1. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig1 caBIG Architecture Working Group Face-To-Face Meeting Best Practices SIG March 18th, 2005 David Kane and Jim Harrison

2. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig2 Introducing the Best Practices SIG Focused on identifying, promoting and communicating effective practices for building caBIG-compatible software Goals: –Capture and share software development practices –Document a set of minimal requirements for building caBIG-compatible software –Create an online resource for sharing practices –Promote a shared culture of continuous software development and refinement

3. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig3 SIG Co-Chairs Jim Harrison –Associate Professor of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh –Medical Director of Laboratory Information Systems (UPMC) –Faculty of Center for Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh –caBIG Training WG Architecture WG David Kane –Lead of the Software Team in the NCI/Center for Cancer Research/Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology –Principal, SRA International –Author of Software Architecture: Organizational Principles and Patterns –caBIG Integrative Cancer Research WG –GoMiner and NCI-60 Pilots Architecture WG

4. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig4 “Best” Practices is a Misnomer Practices that work well in one context may not work well in another one Guidelines for UML modeling differ in various contexts –model-driven development –informal whiteboard sessions –vocabulary definitions The "best" way to use UML differs depending on context We will seek to capture not just the "what" of the best practices, but the "when" as well

5. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig5 What this SIG is not A Process Management Group –We will generally not prescribe specific practices for groups to adopt unless there is a compelling interoperability motivation to do so Even then, we will seek to work through other SIGS to apply recommendations A Developer of New Practices –Instead, we will seek to harvest and share practices developed by others inside and outside of caBIG A Pilot Project Reviewer –This is the role of the Architecture team mentors

6. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig6 Areas of Focus We are planning to focus our efforts in the areas where we can be most effective We are using the following heuristics to identify topics for attention –Important for interoperability –Unique to caBIG –Address obstacles –Interested participants Currently, we are not directly working with the Strategic Working Group, but in response to WG's and SIG's –We are open to other liaison approaches

7. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig7 Candidate Topics Automated Testing caArray Design Patterns Documentation –Documentation White Paper Performance Benchmarking and Optimization Resource Recommendations –Books Software Development Tools and Language Usage Recommendations UML Web Services –Especially Interoperability

8. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig8 IDE Recommendations: Illustrating SIG Bounds Discussed as a Candidate Topic If pursued, the SIG might –Share which IDEs caBIG pilots are using –Identify contexts or situations where one IDE might be better than another –Share practices that projects use to be effective with IDEs –Share domain specific information E.g. At a recent Eclipse conference and there is work going on to create plug-ins for Eclipse that support HL7 messaging and data models. The SIG would NOT –Suggest or require that all projects use the same IDE There is no apparent way that converging on a common IDE would improve interoperability

9. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig9 Collaboration Experiment Relative to the size of caBIG (and our SIG scope), the BP SIG is a small group To be effective, we need to leverage the activities that are already ongoing We are experimenting with a Wiki to accomplish this goal

10. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig10 Wikis In General A Wiki is a web page in which users are allowed to edit the content of the page. –You can also add comments to a page without registering Wikipedia is perhaps the biggest and most active Wiki instance You can subscribe to a page to receive updates when that page is updated. On one hand, Wikis can be a bit chaotic On the other hand, there are some good examples of Wikis effectively helping groups of people collaborate and converge on documents describing their shared understanding

11. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig11 Our General Usage Wiki Strategy Initiate a Wiki experiment with minimum effort and expense –We are leveraging an existing server and Wiki instance As we see topics of interest, establish Wiki pages Encourage stakeholders to contribute to the relevant pages Refactor the pages to create useful information resources by consolidating comments and extracting sub pages as appropriate

12. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig12 Our Wiki Migration Strategy We are hosted on Jim Harrison's Wiki instance We will assess our experience and document as a white paper If we consider the Wiki a success, we will seek to migrate to an NCICB- hosted Wiki instance Content and structure can be preserved, if appropriate

13. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig13 Early Wiki Usage Examples DocumentationWhitePaper IdentfiersFaq UmlBestPractices WebServices Wikis use CamelBack notation to indicate content pages

14. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig14 Wiki and You If you are interested in Best Practices, by all means, we encourage you to set-up and participate in the relevant pages If your groups are interested in Wiki collaboration in general, we would be happy to host your pages –We ask though that you provide feedback on our reflection page –Be aware, that this is still in an evaluation stage If you are interested in a demo of the Best Practices Wiki, ask Jim or Dave

15. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig15 Documentation White Paper Originated from Training Group, User Documentation SIG Developed, finalized and managed by the Best Practices SIG Goals of the document are to –Review existing documentation standards and create guidelines for user documentation content and structure –Examine issues and technologies in the documentation space and recommend future directions –Stimulate discussion on documentation issues in the caBIG community Developed on the Wiki through multiple revisions, moved to the main caBIG server when complete –Illustrates a typical Wiki workflow and refactoring process Commentary on intermediate drafts captured and structured on the Wiki, developed into an FAQ document that supplements the main white paper.

16. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig16 Questions?

17. March 18th, 2005http://jhh.opi.upmc.edu/main/cabig/BestPracticesSig17 caBIG Citizenship How to be a Good caBIG Citizen Presented by Rakesh Nagarajan