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SOUPS - Software of Unknown Provenance

Software of unknown provenance (SOUPS) is a software item that is already developed, generally available and not developed for the purpose of being incorporated into the bioinformatic workflow, or a software item for which adequate software documentation is not available. A procedure should be documented about how and where SOUPS are registered.

For each SOUP the following items should be registered:

  • Name: Name of SOUP.
  • Reference: Link (URL) to soup (source code / publication).
  • Intended purpose: Description of the original purpose of the SOUP.
  • Used according to the intended purpose: yes/no, if no, document for which purpose the SOUP is used.
  • Validation required: yes/no, often this is part of the validation of the (workflow) release itself. When using the SOUP outside of its intended purpose you need a proper validation to show that it works.
  • Version controlled: yes/no, is the SOUP developed under version control or not.