A General Framework and Maturity Model for Bioinformatics Pipeline Development

Bioinformatics pipelines are often constructed in chaotic, ad hoc environments. This ad hoc construction results in problems with quality control, pipeline maintainability, and code reusability. The application of process control to bioinformatics pipeline creation can address these issues, increasing the lifespan of pipelines and decreasing the amount of time and energy spent on recreating defunct pipelines. The description of a bioinformatics pipeline development lifecycle and maturity model presented here lays the groundwork of a defined process for pipeline development. As pipelines are tools used to conduct research, the decrease of resources used in pipeline creation can result in more resources dedicated to research productivity.