This document summarizes the First Workshop on Maintainable Software Practices in e-Science. The workshop addressed topics related to applying software engineering best practices to computational science projects. It included discussions on building sustainable software communities, adopting software in user communities, and models for the software lifecycle. The agenda covered morning sessions on communities and practices and afternoon sessions on models and methods. There was also discussion on changing research culture and incentives to better support maintainable software. The goal was to understand barriers to culture change and identify examples, practices and models that could help improve software sustainability in e-Science.

1. First
Workshop
on
Maintainable
So3ware
Prac7ces
in
e-­‐Science
Neil
Chue
Hong
So3ware
Sustainability
Ins7tute
Jennifer
Schopf
IEEE
Computer
Society
hDp://www.so3ware.ac.uk/maintainable-­‐so3ware-­‐prac7ce-­‐workshop

2. Published
online
13
October
2010
|
Nature
467,
775-­‐777
(2010)
doi:10.1038/467775a

3. Stopping
errors
before
they
maDer
• Errors
unchecked
in
code
cause
retrac7ons
• Chang
–
Protein
Structure
– Error
in
data
analysis
code
flipped
two
columns
of
inver7ng
electron
density
map
– Science
22
December
2006:
Vol.
314
no.
5807
pp.
1856-­‐1857
DOI:
10.1126/science.
314.5807.1856
• Bertoia
–
Hypertension
– Error
in
code
led
to
doubling
of
sample
size
and
significantly
different
es7mates
– Hypertension.
2012;60:e29,
published
online
before
print
August
6
2012,
doi:
10.1161/HYP.0b013e318269bc7a

4. Ensuring
so3ware
is
maintained
• OU
Knowledge
Network
– All
funding
stopped
a3er
8
years,
with
11,000
ac7ve
users
–
s7ll
available
• Atmospheric
Model
– Upgrades
to
hardware
meant
so3ware
did
not
run
–
took
effort
to
address
So3ware
Preserva7on
Benefits
Framework:
hDp://www.so3ware.ac.uk/aDach/So3warePreserva7onBenefitsFramework.pdf

5. A
typical
e-­‐Science
project
organisa7on?
Steering
Group
InvesJgators
Project
Managers
10
partners
Researchers
Developers
Students

6. Topics
of
Interest
• So3ware
engineering
and
so3ware
product
management
best
prac7ce
as
applied
to
e-­‐Science
and
computa7onal
science
• Community
development,
collabora7ve
development,
and
widening
adop7on
• Licensing,
funding,
and
business
models
for
eScience
and
research
so3ware
• Managing
governance
and
organisa7onal
change
during
the
so3ware
lifecycle
• Measuring
and
analysing
the
impact
of
so3ware
and
so3ware
processes
• So3ware
aDribu7on,
cita7on,
and
credit
• Interac7on
between
researchers,
developers
and
stakeholders
• Transferable
so3ware
prac7ces
from
industry

7. Agenda
–
morning
Communi7es
and
Prac7ces
• 09:00
Introduc7on
to
the
Workshop
• 09:30
Sustainable
So3ware
for
Computa7onal
Chemistry
and
Materials
Modeling
• 10:00
Break
• 10:30
Adop7on
of
So3ware
by
a
User
Community:
The
Montage
Image
Mosaic
Engine
Example
• 11:00
On
Realizing
the
Concept
Study
ScienceSo3
of
the
European
Middleware
Ini7a7ve
-­‐
OpenSo3ware
for
Open
Science
• 11:30
The
Rela7onship
Between
Development
Problems
and
Use
of
So3ware
Engineering
Prac7ces
in
Computa7onal
Science
• 12:00
Lunch

8. Agenda
–
a3ernoon
Models
and
Methods
• 13:30
libHPC:
So3ware
sustainability
and
reuse
through
metadata
preserva7on
• 14:00
Overview
of
the
TriBITS
Lifecycle
Model
• 14:30
IPOL:
Reviewed
Publica7on
and
Public
Tes7ng
of
Research
So3ware
Debate
introduc7on
• 15:00
Break
• 15:30
Culture
Change
debate:
"What
can
we
do
to
change
the
status
quo?
Should
we
do
this?”
• 17:00
Close

9. Area
of
Interest
from
Audience
• Prac7ces
and
models
• Mixed
industry/academic
projects
• Portability
across
heterogeneous
• Integra7on
of
so3ware
plalorms
components
• Ways
of
reducing
complexity
• Sustaining
so3ware
on
liDle
• Recording
informa7on
on
money
so3ware
structure
• So3ware
engineering
applied
to
• Making
so3ware
verifiable
computa7onal
science
• Building
communi7es
around
• Is
there
a
life
beyond
public
so3ware
funding
(e.g.
for
dCache)?
• Cultural
issues
in
organisa7ons
• So3ware
+
data
preserva7on
for
• Collabora7on
between
10
years
usage
(e.g.
Tevatron)
ins7tu7ons
and
countries
• Taking
responsibility
for
orphaned
• Meta-­‐issues
of
so3ware
across
so3ware
(e.g.
for
OSG)
science
and
social
science
• Understanding
what
so3ware’s
been
funded
and
what’s
happened
to
it?

10. Culture
Change
Discussion
• Goals
– Understand
what
are
the
key
barriers
to
culture
change
with
respect
to
so3ware
in
research
– Understand
who
and
what
needs
to
change,
to
change
the
status
quo
– Record
the
studies,
examples,
prac7ces
and
models
that
the
workshop
par7cipants
agree
should
be
highlighted

11. Ques7ons
1 What
are
the
basic
so3ware
skills
and
understanding
every
scien7st
needs?
– Beverly
Sanders
et
al.
2 Life
beyond
public
grant
funding
–
what
happens
next?
– Bruce
Berriman,
Michael
McLennan,
Jennifer
Schopf,
Nigel
Ward,
Jim
Willenbring
3 So3ware
reward,
cita7on,
aDribu7on.
Tracking
usage
and
impact
– Neil
Chue
Hong,
Alberto
Di
Meglio,
Josh
Greenberg,
Juan
Lalinde,
Kevin
Jorissen

12. Process
• Brainstorm
issues
and
ideas
(45
mins,
around
break)
– Put
down
ideas
without
judgement
(it
doesn’t
maDer
if
someone
else
doesn’t
think
it’ll
work)
– If
you’ve
heard
of
something,
write
it
down
• Understand
and
group
(15
mins)
– Do
you
have
the
same
understanding
of
all
the
ideas
– Are
some
of
the
ideas
linked
• Priori7se
and
record
(30
mins)
– What
are
the
biggest
issues?
– What
are
the
ideas
that
you’ve
seen
that
(don’t)
work
best?
– Are
there
trends/correla7ons
that
should
be
explored?
• Share
your
findings
(15
mins)
• Please
record
digitally
so
that
it
can
be
easily
shared