Project Brief
RSS212 - DataVault Development Phase IV
Approvals
Name | Role | Position | Date |
---|---|---|---|
Tony Weir | Project Sponsor | Head, IT Infrastructure, ISG | dd/mm/yyyy |
Robin Rice | Service Owner | Data Librarian & Head, Research Data Support, L&UC | 11/02/2020 |
Kirsty Lingstadt | Senior Supplier | Head, Digital Library & Deputy Director, L&UC | 11/02/2020 |
David Fergusson | Senior Supplier | Head, Research Services Section, ITI | |
Ianthe Sutherland[1] Scott Renton |
Product Owner | Development & Systems Manager, Digital Library | 14/02/2020 |
Maurice Franceschi |
Programme Manager (RSS) |
ITI Portfolio Manager, ISG | 14/02/2020 |
[1] Please note Scott Renton will take over as Product Owner and Development Lead in January 2020
Distribution
Name | Role | Position | Date |
---|---|---|---|
Fraser Muir | Senior User | Chief Information Officer, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS) | dd/mm/yyyy |
Anthony Davie | Senior User | IS Campus Leader, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine (CMVM) | |
Colin Higgs | Senior User | Computing Officer, College of Science and Engineering (CSE) | |
Janet Roberts | Senior Supplier | Director, EDINA | |
Graeme Wood | Senior Supplier | Head, ITI Enterprise Services | |
David Graham | Senior Supplier | Head, Communication Infrastructure Services (CIS) |
Background
The University of Edinburgh’s DataVault, part of the Research Data Service is a facility supported by the Research Data Support (RDS) team and delivered by the Digital Library, both part of the Library and University Collections (L&UC) division, which assists researchers to comply with funding regulations by providing cost-effective, secure, long-term archiving of their research data.
In 2015-16, the JISC funded DataVault project run by the University’s RDS team, in collaboration with the University of Manchester, developed generic software designed to collect basic research metadata and deposit research datasets into an archive service. In parallel, the University’s ITI Research Services Section (RSS) implemented an initial systems architecture to support these archive services.
Due to demand and the time to develop a UoE specific DataVault service, an interim service was developed and launched in 2016. The interim service used the RSS Storage Manager facility to manage research data deposits on the disk based DataStore system.
In 2017, a project to deliver a fully supported cost-effective DataVault service began and the service was launched in January 2019. This main objectives of this DataVault project (RSS022) were to deliver the following -
-
expand the interim service to include –
- an improved (self-service) user interface
- encryption of data
- resilient storage on internal and external archive services
- usage reporting
- design a robust system architecture for the service
- define the processes and policies of the full service
- achieve GDPR compliance for the service
- launch DataVault as a fully supported RDS service
In 2019, a third project, DataVault III (RSS044), funded from the FY2018-19 DRS budget, ran from February to November 2019 and delivered additional features to the DataVault service including –
- organisational structures and roles for access management
- automated billing and usage reporting
- storage of deposits up to 10TB
- reduced processing times and improved resilience
- the migration of deposits from the interim DataVault service
- improved release management for DataVault deployments to test and production
The latest project, RSS212 – DataVault Development Phase IV, will run from November 2019 to July 2020 and is chartered to deliver the following features –
- retention date management
- processing data from other file systems in addition to DataStore
- automated scheduling and processing of deposits
- additional resilience and recovery measures
- user interface improvements
- improved synchronisation of metadata between DataVault and Pure
- processing increased deposit sizes (above 10TB)
- evaluation of improved encryption key management
- improved processing times
Project Scope
DataVault has been developed to provide a low-cost and reliable archiving service for the University’s research community in compliance with research data management and funding policies. The scope of this project will concentrate on improving the features, resilience and performance of the service for the University’s research community.
Significant features were added to the DataVault service and delivered during the previous project (RSS044) including roles management, processing of datasets up to 10TB, storage auditing, automated billing and usage reporting. Work in this project will include improvements to retention date management, resilience and recovery, encryption key management, processing times, and metadata collection by DataVault synchronised with Pure.
In addition, options were presented to increase archive sizing above the 10TB limit and potentially processing deposits of an unlimited size. The project will, at least, develop proofs of concept for some of the options suggested and, depending on the development work required, could implement the processing of increased deposit sizes based on one of these options.
