Delivery Approach Guide
Knowledge Guides /How do you deliver a reproducible engineering project, and why does it often fail to run on another computer?
Last updated: · New Horizon Digital Outsourcing Team
Reproducibility requires source code or models, dependencies, input data, configurations, and run instructions together. Handing over only a code archive often omits tool licenses, environment variables, and local paths. We recommend verifying a clean startup in an independent environment.
List implicit dependencies
- Check software versions, plugins, system components, model libraries, and external services. Replace absolute paths from the developer's machine with agreed configuration settings and document necessary access permissions. A personal account's signed-in state cannot be treated as part of a deliverable environment.
Retain minimal runnable inputs
- Provide small, shareable sample data and expected outputs to establish that the basic pipeline works. If the full dataset is restricted, explain how to obtain or replace it. Retain seeds and statistical definitions for randomized computations, and specify equipment conditions for hardware-dependent results.
Verification steps in an independent environment
- Install, configure, build, and run according to the documentation instead of copying the development directory and continuing to rely on caches. Record missing items and deviations individually, revise the documentation, and verify again. Automated deployment helps, but the scripts must also have been executed in the target environment.
What evidence should be handed over?
- Retain version inventories, operation records, sample outputs, and known limitations. Specify which results allow numerical tolerances and which must match exactly. A working demonstration machine does not mean the recipient has taken over; the recipient should confirm the key workflows.