Welcome to the Seedcase design documentation!

This is the first place to look when trying to understand the Seedcase framework and how it works from a high-level perspective.

The design documentation is a way of providing an overall map of our software and the principles we follow when developing it without getting into specific technical details. It is also describes the goals, general structure, requirements, and uses of the software to both technical and non-technical users and stakeholders.

Warning

🚧 This section is still in active development and is subject to changes 🚧

Contents

The Seedcase framework is open-source software that interacts with data and aims to have a user-interface designed to be accessible. The design documentation is divided into four main sections:

• Software architecture documentation, which is based on the arc42 template and the C4 Model
• Data architecture documentation, which is a work-in-progress
• A style guide, which is a work-in-progress
• An accessibility guide, which is a work-in-progress

Along with the design documentation, we also document the decisions we make in the decisions archive. This is a place where we document the reasons behind the decisions we make, and the trade-offs and alternatives we consider when making those decisions.

Reader

We’ve written these documents considering a few people in mind who will read the documents:

• New contributors/team members: The most important reason we have written design documentation is to quickly onboard new contributors or team members to the project. We assume that they will likely read all sections. Almost all of the documentation we write with these readers in mind.

• Other research software/data engineers: These readers will be interested in the much more technical aspects of the design documentation, potentially for their own purposes, for learning, or for modifying Seedcase software for their own project. We assume they will read mostly the sections that get into the core details of Seedcase products, so we write these sections with these readers also in mind. These readers also include external consultants who will act as expert reviewers of Seedcase software.

• Technical stakeholders: These are people, such as in IT units, that have more technical knowledge and who are potentially involved in approving software and helping with installing it. They are also likely involved in dealing with any server-based errors that might occur with Seedcase software, as well as any other software. They might read the introduction sections as well as the slightly more detailed sections, but likely not at the level of the previous two readers.

• Non-technical stakeholders: This reader is any person who is interested in understanding Seedcase products at more than a “How To Install” and “How To Use” level, for instance to learn if a Seedcase product is relevant for their work. This reader also includes our external partners or those who want to learn a bit more about the Seedcase Project after we’ve presented or advertised it. We assume they will read mostly the introduction and first few sections, so we try to write these sections with them in mind.