DataVault development has concentrated so far on the University’s research datasets stored in DataStore. The project plans to deliver the processing of data from other sources e.g. local drives, network drives, OneDrive. In addition, the scope will include the evaluation of automated, scheduled processing of data from research equipment.
Encryption key management is essential to providing a secure service for DataVault users. It is recognised that improvements in this area need to be reviewed to provide enhanced security management to counter the increased threat levels to a service that manages, in part, sensitive research data.
Out of Scope
Expansion of the service to support the long-term needs of other groups within the University or elsewhere, outside the research community, is not within scope for this project. Future projects could be initiated to expand the service to provide, inter alia, -
- archiving of University business data
- a DataVault service to other universities
- a DataVault service to non-academic organisations
Objectives
The key objectives of this project are to deliver additional functionality and improved processing goals for the DataVault service. These include –
- To provide an effective retention data management service which automatically tells users when deposits need to be reviewed for retention or deletion
- To increase maximum deposit sizes above the current 10TB limit (and potentially unlimited) to meet the demand to archive larger data sets e.g. imaging data
- To deliver a more resilient and recoverable service so that fewer failed deposits occur and, if they do, archiving, validation and retrieval can automatically restart from point of failure
- To reduce deposit and retrieval processing times to provide a basis for improved customer service levels while ensuring acceptable impact on other systems and network services
- To provide processing for other data sources, in additional to data store
- To implement automated processing of deposits from continuously created data sources
- To continue to develop the website user interface to ensure simple and effective access to DataVault services and features including the elimination or, at least, simplification of the authentication ‘cut-and-paste’ process currently used to access a user’s DataStore
- To improve the user experience when creating a vault, providing better synchronisation of research metadata between DataVault and Pure
- To research improved encryption key management methods to ensure more secure access to archived data and service recovery
- To evaluate how DataVault could be used for the low-cost archiving by other groups in the University (e.g. Finance), and even external organisations, that required regulatory data retention
- To continue to promote and provide workshops and training for researchers and support staff on the services offered by DataVault
- To implement more responsive release management processes, potentially using the new shared Puppet service, to ensure updates and fixes are installed effectively minimising outages to the production services
Deliverables
More details on specific deliverables to meet the objectives of the project are given in the table below.
Requirement | Deliverable(s) | MoSCoW |
---|---|---|
Provide effective retention date management and review features | A subsystem that manages data retention dates and alerts users to pending reviews for retention and deletion of data | Must |
Increase deposit sizes above the current 10TB limit | A DataVault service handling data sets above 10TB in size and potentially unlimited | Should |
Improve processing recovery procedures | A recovery subsystem that restarts archive, validation and retrieval processing from point of failure | Must |
Provide processing for other data sources, in additional to data store | An expanded DataVault service processing data from sources in addition to DataStore | Should |
Implement automated processing of deposits from continuously created data sources | Scheduling in place in DataVault to process data on a repetitive basis | Should |
Improve the website user interface and features | Improved website presentation and navigation features based on UX recommendations by Digirati developed during the previous DataVault project (RSS044) | Must |
Eliminate DataStore ‘cut-and-paste’ authentication | A simplified method of providing the user with access to their DataStore data from the DataVault | Should |
Simplify retention policy updates | An automated data-driven (file) subsystem that provides facilities for DataVault administrators to easily update retention policy information | Must |
Develop a simplified process to update homepage announcements without downtime | An automated data-driven (file) process to change homepage notifications without the need to restart the service | Must |
Implement an effective ‘service unavailable’ process during downtime | A ‘service unavailable’ page in place of the homepage when the service is down for any reason | Should |
Better Pure synchronisation | An improved connection to Pure to push metadata; effective management of Pure API upgrades | Must |
Reduce deposit and retrieval processing times | Significantly reduced deposit and retrieval processing times in comparison to current observed rates | Must |
Evaluate alternative opportunities for the use of the DataVault service | A report on specific areas of possible implementation including benefits analysis and development effort | Should |
Promote information and training on DataVault services to potential users | Publicity and training material including video, presentations, workshops, blog posts | Must |
Automated release management procedures | An automated and reliable Puppet deployment service for release to test, demonstration and live environments | Should |
