Improving the Common Understanding of Large Software Requirements Within Neutron and Muon Sources

This technical report describes experiences that re - sulted in improved relationships between users and a software development team of over 10 members at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source [1]. These experiences are shared with the belief that similar enhancements could help other Neutron and Muon Sources, and by ex - tension, potentially increase mutually beneficial inter-facility collaborations to address common software development challenges. The concept used to improve software needs articula - tion and prioritization was inspired by the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) [ 2 , 3 ]. SAFe is one of several frame - works (e.g. see [ 4 , 5 ]) aimed at helping organizations ap - ply agile software development at scale. SAFe targets software teams of 50 + [ 6 ]. Here, a specific concept within the SAFe framework, namely the portfolio Kanban system concept [ 7 ], was customized to improve user-developer understanding and the flow of larger needs for a team of 10+ people; adapted to fit within existing soft - ware development processes without requiring a change in team structure or an increase in its size. Note that this report is not about how SAFe was adapted in one of its configurations [ 2 , 3 ], but instead how a specific concept from the SAFe framework was adapted. For those interested in the former, there are many articles on this, including [ 8 ] and references therein. A bit of context about the team and its environment. The ISIS Mantid [ 9 ] team is responsible for providing software solutions for data treatment, data reduction, and visualization needs for the majority of 30+ beamlines at ISIS. Many beamlines at other international facilities also use Mantid. Each facility participating in the Mantid collaboration has its own local software development pro - cesses, coupled together via recurrent activities and com - munication channels. The entire framework is open source and free to use. This international collaboration operates without a single board overseeing resource allocation for the entire project; instead, this is handled by each facility.