Preserving software resources
During 2010, the Software Sustainability Institute and Curtis+Cartwright worked on a study of software preservation funded by the JISC. The study’s goal was to raise awareness of sustainability issues and build sustainability into the process of software development – with a special focus on the education and research sectors.
Aside from a number of workshops, the study led to the development of a benefits framework document and a series of briefing papers listed below.
Benefits framework
The benefits framework document assists developer groups and their sponsoring bodies to understand and gauge the benefits or drawbacks of allocating effort to:
- Ensuring that preservation measures are built into software development processes
- Actively preserving legacy software
The benefits framework has also been condensed into an overview document.
- Download the benefits framework document.
- Download the benefits framework overview document.
Briefing papers
During this study, we have developed an in-depth understanding of the issues facing a developers, researchers, funding councils and project managers. We've distilled our experiences into a set of briefing papers.
Empowering research: the value of software
This briefing paper has been written for Research Council staff. It describes why we believe that long-term software sustainability and preservation plays a vital role in empow- ering high-quality research. It also highlights ways in which we think the Research Councils could help to improve practice in this area.
Before starting a new software project
This briefing paper is for researchers who program and anyone who is starting a software-development project. It will help you to understand the sustainability and preservation requirements of your software, the outputs from the development process and how to plan and undertake a software project.
- Download Before starting a new software project.
Starting a community
This is a briefing paper for researchers-who-program, project leaders of new software projects, and anyone involved in the early stages of a software development project. This paper will help you to consider how you can create a community around your software - taking it from being used only in your own group, then by your collaborators and then by the wider public.
- Download Starting a new community.
Building a better community
Building a community around software is an impor- tant step for its sustainability. This briefing paper is for researchers, developers and managers of a soft- ware product that has started to gain a community. This paper will discuss how to increase your commu- nity and encourage contributions from it.
- Download Building a better community.
Help my developer is running away
This briefing paper is targeted at project managers whose project is about to lose an important devel- oper. This paper provides guidance on how to per- form a technical handover, which will ensure that the soon-to-leave developer will impart his or her valuable technical knowledge and identify traps and pitfalls you should avoid.
- Download Help! My developer is running away.
Digital preservation and curation
From preserving research results, to storing photos for the benefit of future generations, the importance of preserving data is gaining widespread acceptance. But what about software?
- Download Digital preservation and curation.
Congratulations! You've inherited some code
You’ve just embarked on a big new collaboration, you’ve got to the end of the kick-off meeting and... wham! It’s your job to take your collaborators’ world-leading code and make it work on your group’s machines. And then you find that the code is written in Fortran. And not just any Fortran: the actual, original, Fortran. Welcome to the world of software archaeology!
Your project is ending. Don't panic!
This is a briefing paper for researchers, software developers and managers who are coming to the end of a project and need to decide what to do with software that has been developed. This paper will help you make decisions about what to do at the end of a project by outlining the options and providing guidance.
- Download Your project is ending. Don't panic!
Last updated: Tuesday 1 May 2012.