Success Criteria
The following are the criteria to be met to ensure a successful completion of this project –
- An increase in the usage of the DataVault service through the promotion of the service, publicising the additional features and processing improvements to be delivered by this project
- The effective deployment of retention review reminders via email and other methods
- The elimination of deposit failures from unplanned outages and loss of TSM and Oracle subsystems
- A reduction in system outages and downtime through improved resilience and data driven parameterisation of the service
- A significant reduction in the processing time (e.g. 25%) for the archiving, validation and retrieval of large datasets
- Report published on the potential use of the DataVault service, internally and externally, in archiving other data requiring regulatory retention
Benefits
The successful delivery of this project is expected to provide the following benefits –
- Improved website user interface and features for users of DataVault which should attract new users and retain existing ones
- Better control of retention dates so that deposits can be reviewed and removed in a timely manner, reducing costs to data owners
- Enable researchers to archive deposits in excess of 10TB thus opening DataVault to new users with larger datasets
- Recovery, from point of failure, of deposits during processing, if impacted by planned or unplanned outages, again contributing to increased customer satisfaction
- Deposit and retrieval processing times improved so reducing wait times and risk of unplanned outages and improving customer satisfaction
- Identification of improved data security measures through more robust encryption key management processes making DataVault more attractive to users with sensitive data to archive
- Increased promotion of the service and training channels to publicise the service and expand the user base
Project Governance
Overall project governance will be provided by the project board whose members are listed in the next section. It is intended to hold project board meetings on a monthly basis.
After initial planning and design, a backlog will be generated in Jira for the project plan and all internal development will be run as sprints. The project plan will also be kept up to date for progress reporting purposes to the project board and other stakeholders.
Day to day project management and delivery is the responsibility of the project team. Weekly project (sprint review) meetings will be held along with sprint planning and retrospective sessions at the start and end of each sprint. Sprints will be set at either 2, 3 or 4 weeks depending on the level of demand held in the backlog.
DataVault Phase IV is an upgrade project so any detailed systems design activity will take place during the relevant development phase. On that basis, the project is divided into work packages to facilitate (a) assignment of work to Digital Library Systems or EDINA, (b) changes to scope and priorities and (c) the incremental design required within each work package.
Where work impacts other teams, e.g. ENT or RSS, the internal development team will engage with the systems experts in those teams to ensure the integration of system design and implementation into the parts of their infrastructure which supports DataVault.
Project Board
The project sponsor is Tony Weir, ITI Director. Project board meetings will be scheduled monthly to review progress, major escalations and resolution. The following senior stakeholders will be invited to participate in project board meetings.
Role | Name | Position/Team |
---|---|---|
Project Sponsor | Tony Weir | Director, Information Technology Infrastructure (ITI), ISG |
Service Owner | Robin Rice | Data Librarian & Head, Research Data Support, L&UC |
Senior User | TBA | CAHSS Representative |
Senior User | Colin Higgs | IS Campus Leader, CMVM |
Senior User | Anthony Davie | Computing Officer, CSE |
Senior Supplier | Kirsty Lingstadt | Head, Digital Library & Deputy Director, L&UC |
Senior Supplier |
David Fergusson |
Head, ITI Research Services Section |
Product Owner |
Ianthe Sutherland Scott Renton |
Development & Systems Manager, Digital Library Systems |
Programme Manager (RSS) | Maurice Franceschi | ITI Portfolio Manager, ISG |
Project Manager | Lawrence Stevenson | ITI Project Manager, ISG |
Project Team
The diagram below shows the key members of the DataVault IV project team and their roles in the project.
Resources, Skills and Costs
Priority & Funding
DataVault Phase IV is a project in the University’s ITI Research Services Section (RSS) programme for FY2019-20 funded by the Digital Research Services (DRS) Steering Group.
Budget
The table below shows funding that has been allocated to the project for this financial year - FY2019-20.
Project Budget | FY2019-20 |
---|---|
Capital | £40,000 |
Revenue | £8,400 |
Approved Budget | £48,400 |
Project Costs
In terms of current projected costs, the following expenditure has been estimated for the project as follows –
Category | Expenditure | FY2019-20 |
---|---|---|
Capital | Digital Library contract staff (March – May 2020) | £40,000 |
Capital subtotal | £40,000 | |
Revenue | Oracle Cloud Archive Service (1 month) | £1,500 |
EDINA development staff (24 days) | £8,400 | |
Revenue subtotal | £9,900 | |
Total | £49,900 |
A capacity planning exercise, based on current and estimated growth data, will take place during the design phase of the project, to ascertain when additional compute power and/or storage will be required during the following 12-month period. This is not included in these project costs but (a) is not currently predicted and (b) would be covered by the ITI operational budget.
