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Aligning feasible technical requirements to research objectives and steering collaboration: role and responsibilities of the Research Software Analyst in RSE teams

Ciula, Arianna; Callaghan, Samantha; Caton, Paul; Jakeman, Neil

Publisher
Zenodo
DOI
10.5281/zenodo.17967411
Repository
zenodo.org
Language
en

Abstract

This talk will focus on the role institutionalised at King’s Digital Lab of the Research Software Analyst as key member of the RSE team acting as first point of contact with project partners throughout a project / product lifecycle from collaborative requirements definition (including contribution to funding applications) to project management during evolutionary development (including negotiations around prioritisation of requirements / increments), testing of the solution components and negotiations around acceptance at release phase, to reporting and decommissioning at post-project phase. The competences of this role are relevant for RSEs typically involved in complex research projects which require at minimum an agreed understanding of technical requirements with at least one other individual (e.g. project lead, other researcher / RSE / colleague, funder / sponsor, project partner). The role is particularly relevant for RSE groups and team operating at scale, delivering on complex projects with multiple stakeholders, running in parallel and often requiring concept design if not a full funding application with estimate of effort prior to starting.Building on Agile DSDM roles definitions (https://www.agilebusiness.org/dsdm-project-framework/roles-and-responsibilities.html) and business analysis good practices, the role has evolved based on the specificity of the institutional context and research domains (mainly arts, humanities and social sciences) within which KDL operates; however, the talk will generalise the role profile and functions to enable the audience to identify potential alignment with other contexts and roles across disciplines.The talk will focus on: RSA role description (standard, senior and principal levels) building on the document authored by KDL founding Director; walkthrough project feasibility assessment phase aligned with research objectives and to inform funding applications with associated example/s compliant with KDL project templates; outline of the activities led by the RSA during evolutionary development to monitor progress, steer collaboration with a variety of stakeholders and facilitate the solution development team work. A recording of this session is available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/g2Rb87QNPrk

Full text

Aligning feasible technical requirements to research objectives and steering collaboration Role and responsibilities of the Research Software Analyst in RSE teams Arianna Ciula, Director and Principal Research Software Analyst Paul Caton, Deputy Director and Senior Research Software Analyst Samantha Callaghan, Research Software Analyst Neil Jakeman, Senior Research Software Analyst RSECon, 10 September 2025 RSECon, 10 September 2025 Outline ▪Digital Research Technical Professions (dRTP) in Arts and Humanities (A&H) and beyond ▪King’s Digital Lab (KDL) roles and career pathways context ▪RSA role description ▪Feasibility assessment ▪Evolutionary development ▪References and examples ▪Reflections on skills mapping Textiles and Tech 1by Hanna Barakat & Archival Images of AI + AIxDESIGN https://betterimagesofai.org CC 4 Analyst as digital Research Technical Professional National context Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) definition of digital RTP includes Analysts RSECon, 10 September 2025 "[an RTP is] anyone who brings indispensable specialist technical skills, at an advanced level, to a research project, i.e. professional skills that are necessary for the design, development, delivery, completion and maintenance of the project. Depending on the project, Research/Academic Library professionals, Information systems specialists, Analysts, Sound engineers, Digital technicians, Conservators, Information systems and software engineers, System managers, Archivists, Animators, Illustrators, Graphic and UI/UX designers, Conservators, Curators, Project and research infrastructure managers and others may qualify for inclusion." 2022 kdl.kcl.ac.uk/blog/rtp-rse RSECon, 10 September 2025 RSEs also do research & business analysis Research domain context Awareness of the digital RTP roles in Arts and Humanities RSECon, 10 September 2025 “RSEs are involved in a very wide variety of activities ranging from project leadership/management and research / business analysis to UI/UX design, systems administration, and collections management. They also often lead or contribute to systems and infrastructure development and maintenance in partnership with both internal IT departments and external vendors. They are an increasingly key component in interdisciplinary, computationally intensive research, working alone and in teams and across an extraordinary range of research disciplines.” Sichani et al. 2023 RSECon, 10 September 2025 King’s Digital Lab (KDL) Local context RSECon, 10 September 2025 RSECon, 10 September 2025 KDL Mission and Activities Embedded RSE team (13) – King’s College London Faculty of Arts and Humanities Robust RSE processes with an eye to quality & sustainability Expert, creative and critical approaches to design & use of digital technologies for research Activities >> planning, analysis, creating and sustaining digital resources, community engagement Research Services Catalogue ~100 projects – variety of disciplines, diverse outputs & stages Enable and deliver high quality digital research by contributing RSE expertise to grant-funded projects Overarching research themes KDL Roles and career pathways RSE term adoption One of the first teams in Arts & Humanities to do so Roles document https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo. 2559234 SDLC Wiki Project templates and guidance Builds on Agile DSDM roles definitions 2018 2019 2019 RSECon, 10 September 2025 RSECon, 10 September 2025 Example CROSSREADS project ID Desc KDL01 M Data protection … KDL08 S Data publication and deposit … KDL10 C Training Estimates of effort Default requirements Project requirements Noel Feasible? ID Desc D1 M Petrographic environment … D4 M Aggregated search … D6 C Visualisations D7 S Open data endpoints … Role Days Cost Project requirements RSA … RSE … Default requirements Infrastructure TOTAL What does an Analyst do? When in the Software Development Lifecycle? Active development phase RSECon, 10 September 2025 RSECon, 10 September 2025 Analyst role in evolutionary development Lead initiation, analysis and reviews ▪See guidance ▪Notification of grant / project start ▪Set up management environment (in collaboration with project manager) ▪Organise kick off ▪Ownership of Project Review Record and internal/external review meetings schedules ▪Analysis work (e.g. data modelling) and associated documentation First point of contact and escalations ▪Iterative prioritisation ▪Capacity planning ▪Project change request Contributes to ▪Comms strategy ▪Change freeze >> consensus prioritisation based on testing / budget ▪Data deposit / other dissemination ▪SLA draft if applicable or any decommissioning plans / documentation ▪Project review >> process improvement RSECon, 10 September 2025 CROSSREADS deliverable 1 Analysis with RSE Project review record Artefact/s Agreed RSE interventions in workflow Project review record Artefact/s Development iterations Review/testing Project review record Artefact/s Other documentation Analysis with research domain expert Project review record Data samples Language / artefact/s Ciula Hauser Ciula and Coccato RSECon, 10 September 2025 CROSSREADS project RSECon, 10 September 2025 Skills mapping SFIA RSECon, 10 September 2025 Skills mapping DIRECT framework draft RSECon, 10 September 2025 References ▪2014 - DSDM Agile Project Framework roles ▪DIRECT framework draft - https://github.com/direct-framework/ ▪King's Digital Lab ▪Projects ▪CROSSREADS ▪Research Themes ▪2018 - Roles document - https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2559234 ▪2019 - SDLC Wiki - https://github.com/kingsdigitallab/sdlc-for-rse/wiki ▪2022 - Digital RTPs ▪2023 - Research Services Catalogue ▪SFIA ▪2020 - Paul et al., Business Analysis, BCS ▪2023 - Sichani et al., iDAH RSE Steering Group Working Paper - https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8177926 Thank you! Any questions? RSECon, 10 September 2025 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] https://kdl.kcl.ac.uk/contact-us/