Taverna: lessons in creating a workflow environment for the life sciences: Research Articles

  • Authors:

  • Tom Oinn;Mark Greenwood;Matthew Addis;M. Nedim Alpdemir;Justin Ferris;Kevin Glover;Carole Goble;Antoon Goderis;Duncan Hull;Darren Marvin;Peter Li;Phillip Lord;Matthew R. Pocock;Martin Senger;Robert Stevens;Anil Wipat;Chris Wroe

  • Affiliations:

  • EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, U.K.;School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, U.K.;IT Innovation Centre, University of Southampton, Southampon SO16 7NP, U.K.;School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, U.K.;IT Innovation Centre, University of Southampton, Southampon SO16 7NP, U.K.;School of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG8 1BB, U.K.;School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, U.K.;School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, U.K.;School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, U.K.;IT Innovation Centre, University of Southampton, Southampon SO16 7NP, U.K.;School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle NE1 7RU, U.K.;School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, U.K.;School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle NE1 7RU, U.K.;EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, U.K.;School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, U.K.;School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle NE1 7RU, U.K.;School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, U.K.

  • Venue:
  • Concurrency and Computation: Practice & Experience - Workflow in Grid Systems
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

Life sciences research is based on individuals, often with diverse skills, assembled into research groups. These groups use their specialist expertise to address scientific problems. The in silico experiments undertaken by these research groups can be represented as workflows involving the co-ordinated use of analysis programs and information repositories that may be globally distributed. With regards to Grid computing, the requirements relate to the sharing of analysis and information resources rather than sharing computational power. The myGrid project has developed the Taverna Workbench for the composition and execution of workflows for the life sciences community. This experience paper describes lessons learnt during the development of Taverna. A common theme is the importance of understanding how workflows fit into the scientists' experimental context. The lessons reflect an evolving understanding of life scientists' requirements on a workflow environment, which is relevant to other areas of data intensive and exploratory science. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.