Resource Plan
The following table defines the role and skills of the project stakeholders and an estimate of the days needed to be allocated to work on the project. This represents a total of 318 days effort for the core team members and 370 days overall when other stakeholders are considered.
Core Team
Team Member | Role | Days Allocated |
---|---|---|
Ianthe Sutherland Scott Renton |
Product Owner Development Lead (Digital Library Systems) | 36.0 |
Pauline Ward | Support Lead/Senior Tester | 40.0 |
Martin Donnelly | Support Manager (L&UC) | 4.0 |
David Speed | Developer (Digital Library Systems) | 90.0 |
William Petit | Developer (EDINA) | 28.0 |
External Developer | Retention Date/UI Improvements (TBA) | 40.0 |
Kerry Miller | Support Assistant/System Tester | 4.0 |
Jennifer Daub | Support Assistant/System Tester | 5.0 |
Ben Sanders | Support Assistant/System Tester | 5.0 |
Lawrence Stevenson | Project Manager | 50.0 |
Support Teams
Team Member | Role | Days Estimated |
---|---|---|
Janet Roberts | Senior Supplier (EDINA) | 2.0 |
David Fergusson | Senior Supplier (RSS) | 4.0 |
TSM Support | System Administrator (RSS) | 5.0 |
DataStore Support | System Administrator (RSS) | 2.0 |
Graeme Wood | Senior Supplier (ENT) | 2.0 |
VMware/SAN Support | System Administrator (ENT) | 8.0 |
David Graham | Senior Supplier (CIS) | 2.0 |
Network Support | Network Administrator (CIS) | 4.0 |
Stephen Rackley | Finance Support | 4.0 |
Project Board
Team Member | Role | Days Estimated |
---|---|---|
Tony Weir | Project Sponsor | 4.0 |
Robin Rice | Service Owner | 12.0 |
Kirsty Lingstadt | Senior Supplier (Digital Library) | 8.0 |
Anthony Davie | Senior User (CMVM) | 4.0 |
Colin Higgs | Senior User (CSE) | 4.0 |
TBA | Senior User (CAHSS) | 4.0 |
Maurice Franceschi | Programme Manager (RSS) | 4.0 |
Project Planning
Outline Plan
The table below show the initial estimated duration for the main tasks in the project. Tasks to be allocated to Digital Library Systems for development are marked (D), with work to be allocated to a contract developer in the Digital Library Systems team marked (C). Tasks to be allocated to EDINA are marked (E). During the planning and design phase, modules will be reviewed to ascertain if work can be overlapped or reduced in duration to see if additional releases can be delivered before the end of FY2019-20.
Task | Days | Start | Finish |
---|---|---|---|
Develop requirements plan (D) | 30 | 04/11/2019 | 31/01/2020 |
Create project brief and plan | 20 | 16/12/2019 | 07/02/2020 |
Approve project brief/resourcing | 20 | 06/01/2020 | 14/02/2020 |
Develop overall design (D) | 30 | 03/02/2020 | 28/02/2020 |
Process datasets from other file systems (E) | 20 | 03/02/2020 | 27/03/2020 |
Implement improved retention date management (C) | 40 | 02/03/2020 | 24/04/2020 |
Develop process resilience and recovery procedures (D) | 40 | 02/03/2020 | 24/04/2020 |
Evaluate improved encryption key management (E) | 10 | 30/03/2020 | 22/05/2020 |
Metadata entry on DataVault synchronised with Pure (C) | 40 | 27/04/2020 | 19/06/2020 |
Increase deposit size and performance improvements (E) | 40 | 27/04/2020 | 19/06/2020 |
Closure | 10 | 22/06/2020 | 17/07/2020 |
Project Milestones
The currently estimated major milestones, with delivery dates, are outlined in the following table to provide estimates when product releases and other deliverables will be made. Development work has been allocated to Digital Library Systems and EDINA, as appropriate.
