Regulatory R Package Repository

This document details the scope and initial short-term goals supporting the creation of a cross-pharma regulatory package repository.

How to get involved

• Reply to our "sign up" thread to be contacted about planning meetings.
• Sign up for the R Validation Hub mailing list

Scope

In-Scope

In roughly the order in which tasks will be addressed, this work will include

• Feature scoping
• Exploration of feasibility
• Evaluation of compute hosting and execution options
• Evaluation of package repository hosting solutions
• Initial prototype implementation
• Enterprise stress testing and evaluation of technical capabilities
• Soliciting feedback from experts in R infrastructure and automation (R-Hub, ROpenSci)
• Characterizing tradeoffs and making a recommendation based on evaluations

Out-of-Scope

• Deciding on exact criteria required for qualification (this discussion is better had by the broader R Validation Hub)

Milestones

gantt
    title Regulatory R Package Repository
    dateFormat  YYYY-QQ

    section  
    Team Assembling & Scoping  :m1, 2022-Q4,  90d
    Knowledge Gathering & POCs :m2, after m1, 90d
    Public Prototype Build     :m3, after m2, 180d

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Milestone 1 (Est. 3 Months)

The first milestone (projected three months) will be primarily focused around building an initial core team and more thoroughly scoping the project

• Assemble a team with backgrounds spanning
  • R package development (specifically testing & builds)
  • Infrastructure & administration (containers, CI/CD, repository hosting)
  • Front end & API serving
• Itemize blocking uncertainties
• Scope & prioritize key deliverables
  • Specify technical objectives
  • Produce budget estimate for R Consortium Board if the initiative would benefit from monetary funding (Deadline EOY 2022)

Milestone 2 (Est. 3 Months)

The next milestone will focus on immediately actionable proofs of concepts and knowledge gathering, leveraging existing experts in this space for guidance and suggestions.

• For technical feasibility that can be assessed quickly, implement proofs-of-concept to demonstrate features.
• For open questions that require deeper expertise, solicit feedback from experts in this area, soliciting feedback from R Consortium and ROpenSci expertise for the evaluation of packages, hosting of build services and serving of package repositories.
• Decide on scope for a prototype

Milestone 3 (Est. 6 Months)

The third milestone will focus on prototyping a system, with the goal of using such a prototype as a public showcase of what such a solution could offer. Cosmetics, UI/UX and performance are out of scope. An ideal outcome would be that such a prototype could be used to foster more interest and endorsement of a cross-industry solution.

• Build a service for the evaluation of packages
• And the hosting or publishing of packages to a publically accessible R repository

Ideation & Proposals

Initial ideation was proposed to the R Consortium Repositories WG