Working Group Project Milestones

1 Overview

There are no universal benchmarks for how quickly a synthesis working group will proceed through the phases of a project’s lifecycle. That said, the milestones below may prove helpful as a general ‘how are we doing?’ temperature check. If your group does not accomplish all of these–or proceeds beyond them–don’t worry too much!

2 Week 2 Benchmarks

Before this week of the workshop, your group should have done (at least some of) the following:

  • Written code (version-controlled and stored in GitHub) to:
    • Harmonize at least 5 datasets
    • Perform quality control on the harmonized dataset
    • Perform preliminary visualization of individual or synthesized datasets
  • Documented scientific judgment calls made up to this point in a clear, human-readable manner
    • E.g., data in/exclusion criteria, data transformation(s), project question or scope changes
  • Updated your project management system with specific, actionable tasks that have not yet been done but need to be completed in the near future
  • Identified areas of confusion (e.g., scientific, code-related) to discuss with workshop instructors and/or project mentors during week 2

After this week, your group should have done (at least some of) the following:

  • Written code (version-controlled and stored in GitHub) to:
    • Perform more advanced, higher-quality visualization of your data
    • More thoroughly quality control your data
  • Drafted an authorship/intellectual property policy for your group
  • Made a plan for organizing your project and documenting that organization
    • Note this may include distinct rules for GitHub, SharePoint, and other platforms your group has chosen to engage with

Between this workshop week and the next, your group should have done (at least some of) the following:

  • Written code (version-controlled and stored in GitHub) to:
    • Harmonize/standardize your chosen datasets (can be a draft workflow at this point but should be pretty solid)
    • Perform preliminary analysis
    • Make publication-quality figures
  • Finalized your group’s authorship/intellectual credit policy
  • Made a reasonably complete set of documentation explaining your project organization schema
  • Considered whether custom R functions (or an R package) might make sense for your group’s goals and interests
  • Decided whether to make a group website (published via GitHub)