Project Information

Process impact: The statement of user needs documents and explains the actual desires of stakeholders in roughly their own words. What they desire is never exactly what the product provides. Documenting user needs here, independently from the SRS, helps to keep the SRS precise and makes the tasks of verification and validation more effective. This document is not an informal draft of the SRS, it is different document with a complementary purpose.

Agreed Goals

We were given an initial project description that is agreed to by all stakeholders.

After several interviews and brainstorming sessions, we have revised project description that has been agreed to by all stakeholders.

There are still a few different (but overlapping) visions of what this project needs to achieve. When a single joint vision is agreed to, it will be hyper-linked from here.

Environment

What is the system's business environment?

Protein production occurs in a "wet lab". These can be classified into:

• High throughput labs
• Hypothesis-driven labs

Sometimes the whole protein production process is carried out in one laboratory. On other occasions an intermediate product will be shipped to another lab. MPSI expect to transfer samples to other labs often.

What is the system's physical environment?

This system is a web server. Data entry is typically done in the laboratory. This may be at a client PC, on a hand held device, or automatically from instruments. Reviews and planning meetings will occur in offices.

Actors

Scientists

TBD

Scientist > Membrane protein scientists

Experimental techniques for the HTP (high throughput) expression, purification and crystalization of membrane proteins are less well developed than those for soluble proteins.
The development of such technologies is likely to be ongoing, requiring PIMS to be sufficiently flexible to track and document changes to laboratory protocols.
Multiple orthologues and paralogues of membrane-protein families will be selected as targets for processing in parallel, in order to maximise the chance of yielding crystals suitable for structural analysis.
Also, the ability to document the development and use of novel funtional assays methods will be required.

Scientist > Enzyme scientists

By contrast, the technologies for processing soluble protein targets, which includes the majority of enzymes, are well established.
Enzyme researchers will usually know the function of their target enzyme, and will wish to assay the protein product for biological activity. They will often target orthologuous enzymes.

Scientist > Structural Genomic researcher

In structural genomics research, the function of the target protein is not usually known, so no functional assay assay can be performed.

Laboratory Head

A laboratory head may wish to review the success rate of experiments.

Technician

Experiments and the associated data entry may be carried out by technicians rather than scientists, especially in a high throughput laboratory. Technicians may also be responsible for accepting deliveries and reordering reagents.

Notes from Interviews and Brainstorming

28-06-2004, Dr Steve Prince (UMIST), Dr Miroslav Papiz (DL)

NOTES from interview with Steve Prince and Miroslav Papiz

13-09-04, Prof. Steve Baldwin, Dr John Hadden (Leeds)

NOTES from interview with Steve Baldwin and John Hadden

20-09-04, Jon Diprose (Oxford)

NOTES from interview with Jon Diprose

18-11-04, Prof. Steve Baldwin, (Leeds)

e.mail response to current Bioinformatics requirements in PIMS

26-10-04, Steve Prince (UMIST)

e.mail response to proposed content of PIMS first deliverable

11-01-05, Prof Per Bullough, Dr. Robert Ford, Dr Svetomir Tzokov (Sheffield)

NOTES from interview with Per Bullough, Bob Ford and Svetomir Tzokov

DATE, PARTICIPANTS

NOTES FROM BRAINSTORMING SESSION...(pasted here)

DATE, PARTICIPANTS

email from INTERVIEWEE

Performance and Capacity Needs

TBD