Milestone | Responsible | Approval | Date |
---|---|---|---|
Requirements planning completed |
Pauline Ward Ianthe Sutherland |
Robin Rice | 31/01/2020 |
Project brief and initial project plan approved | Lawrence Stevenson |
Tony Weir Robin Rice |
14/02/2020 |
Resource plan approved |
Lawrence Stevenson Ianthe Sutherland |
Robin Rice Kirsty Lingstadt Janet Roberts David Fergusson |
14/02/2020 |
High-level system design complete | David Speed |
Scott Renton David Fergusson |
28/02/2020 |
Processing datasets from other file systems implemented | William Petit | Scott Renton | 17/03/2020 |
Improved retention date management in place | Contract developer | Robin Rice | 24/04/2020 |
Additional process resilience and recovery procedures implemented | David Speed | Scott Renton | 24/04/2020 |
Improved encryption key management evaluated | William Petit | Scott Renton | 22/05/2020 |
Improved user interface features including metadata collected by DataVault | Contract developer | Robin Rice | 19/06/2020 |
Increased deposit size and additional processing performance improvements implemented | William Petit | Scott Renton | 19/06/2020 |
Project closed | Lawrence Stevenson |
Tony Weir Robin Rice |
17/07/2020 |
Work Breakdown
The following work breakdown structure (WBS) shows the main components of work to be undertaken in the project.
Project Timeline
The diagram below is the high-level project timeline, showing key project phases and delivery dates.
Assumptions
The following assumptions have been identified at the start of the project and may be expanded during the project.
- Formal planning and overall design will be completed prior to any development work starting
- The plan reflects EDINA resourcing levels previously agreed (28 days, February – March 2020)
- The current plan assumes a contract resource will be in place in Digital Library Systems during March – May 2020 but if this resource is not be available the plan will need to be revised
- DRS staff will be available for testing during integration test and UAT periods
- ENT and RSS technical staff will be available, as required, to support VMware/SAN and TSM changes and upgrades
- Senior stakeholders will be available for project boards, escalation and resolution of issues, etc. as required
Constraints
The main constraint for the project is that team members are not fully assigned to the project and may be working on other projects and supporting BAU activities. This can be translated into a key risk where precedence for resources may go the BAU work or work on a higher priority project. Management commitment needs to be made to the days allocated in the estimates in the resource plan and to the successfully delivery of the project on schedule.
The current plan has been restricted in scope so that the project is completed by the end of FY2019-20. However, any significant delay to any phase in the project or lack of planned resourcing being available will necessitate a revision of the plan that could push work into FY2020-21.
Development resources on the project are coming from Digital Library Systems, potentially supplemented by contract resource, and EDINA. Work packages have been allocated to ensure work can be undertaken by both groups in parallel to reduce the project timeline. Carefully planning for source code and release management will be maintained to ensure the smooth running of parallel development, testing and release.
Risks
The initial project risks identified are as follows –
- Potentials users may not use the DataVault service because of quality issues and constraints e.g. user interface is too complex, processing takes too long, Pure metadata prerequisites
- Funding may not be available to cover the procurement of an encryption key management product such as Thales SafeNet
- EDINA development resource is provided in monthly allocations that means some work may have to go on hold if that allocation is used up in any month
- Licence renewals for TSM may be higher than estimated
- Subscription renewals for Oracle may be higher than estimated
- Additional licencing (e.g. TSM) or hosting costs (Oracle Cloud Archive) may be incurred as the service is expanded
- Migration to new shared Puppet environment for release management, if approved, may delay planned work
Issues
If they arise, issues will be recorded, on the Projects website, and tracked throughout the project. Issues that are inside agreed tolerances will be resolved within the project team. Major issues will be escalated to the project board for review and advice on resolution. Issue resolution that requires a major change to the project in terms of time, quality or cost needs to be approved under formal change management by the project sponsor.
Project work that impacts production systems or networks must be communicated with the requisite lead time to the ISG CAB for review and approval.
Tolerances
The following standard ITI project tolerances will be applied and these are outline below. Any deviation outside these tolerances must be reported for review and resolution to the Project Board, if constituted, or the Project Sponsor and Portfolio Manager otherwise.
- Cost – over +/- 10% of original budget
- Plan – slippage of over 4 weeks to current plan
- Scope – extensive addition or reduction from current scope
- Quality – refusal to approve a project work package
Dependencies
The key external dependencies for the project lie with the issues experienced with the TSM service and the continuous changes to the Pure system. The Oracle archive service has been affected by the need to change the administration password regularly, but this issue has been mitigated, to some extent, by the retry features added to the service during the previous project and a schedule created to notify password expiry dates well in advance.
