Purpose
FCoP Scenarios for Use & Access asks each cohort member to articulate potential software (re)use and access scenarios; identify users whose use cases they believe may correspond with the scenarios for use and access that they articulated; and ask participants to complete a questionnaire. Cohort members are asked to analyze participant responses to verify their assumptions about end user needs.
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Timeline:
- (One week) Brainstorm Scenarios for Use & Access
- (Two weeks) Gather User Data
- (One week) Data Analysis and Preliminary Observations
- (One week from completion of the “Data Analysis and Preliminary Observations”) Report out
Ex.
- (January 7 – January 11) Brainstorm Scenarios for Use & Access
- (January 14 – January 25) Gather User Data
- (January 28 – February 1) Data Analysis and Preliminary Observations
- (February 4) Cohort Monthly Call – Scenarios for Use & Access Reports
Instructions
- Complete 1-5 scenarios for use and access using the prompt below.
- Identify 1-3 users whose use cases you believe may correspond with the scenarios for use and access that you articulated.
- Ask participants to share 15-20 minutes of their time to reflect on their different needs related to software curation and preservation by completing the questionnaire.
- Participants complete questionnaire
- Analyze participant responses to determine the distance between your participant reflections and the scenarios for use and access driving your interest in software curation, preservation and emulation. Reflect on your findings.
Use Case Matrix
| Actors | Goals | Resources | Challenges | Anecdotes for this use case |
| Type of stakeholder or user involved in the use case. | What does the actor want to do with software or software-dependent data? | What resources are available to this actor or these actors to achieve their goals – what resources do they need? | What challenges could your users face in attempting to accomplish their software reuse goals? | Any real world scenarios that you have witnessed or been involved in that informed your articulation of this use case. |
| Scenario 1 | ||||
| Scenario 2 | ||||
| Scenario 3 |
User Questionnaire
NOTE: We encourage you to move this questionnaire into a survey tool of your choice such as LimeSurvey, Google Forms, JD ESurvey, Quick Survey, Qualtrics, or TellForm.
- For what purpose(s) do you create/use/reuse software for? Check all that apply.
- To validate or test existing claims
- To generate a new research outcome
- To document or assist in the research process
- As an historical artifact
- To provide or recreate an experience
- Other______________________________________________
- What function(s) do you create/use/reuse software for? Check all that apply.
- Replication/reproducibility/validation
- Research outcome
- Aggregation
- Computation
- Migration
- Artifact
- Other______________________________________________
- What documentation should be collected related to how you create/use/reuse software?
- User manuals
- Technical specs/requirements
- Bugs/Testing Protocols
- Correspondence
- Promotional material
- Publications
- Other______________________________________________
- For software you have created/used/reused, what components do you consider as essential to retain?
- Hardware / peripherals
- Libraries
- Dependencies
- Programming languages
- Algorithms
- Environments
- Documentation
- What was the storage location for the software you created/used/reused?
- Removable media (diskettes; CDs; USB drives)
- Computer hard drive
- Hosted on website (github; research group homepage; cloud storage)
- Which institutional stakeholders are involved in how you create/use/reuse researcher software? Please check that all apply
- Software developer
- Librarian
- Copyright officer
- Archivist
- Curator
- Research data manager
- Steward
- Publisher
- Deployer
- Other______________________________________________
- On a scale of 1-5, please rate your level of agreement with the following statements:
1 – Strongly disagree 2 – Disagree 3 – Neither agree or disagree 4 – Agree 5 – Strongly agree
____ It is important to me that the provenance of this software has been fully documented.
____ It is important to me that I will be able to access this software in the future.
____ It is important to me that others can easily discover this software in the future.
____ It is important to me that I can replicate my previous experiences with this software in the future.
____ It is important to me that others can use this software in the future.
____ This software offers a unique experience.
____ I want research libraries to steward this software.
____ I am comfortable with the idea that this software may be updated or enhanced in the future
Reflection
Internal Scenarios for Use and Access
- As you were developing out more verbose scenarios for use and access, what types of internal questions arose?
- Was it difficult to choose which user scenarios to articulate, or was it relatively simple? If difficult, what might make that process easier?
- Did you have some existing source of user data to inform these scenarios, and if so, what are the sources of this data?
- What was your thinking/criteria/basis for prioritization if you had numerous scenarios for use and access?
Researcher/Creator Questionnaire
- Were you surprised by any of the questionnaire responses from your users?
- Did you find any patterns across user responses?
- What new questions did these responses raise for your team? What additional information do you want or need to know from your users in order to inform internal policies, requirements and workflows for software preservation and emulation?