need to be able to assess the quality of its individual software parts, and their function inside of the research infrastructure including data compo- nents. If we can establish a common set of software guidelines, we may more readily identify weaker components of the software infrastructure and work on their improvement. We may also be able to better direct software production processes towards issues of interoperability and sustainability. A digital research infrastructure operates at the intersection of supporting ICT and research practices. For the SSH those are far from being homogeneous. The practices served by the infrastructure differ concerning the object of analysis, the processes of analysis, and the required usability level. The need for increased attention to software quality and sustainability in an academic context is stressed by Doorn et al. [2016]. They recognize the fundamental role software plays in modern research and observe that good development practice is less followed in academia than in the commercial sector, which leads to problems in maintenance and adoption. They thus set out to promote good software development practice, good models of sustainability and dissemination of the best software across application areas/disciplines. We fully agree with these goals, and the guidelines presented here are intended to respond, on a practical level, to these with specific software quality criteria, explicitly encompassing sustainability as well.

AB - CLARIAH aims to deliver a digital research infrastructure made explicitly accessible for re- searchers from the social sciences and humanities (SSH). This makes the development of advanced ICT tools a core activity within CLARIAH. To be able to assess the quality of the research infrastructure as a whole, we need to be able to assess the quality of its individual software parts, and their function inside of the research infrastructure including data compo- nents. If we can establish a common set of software guidelines, we may more readily identify weaker components of the software infrastructure and work on their improvement. We may also be able to better direct software production processes towards issues of interoperability and sustainability. A digital research infrastructure operates at the intersection of supporting ICT and research practices. For the SSH those are far from being homogeneous. The practices served by the infrastructure differ concerning the object of analysis, the processes of analysis, and the required usability level. The need for increased attention to software quality and sustainability in an academic context is stressed by Doorn et al. [2016]. They recognize the fundamental role software plays in modern research and observe that good development practice is less followed in academia than in the commercial sector, which leads to problems in maintenance and adoption. They thus set out to promote good software development practice, good models of sustainability and dissemination of the best software across application areas/disciplines. We fully agree with these goals, and the guidelines presented here are intended to respond, on a practical level, to these with specific software quality criteria, explicitly encompassing sustainability as well.

M3 - Working paper/Discussion paper

BT - Guidelines for Software Quality

PB - Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS)

ER -