The following dependencies have been identified at the start of this project -
- Timely communication of Pure service and API updates to ensure development, testing and production environments are not adversely impacted
- Provision of a stable TSM service at JCMB to ensure test and production processing is not adversely affected
- Support needed from RSS, ENT and CIS to review processing times and identify bottlenecks during performance monitoring and upgrades
Lessons Learned
A log will be maintained on the Projects website to record lessons learned throughout the project. The key observations from the previous DataVault project (RSS044 DataVault III) are summarised in the table below.
Observation | Impact | Recommendations |
---|---|---|
Significant dissatisfaction was evident from users when deposits failed during archiving | High (-) | Implement additional resilience and recovery features to eliminate subsystem failures from components such as TSM |
Benefits were gained from using ring-fenced developers and external companies to deliver some work packages | High (+) | Identify suitable work and secure funding for potential ring-fenced development activities |
The initial plan was migrated to Jira at the start of the project enabling better control and tracking at the work package level | Medium (+) | Continue to use MS project for overall planning and Jira for tracking work |
A more formal Scrum based approach was adopted throughout the project | Medium (+) | Continue to use the Scrum Sprint methodology to plan and control at the work package level with regular planning, review and retrospective sessions |
Limited system design was undertaken at the start of the project | High (-) | Ensure an overall functional and system design phase is completed prior to any development phases (within the limitations of no system architect available to the team) |
Deposit and retrieval still has high working storage overheads and long processing times | Medium (-) | Although some improvement was made to processing times further work is scheduled for this project |
Formal test planning and recording methods were used less effectively when compared with the original DataVault project (RSS022) | Medium (-) | Ensure formal test plans, scripts and expected results are prepared prior to any significant test phase in the project |
Communication
The following meetings and communication channels will be put in place to support the effective communication of project progress, events, product releases, and risk and issue management.
Forum | Frequency | Responsible | Participants/Recipients | Communication |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sprint Planning | Start of sprint | Lawrence Stevenson |
Robin Rice Pauline Ward Scott Renton David Speed William Petit |
Updated plan and backlog, next sprint |
Sprint Review | Weekly | Scott Renton |
Pauline Ward David Speed William Petit Lawrence Stevenson |
Progress report, updated risks & issues, next steps, minutes |
Sprint Retrospective | End of sprint | Lawrence Stevenson |
Robin Rice Pauline Ward Scott Renton David Speed William Petit |
Lessons learned, actions |
Project Board | Monthly | Robin Rice |
Tony Weir TBA (CAHSS) Colin Higgs Anthony Davie Kirsty Lingstadt David Fergusson Scott Renton Lawrence Stevenson MauriceFranceschi |
Progress report, escalations and resolutions, next steps, minutes |
Project Report | Monthly | Lawrence Stevenson | All stakeholders | Project website |
Project announcements and updates | As required | Robin Rice | Current and potential DataVault users | Email, IS Alerts, website announcements |
ISG CAB | As required |
Scott Renton Other service suppliers |
ISG Go CAB members | Change requests and approvals |
Alignment with University Strategic Vision
This section defines how the areas of the upgraded service aligns with the University’s strategic vision and contribute to run, grow or transform services. DataVault Phase IV will extend the facilities of the existing service.
