Towards a Culture of Continuous Learning and Improvement within RSE Teams

Teatime theme - Collegeville 2021

Derek Trumbo & Reed Milewicz - Sandia National Laboratories

Research software is increasingly large, complex, multi-disciplinary, and is composed of many different technologies, languages, patterns, and architectures. Research software engineering (RSE) teams, typically composed of practitioners with diverse backgrounds and skillsets, must stay current with tools and best practices, and must always be looking for better ways to design, develop, and maintain software. For this to happen, teams must adopt a culture of continuous improvement – a culture that values those activities – and all team members must feel responsible for and invested in that continuous improvement.

In this teatime session, we will discuss strategies for promoting long-term growth and learning and building team consensus around software quality practices. The authors will share some general principles for continuous learning and improvement based on their experiences on RSE teams at Sandia National Laboratories, and hope to spur a constructive dialogue on how to build strong teams and promote long-term growth. All are welcome to join in!