Scientific code developers have increasingly been adopting software processes derived from the mainstream (non-scientific) community. Software practices are typically adopted when continuing without them becomes impractical. However, many software best practices need modification and/or customization, partly because the codes are used for research and exploration, and partly because of the combined funding and sociological challenges. This presentation will describe the lifecycle of scientific software and important ways in which it differs from other software development. We will provide a compilation of software engineering best practices that have generally been found to be useful by science communities, and we will provide guidelines for adoption of practices based on the size and the scope of the project.

Presenter

• Anshu Dubey (Argonne National Laboratory)

Presenter Bio

Anshu Dubey is a Computer Scientist in the Mathematics and Computer Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory and a Senior Scientist in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chicago. She is the chief software architect for FLASH, a multiphysics multiscale HPC software that is used by several science and engineering domains as their community code. She is interested in all aspects of HPC scientific software with special emphasis on design, productivity, and sustainability issues.