Starting Projects with a Compendium and Analysis Plan

I have recently started a project in my Open GIScience class involving studying the fairness of new congressional districts made in 2023 for Alabama. In this project I am using the HEGGSRR-Template for my github to accurately document this project for open source publishing and reproduceability. Currently, a lot of the challegnes surround the tedious nature of documenting every step of the project. Instead of just posting a workflow, metatdata and descriptions are written for each data source, as well as an explanation of biases for each step in the process. This can make it easy to miss or write sparsely on certain parts of the documentation, and I’m still learning in this process.

On the other hand, this method will allow me to approach the actual coding with a more clear understanding of what needs to be done. In this way, time spent earlier is equal to time saved later on. I think that doing plans for my code beforehand will result in a quicker process of being able to publish my results. Additionally, this method will make it easier for others to see my work and note where I may not be writing enough or anything at all, and where my code may be making a mistake.

If you want to see an html summary of this project, click this link.