1. Sharing Statistical Software
A software product management approach
Hans Wings and Robbert Renssen

2. If you want to share statistical software successfully treat it like a product!
Sharing Statistical Software

3. Collective use (Argus, Blaise, R) Joint development (Argus, R)
Types of sharing
Collective use (Argus, Blaise, R)
Joint development (Argus, R)
This presentation focuses on collective use
Sharing Statistical Software

4. Aspects from users point of view
For production purposes
Stable product
Suitable
Support
Roadmap
Clear provider/owner
Formal organisation (NSI, foundation)
Open source project (community, foundation)
Sharing Statistical Software

5. Characteristics of product management
life cycle
assign responsibilities (ownership, development,…)
research market (explore users, determine business case, …)
target variety of users (multilingual, customizable…)
advertise product (show prototypes, demo-versions,…)
support users (help desk, consultancy, training, bug fixing,…)
communicate roadmap (improve maturity, user feed back,…)
phase out product (end of support, no further roadmap, …)
Sharing Statistical Software

6. Support and collective use
Support necessary for collective use
No support is not an option in production
Facilitation of self support
Open Source
User group
Forum
FAQ
Wiki
Formal support that is charged as part of a licence
Sharing Statistical Software

7. Example 1: Blaise Internal development first
Now mature for production purposes
Owner: Statistics Netherlands
Technical stable
Suitable for a variety of customers (± 140 licenses)
Upwards compatibility of versions
Product roadmap
Collective use:
Licence with a fee
Formal support (licence includes help desk, manuals, training and consultancy by SN and Westat)
Informal support (user group, forum, …)
Sharing Statistical Software

8. Example 2: R software environment for statistical computing and graphics
Derived from and inspired by the programming language S
Mature product for production purposes
Owner: R Foundation (part of Free Software Foundation)
Development Core Team active since 1997
Suitable for a variety of customers
Product roadmap
Collective use:
Open Source licence
Support (manuals, Wiki, FAQ, forums, local user groups)
Commercial versions with support available
Sharing Statistical Software

9. Example 3: MSIS wiki Software Inventory
Initiative of the Sharing Advisory Board
Inventory of candidates for collective use
Provides information about
Contact person
Product status (limited info: pre-alpha, beta, production / stable, at your own risk, as-is)
Suitability (limited info: main purpose, user language)
Support (limited info: often yes or no only)
Lots of entries updated 2010 at latest?
Sharing Statistical Software

10. MSIS wiki Software Inventory facts
18 providers
66 tools
50% offered with (formal) support
50% stable / production version
65% designed for a variety of users
40% of the tools all three combined
Sharing Statistical Software

11. Conclusions
To make collective use of software successful, treat software as product with a life cycle
Aim at a variety of users
No support is not an option
Facilitate self support at least
Offer formal support if possible
Publish a stable production version
Communicate roadmap
Sharing Statistical Software