If you’re looking for ways Information and Digital Services can better support your research work, you can start by looking around the our Digital Research Services (DRS) website .

DRS works with the Library, Research and Development Services (RDS), and the Office of Graduate Research (OGR) to provide comprehensive support for researchers.

Our website is updated frequently with practical information you can use. For example, the University recently joined the eduGAIN network, through its association with the Australian Access Federation (AAF). If you need to share research services or want to securely collaborate with other researchers, educators, and students around the world – more than 2300 organisations are members – you may find eduGAIN a good way to do so. Access is easy, you just use your Okta sign-in credentials. You can find out more about eduGAIN from the AAF website.

And if you’d like to provide feedback on the DRS website or discuss ways the DRS team may be able to assist you, we’d be pleased to hear from you. Just email DigitalResearchServices@flinders.edu.au or contact any team member directly.

Today’s blog contribution is from team member Stuart Loose:

For the majority of my career, I’ve worked for software vendors, so when I started working at Universities, I was somewhat puzzled by how new applications and upgrades were implemented. Universities tend to run projects to implement new system capability, funded based on business cases being approved, whereas vendors usually have permanent funded development teams developing new and enhanced features for as long as the product is sold.

I’ve always struggled a bit with the relative ‘short lived’ nature of project teams and how they ‘finish’ and what happens with ongoing support and maintenance, so I found this post on the Martin Fowler website very interesting. It explores the differences between ‘product mode’ and projects and how organisations that do not build software can operate in a ‘product mode’.  Some large organisations such as ANZ bank are exploring this ‘new’ operating model. With Flinders adoption of agile and IDS being aligned to business streams, I think this article definitely provides food for thought.