Vision | Commentary |
---|---|
A unique Edinburgh offer for all our students | |
|
N/A |
|
N/A |
|
N/A |
Strong and vibrant communities within and beyond the University – making the most of our unique offer of world-leading thinking and learning within one of the world’s most attractive cities | N/A |
A larger, more international staff who feel valued and supported in a University that is a great and collegial place to work, develop and progress | DataVault supplements existing services to researchers |
More postgraduate students – underpinned by the best support in the sector to ensure we attract the brightest and best regardless of ability to pay | Not currently supported |
A strong culture of philanthropic support focussed especially on our students and on outstanding research capabilities. | N/A |
Many more students benefiting from the Edinburgh experience (largely or entirely) in their own country – supported by deep international partnerships and world leading online distance learning | N/A |
Sustained world leading reputation for the breadth, depth and inter-disciplinary of our research supported by strong growth in research funding and strong international partnerships – drawing from well-established and less well-developed sources | DataVault provides a unique service, not currently available to Universities in the UK |
An estate that matches expectations, responds flexibly to changing student and staff needs, and showcases the University | The DataVault service meet the needs for data retention required by funding bodies as well as meeting GDPR regulations |
A deeper and earlier collaboration with industry, the public sector and the third sector – in terms of research; knowledge exchange; and in giving our students the best possible set of skills for their future | DataVault has the potential to be extended to provide low-cost, secure storage for legacy data that require retention by other organisations in the University e.g. Finance and to external organisations seeking similar services |
Digital Transformation | The DataVault service will facilitate the preservation and creation of research data, enhancing the prospects for re-use of the data and reducing the risk of loss of data which may not have been retained previously. It will also allow researchers to free up space on their active data storage to reduce costs and maintain data from their current research |
Alignment with ISG Strategic Vision
This section defines how the areas of the upgraded service aligns with the ISG’s strategic vision.
Vision | Commentary |
---|---|
Student Experience | |
|
N/A |
|
N/A |
|
DataVault development has been driven by the University’s Library and University Collections team who recognised a gap in service provisioning in an area that could be exploited in the UK and overseas |
Research and Innovation | |
|
The service provides the University’s research community with ability to store completed research data cheaply, meet regulatory requirements but be accessible as and when required |
|
A market review has shown that DataVault provides a type of service that is currently not available but would benefit University researchers across the UK |
|
The University, along with the University of Manchester, are taking the lead in delivering a JISC funded version of DataVault for use in UK Universities |
Service Excellence | |
|
DataVault provides researchers with a secure central facility to improve their research process management for storing, retrieving and sharing past research data |
|
DataVault is one of the strands of development to meet the goals of the Research Data Management Roadmap, which also includes complementary initiatives such as DataShare and Data Safe Haven (DSH) |
|
DataVault incorporates secure user account management by integrating with the University’s EASE and Shibboleth authentication services. The service also incorporates client-side encryption and decryption to ensure the secure transmission and storage of data |
Alignment with IS Change Programme
The following table shows how the DataVault project contributes to the themes that underpin the University’s change programme.
Theme | Contribution |
---|---|
Project Management | The ITI project management governance process is being applied throughout this project. |
Working Together | The project team includes representatives for each of the University’s schools, members from the Digital Library and Research Data Services teams, Digital Library Systems and EDINA development staff and infrastructure teams from Research and Enterprise support services. The team was formed to ensure all the required skills were available to deliver a successful project. A wide-ranging requirements exercise was undertaken to ensure the right work and priorities were encapsulated in the project. |
Standards and Technical Leadership | DataVault is being developed, in collaboration with JISC, to provide a research data archiving and retrieval service closes a gap in data service provisioning for UK Universities’ research communities. |
Staff Learning and Development | Some members of the team have developed their documentation and presentation skills to deliver various customer-facing activities such as training and workshops in the previous DataVault projects. The new project gives them an opportunity to further develop these skills. The project team have benefited and will continue to benefit from planning and delivering a service using formal project management practices. |
Service Based Culture | Consultation with users and other stakeholders is undertaken at every stage of the requirements and design process. A user-friendly web interface has been developed to promote ease-of-use for the service. Support and assistance are provided by the Library Research Support service team to users prior to, during and after they have used the service. Extensive web help pages, including a range of ‘how to’ videos have been developed and will continue to be improved in this project. |
Equality and Diversity | The DataVault website is being developed to incorporate accessibility features to facilitate access for all who require using the service. The University’s equality policies are followed by all team members in all communications, meetings and other channels used in the project. |
Flexible Resourcing | The project team includes development staff from Digital Library Systems, supplemented by contract staff, and EDINA. Development work is apportioned to ensure the optimal allocation for the available skills and resources, and to deliver work in parallel to reduce the project timescales. |
Communication and Branding |
A communication plan section is included in this project brief. The existing DataVault service and new releases to be delivered by this project are communicated to the University’s research communities by digital and print media, by presentations, workshops and training, and by the cascade of announcements by schools’ representatives on the project board. The design and development of the DataVault website and supporting materials follows, and will continue to follow, the University’s branding guidelines and web design (EdGEL) framework. |