The NMS project has spent some time recently developing some draft principles that we intend to use as a set of rules for how we approach the project.

Over the next few months we’ll blog about the individual principles in a little more detail – starting with our aim to be evidence-led.

We think these are pretty important, and would love to get your thoughts on them. What have we missed? What should we be doing? Which of these doesn’t make any sense?

1. Think in the open

Many eyeballs tame complexity. 

The monographs landscape is a complex one, with multiple stakeholders, diverse and interrelated components and significant amounts of work already taking place. So, we want to make sure we’re open about what we’re exploring and the ideas we’re developing: We don’t want to miss anything.

You’ll always be able to comment on the documents we’re developing, and attend workshops the project will be running to get your input into the work.

2. Community led

We want to ensure that what we do is led and makes a difference to the academic community for whom we’re working on behalf. We will be engaging with these communities as much as possible throughout the project via workshops and webinars, as well as by making our drafts available for comment via the blog.

3. No Solutions

At least not until November 2013! We need to understand the  challenges and the drivers for change within the monographs landscape before we explore the possible solutions.

Once we really understand the problems then we can begin to map those to potential solutions. We’ll begin the mapping process in late October.

In the meantime we realise there will be lots of potential ideas and possible solutions that we’ll be wanting to capture, so we have created a solutions log. We’ll fill the log up and then come back to it in a few months time.

4. Evidence based

The project is keen to make sure any proposed solutions are prioritised for maximum benefit. The way we plan to do this is to make sure we capture any relevant data available on the potential benefits of a solution.

These benefits may not be simply financial; they may improve student experience, reduce risk etc.

See Sarah Dunne’s post going into more depth on this subject.

5. It’s not repetition, it’s iteration

The project will proceed through a process of short sprints that will help ensure that at the end of each sprint we can reflect on what has been done and iterate if necessary. Each iteration moves us forwards, rather than covering the same ground.

6. Deliver benefits (for teaching, learning and research)

In order for the project to be a success the eventual strategy will support libraries, publishers and content providers in delivering real benefits for teachers, learners and researchers.