What does Agile Scrum mean for the ArchivesSpace community? Unlike more traditional software development methods, Agile focuses on getting a “minimum viable product” in front of the people who will be using the system as soon as possible. This means the ArchivesSpace team will be asking community members who have volunteered to test the software to try the software before it is “done”. This early testing insures that the product will meet requirements before the software is so far along in development that changes would be difficult.

Because testers are looking at an unfinished product, it is important to focus on basic functionality, rather than detailed design features in the early phases. This new methodology requires a little different way of working, but the payoff should be a product that more closely meets the needs of the community when the development phase winds down.

The presentation, available from our website , provided information on project status, plans, and team roles. The presenters, Mark Matienzo and Katherine Kott encouraged members of the audience to get involved, and to post the questions they asked in the session to the ArchivesSpace Google Group to make sure all members of the community get the benefit of the answers.

Proposals should still be submitted to Mark A. Matienzo, ArchivesSpace Technical Architect, at mark.matienzo@yale.edu and Katherine Kott, ArchivesSpace Development Manager, at katherine.kott@gmail.com.

We are very interested in getting community feedback and involvement and would encourage you to submit comments and feedback via the ArchivesSpace Google Group.

We hope the ArchivesSpace community will review the general information or wireframes we have provided, or review the full description and business requirements.  Please provide comments via the ArchivesSpace Google Group by the end of October.

We encourage everyone to take a close look at any of the information we have posted an to offer comments on the appropriate page of this site.  We are reviewing comments and will take them into consideration as we continue to refine the data model and system requirements.

Proposals are due no later than 5 PM Eastern Time on October 14, 2011.

Led by Technical Architect Mark Matienzo and Project Manager Katherine Kott, team members Joe Pawletko, Chris Prom, Scott Schwartz, Brian Tingle, Adrian Turner, and Brad Westbrook will exhaustively review the existing specification documents, seeking to rationalize inconsistent language, identify potential development barriers, and develop a more detailed and concise data model. In addition, the team will be developing more detailed functional requirements for the Administrative Interface and System Configuration Panel. The team will be completing this work in their project workspace and in a two day meeting, scheduled for October 5th and 6th.

During this process, the team seeks feedback and suggestions from the archival community, from potential bidders on the RFP, and from other interested parties. Comments and feedback can be provided in the comments section of pages linked under the specifications section of the ArchivesSpace website at http://www.archivesspace.org/documents/specifications/.

All feedback will be reviewed by team members. Where appropriate, we will incorporate suggestions into the final versions of the specification documents, which will be updated as they are completed, according to the timeframe below.

We are particularly seeking analysis of the specs completeness and discussion of whether they describe the required functionality consistently and clearly. Community members should also note gaps in functionality between the specifications and existing functionality of the Archivists’ Toolkit or Archon. They should also identify recommendations of potential integration points or scalability and performance concerns, noting potential gaps in the proposed system design/data model.

If possible, please submit your feedback by the following dates:

• September 26: repository records, staff user records, location records
• October 3: subject records, name records
• October 10: accession records, de-accession sub-records
• October 17: digital object records
• October 24: resource records
• October 31: All sub-records specifications (date statement, extent statement, external document, rights management); public interface design principles, and system configuration panel.

As previously announced, the request for proposals has been released. ArchivesSpace is accepting proposals from any interested party. More information, including the full text of the RFP, is available at http://archivesspace.org/rfp. Proposals are due no later than 5 PM EDT on October 14, 2011.

Questions must be received by 5:00PM EDT, Friday, September 16, 2011 and should be sent via email to Mark Matienzo, ArchivesSpace Technical Architect (mark.matienzo@yale.edu), and Katherine Kott, ArchivesSpace Development Manager (katherine.kott@gmail.com). Please format the subject line with the phrase “Question re: ArchivesSpace RFP – [overview of question]“. An email response or status of response will be provided by 5:00PM EDT, Friday September 23, 2011. Questions and answers will be sent to all known participants in the RFP.

Proposals are due by 5:00PM EDT, Friday, October 14, 2011. Proposals should be sent via email to Mark Matienzo, ArchivesSpace Technical Architect (mark.matienzo@yale.edu), and Katherine Kott, ArchivesSpace Development Manager (katherine.kott@gmail.com). Please format the subject line with the phrase “ArchivesSpace Proposal – [Business/firm name of respondent]“.

ArchivesSpace is supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and is a partnership between the New York University Libraries, the UC San Diego Libraries, and the University Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

• ArchivesSpace RFP: Final Version For Distribution (PDF)