Welcome To Edinburgh

Welcome To The eScience Institute

Welcome To TDWG TAG-1

Technical Architecture Group?

• The TAG does not officially exist yet!

• Executive has committed to its creation.

• Not constituted till new Process in place.

• Precise form of TAG is to be agreed.

• Precise remit of TAG is to be agreed.

• This meeting will influence what is agreed.

TAG – Proposed Role

• Maintain an account of current situation.• Maintain a vision of how things could be.• Provided formal advice to the Executive

Committee on new subgroups and standards.

• Provided advice to TDWG members on how their work can integrate with others.

(all from a purely technical perspective)

TAG – Proposed Focus

• Not an academic study group!

• Enable others to do the research work.

• Exploit the results of research work.

• Suggest areas of enquiry that would be useful.

• A business-like approach: “Customer Focused”

(all from a purely technical perspective)

TAG – Business-Like?

• Businesses need a revenue stream.

• For us this is a ‘goodwill’ stream.

• Can’t spend years working on the perfect product and not releasing it or releasing low quality products.

• Need to manage a flow of finished ‘products’ to maintain the stream or ….

• We go bust!

Example Customer Comment

“Here's where I'm probably going to surprise you by NOT asking for money. What we DO need, though, is a really firm spec ... That way I can ring fence the time needed to do it. The way things are we'll get one shot to do this and then other priorities will come crowding in ...”

(names have been changed to protect the innocent)

TAG – Manage the Stream?

• Time – sooner is always better.

• Resources – always finite.

• Quality – always 100%

• Scope – usually the only thing we can change and therefore the only thing we can use to manage the project.

TAG – Managing Scope?

• Which problems can be solved, productized and pushed ‘out the door’ this year?

• Which problems are taking up too much time and preventing us from getting the easier things released?

• Actively seek out and highlight what we are NOT going to do!

TAG – Inventing the Wheel.

1. Use an existing solution.

2. Subvert another solution.

3. Extend another solution.

4. Copy another solution.

5. Create our own solution.

TAG-1: The Next 3 Days

• Have to deliver something!

• Account of the current situation.

• Vision of how things could be and how we might start getting there.

• Advice on how members can integrate.

• All in a written report.

“I appeal for a single document/glossary that explains the language and the architecture that all these confusing data exchange standards terms mean.”

TAG-1: Work from Consensus

• Start with the general.

• Write down what we agree on.

• If we hit difficulties:– Record and isolate them.– Look for what can be solved.

• Easy to get bogged down in disagreeing about something that may not matter in the long run!

TAG-1: Scale• No one can fully understand some one else’s

business.

TAG-1:Agenda

• Session 1: Clean Slate

• Session 2: Current State

• Session 3: ?

• Session 4: ?

• Session 5: Planning

• Session 6: Solidify Report.

Questions/Comments?

Session 1: Clean Slate

• Actors & Examples (as List)• Use Cases & Scenarios (as List)• Roles of Actors in Use Cases (as List)• Analysis Model (as Whiteboard Diagram)• Coffee…• Design Goals (as List)• Subsystems – software applications• System Model (as Whiteboard Diagram)