Speaker
Description
You’ve built a great R package. People are using it. Feature completeness is in sight. Congratulations - you’ve defied the odds. Now the hard part begins!
Transitioning an open-source R package from active development to long-term maintenance and stability is a complex shift. Throughout this talk we’ll explore methods to tackle this often overlooked, but key challenge of the open-source lifecycle: how can you sustain your development team's momentum (or just your own!) without chasing perfection, in a time where the active workload is naturally diminished? What should your new priorities be? What do stability and maintenance even mean?
Along the way, we’ll draw insights from the pharmaceutical industry, analysing how the {admiral} package navigated these challenges while managing a large-scale open-source framework. We will discuss how to redefine your priorities, protect your package's stability, and keep a development team engaged during the shift to maintenance mode. Because a package's true legacy isn't just built during the chaotic first release, but in the quiet years of reliable stability.
Additional Material or Paper
I presented a similar talk in video format only for a pharma-only audience for the R in Pharma 2025 conference. Link here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mFZFG1Ik4Q. The talk for useR! 22026 would be modified in line with the more general useR! audience.
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| Keywords: Please list up to 5 keywords to help us find the right session for your contribution. | package development, stability, maintenance, pharma, admiral |
|---|---|
| Virtual Option | This submission is for onsite presentation only |
| Video Recording | Video sharing is fine |
| The author(s) agree(s) to take responsibility and be accountable for the contents of the submission and is/are authorized to present it. | Confirm |
| Interested in serving as reviewer? | Yes - edoardo.mancini@roche.com |