20 Questions about Service Design

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17481749 Funded by DFG as part of NFDI. Grant Numbers: 521453681, 521460392, 521462155, 521463400, 521466146, 521471126, 521473512, 521474032, 521475185, 521476232 20 Questions about Service Design Service Design is the process that creates, maintains and improves the value of a service for both service users and providers. It is iteratively performed throughout the entire lifecycle of a service and helps to organise all processes, technologies and interactions that are essential for its delivery. Our 20 questions guide you through all relevant dimensions. 1. Do you understand all requirements issued towards your service? Do you have a common understanding with your stakeholders? Can the requirements guide the creation of a valid service? Have all conflicts between them been resolved? 2. Which components are needed to deliver the required functionality? 3. What are potential interactions? a. How do the service components interact with each other? b. How do your users interact with your service? c. How do other services interact with your service? 4. How can you establish the service’s integration into the RDM landscape (on a regional, national (including Base4NFDI!) and European level)? a. How does the service make contributions to a FAIR data landscape? 5. Which technologies can deliver the needed functionality? 6. Are you using components with open licenses? a. Are all licenses compatible with licenses of your own components? b. Are there any justifications to not use components with open licenses? 7. Which standards does your service need to comply with? 8. How do you facilitate data management and delivery (including provenance)? 9. How do you ensure (data) persistence? 10. How do you ensure high service quality? a. What is the definition of quality attributes for your service? 11. What is your concept for handling personal user data? 12. How do you secure your service? Which security measures do you apply? a. How do you protect its integrity? b. Which are the critical assets? 13. How will you manage security incidents and integrity violations? 14. What is the required availability of your service? a. How do you avoid downtimes and non-responsive behaviour? b. Where do you need testing and system monitoring? 15. With what do you need to be compatible? How do you ensure interoperability? Funded by DFG as part of NFDI. Grant Numbers: 521453681, 521460392, 521462155, 521463400, 521466146, 521471126, 521473512, 521474032, 521475185, 521476232 16. Do you have a strategy for scaling up the service if demand increases? 17. How do you initiate and increase stakeholder engagement with the service (including end-users, new developers, community managers, trainers, students, politicians, funders, …)? a. How do you create a great user experience and maximise inclusivity? 18. How do you document and share information about the service? What is your strategy for knowledge management? 19. How do you manage customer relations? How will you reach your users? How will they reach you? a. How do you announce changes to the service? 20. Have you assigned all responsibilities and identified all roles required for the operation of the service? Have you started writing your answers down by now?* Good documentation helps you to… … keep the design aligned with requirements and policies, … keep track of dependencies, … defend design decisions ten years from now, … efficiently develop the service and update its design. * A documentation of your service design is also a requirement for completing the Base4NFDI Initialisation Phase (Deliverable D.TA1.3). Cf. Wittenhorst, T., Ganske, A., & Lehmenkühler, D. (2025). Base4NFDI – Requirements for Completion of Initialisation Phase (Version v2). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15020379. !? Need guidance? Write to: base4nfdi-ta1[at]lists.nfdi.de Use our Service Design Guide: Arndt, S., Ganske, A., & Lehmenkühler, D. (2025). Service Design Guide (1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16306727.