Cogprints

Supporting the Everyday Work of Scientists: Automating Scientific Workflows

Vidger, Mark and Vinson, Norman G. and Singer, Janice A. and Stewart, Darlene and Mews, Keith (2008) Supporting the Everyday Work of Scientists: Automating Scientific Workflows. [Journal (Paginated)]

Full text available as:

[img]
Preview
 PDF (IEEE made some editing changes to this version before publishing) - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.
221Kb

Abstract

This paper describes an action research project that we undertook with National Research Council Canada (NRC) scientists. Based on discussions about their difficulties in using software to collect data and manage processes, we identified three requirements for increasing research productivity: ease of use for end- users; managing scientific workflows; and facilitating software interoperability. Based on these requirements, we developed a software framework, Sweet, to assist in the automation of scientific workflows. Throughout the iterative development process, and through a series of structured interviews, we evaluated how the framework was used in practice, and identified increases in productivity and effectiveness and their causes. While the framework provides resources for writing application wrappers, it was easier to code the applications’ functionality directly into the framework using OSS components. Ease of use for the end-user and flexible and fully parameterized workflow representations were key elements of the framework’s success.

Item Type:Journal (Paginated)
Keywords:Workflow management, User Interfaces, scientific computing
Subjects:Computer Science > Human Computer Interaction
ID Code:6741
Deposited By: Vinson, Norman G.
Deposited On:19 Dec 2009 12:20
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:57

References in Article

Select the SEEK icon to attempt to find the referenced article. If it does not appear to be in cogprints you will be forwarded to the paracite service. Poorly formated references will probably not work.

1. R. L. Baskerville, “Investigating Information Systems With Action Research,” Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 2, Article 19, 1999.

2. J. Segal, “The Nature of Evidence in Empirical Software Engineering,” In proceedings of STEP '03: The Eleventh Annual International Workshop on Software Technology and Engineering Practice, IEEE Computer Society, 2003, pp. 40–47.

3. J. Carver, “Empirical Studies in End-User Software Engineering and Viewing Scientific Programmers as End-Users,” In proceedings of Dagstuhl Seminar on

End-User Software Engineering, Internationales Begegnungs-und Forschungszentrum für Informatik (IBFI) Schloss Dagstuhl, 2007.

4. C. Letondal, “Participatory Programming: Developing programmable bioinformatics tools for end-users,” In H. Lieberman, F. Paterno, & V. Wulf (Eds.), End-User Development, Springer, 2005, pp. 207-242.

5. A. Begel, “End-User Programming for Scientists: Modeling Complex Systems,” In proceedings of Dagstuhl Seminar on End-User Software Engineering, Internationales Begegnungs- und Forschungszentrum für Informatik (IBFI) Schloss Dagstuhl, 2007.

6. G. C. Fox, and D. Gannon (Eds.), “Special Issue: Workflow in Grid Systems,” Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, 18, 10, 2006.

7. P. F. Dubois (Ed.), “Special Issue on Python in Scientific Computing,” Computing in Science and Engineering, 9, 3, 2007.

8. C. B. Seaman, “Qualitative Methods,” in F. Shull, J. A. Singer, and D. Sjoberg (Eds.), Guide to Advanced Empirical Software Engineering, Springer, 2008, pp.35-62.

9. N. G. Vinson, and J. A. Singer, “A Practical Guide to Ethical Research Involving Humans,” in F. Shull, J. A. Singer, and D. Sjoberg (Eds.), Guide to Advanced Empirical Software Engineering, Springer, 2008, pp.229-256.

Metadata

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Cogprints is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.