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Create paper.md - needed for Carpentries Lab and submission to JOSE
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‎paper.md‎

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---
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title: 'Intermediate Research Software Development Skills (Python)'
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tags:
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- software design
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- software engineering
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- research software
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- carpentry
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- intermediate
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- python
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authors:
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- name: Stephen Crouch
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email: s.crouch@software.ac.uk
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orcid: 0000-0001-8985-6814
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affiliation: 1
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- name: Aleksandra Nenadic
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email: a.nenadic@software.ac.uk
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orcid: 0000-0002-2269-3894
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affiliation: 1
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- name: James Graham
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email: james.a.graham@kcl.ac.uk
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orcid: 000-0001-5217-3104
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affiliation: 1,2
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- name: Martin Robinson
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email: martin.robinson@cs.ox.ac.uk
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orcid: 0000-0002-1572-6782
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affiliation: 3
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- name: Sam Mangham
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email: S.Mangham@soton.ac.uk
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orcid: 0000-0001-7511-5652
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affiliation: 1
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- name: Jacalyn Laird
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email:
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orcid: 000-0002-9048-9393
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affiliation: 1,4
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- name: Thomas Kiley
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email:
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orcid:
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affiliation:
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- name: Matthew Bluteau
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email: matthew.bluteau@ukaea.uk
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orcid: 0000-0001-9498-8475
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affiliation: 5
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- name: Sven van der Burg
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email: s.vanderburg@esciencecenter.nl
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orcid: 0000-0003-1250-6968
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affiliation: 6
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- name: Giulia Crocioni
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email:
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orcid: 0000-0002-0823-0121
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affiliation: 6
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affiliations:
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- name: Software Sustainability Institute
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index: 1
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- name: King's College London
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index: 2
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- name: University of Oxford
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index: 3
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- name: SAC Consulting
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index: 4
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- name: UK Atomic Energy Authority
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index: 5
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- name: Netherlands eScience Center
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index: 6
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date: 2024-05-28
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bibliography: paper.bib
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---
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# Summary
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This course aims to teach a core set of established, intermediate-level software development skills and best practices for working as part of a team in a
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research environment using Python as an example programming language.
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The core set of skills we teach is not a comprehensive set of all-encompassing skills, but a selective set of tried-and-tested collaborative development
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skills that forms a firm foundation for continuing on your learning journey.
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The course teaches these skills in a way that mimics a typical software development process working as a part of a team, starting from an existing piece of software.
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# Statement of need
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A typical learner for this course may be someone who is working in a research environment, needing to write some code, has gained basic software development skills
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either by self-learning or attending, e.g., a novice Software Carpentry Python course.
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They have been applying those skills in their domain of work by writing code for some time, e.g. half a year or more.
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However, their software development-related projects are now becoming larger and are involving more researchers and other stakeholders (e.g. users), for example:
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* Software is becoming more complex and more collaborative development effort is needed to keep the software running
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* Software is going further than just the small group developing and/or using the code - there are more users and an increasing need to add new features
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* ‘Technical debt’ is increasing with demands to add new functionality while ensuring previous development efforts remain functional and maintainable
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They now need intermediate software engineering skills to help them design more robust software code that goes beyond a few thrown-together proof-of-concept scripts,
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taking into consideration the lifecycle of software, writing software for stakeholders, team ethic and applying a process to understanding,
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designing, building, releasing, and maintaining software.
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# Learning objectives, design, and experience
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After going through this course, participants will be able to:
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* Set up and use a suitable development environment together with popular source code management infrastructure to develop software collaboratively
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* Use a test framework to automate the verification of correct behaviour of code, and employ parameterisation and continuous integration to scale and further automate code testing
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* Design robust, extensible software through the application of suitable programming paradigms and design techniques
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* Understand the code review process and employ it to improve the quality of code
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* Prepare and release software for reuse by others
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* Manage software improvement from feedback through agile techniques
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The course follows a narrative around a software development team working on an existing software project that is analysing patients’ inflammation data
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(from the novice Software Carpentry's "Programming in Python" course).
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The course is split into 5 sections, each of which can be delivered in approximately half to a full day, in either guided self-learning mode (where helpers provide help
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and answer questions - synchronously or asynchrounously) or in a standard instructor-led mode.
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Learners are typically organised in small groups from the outset and initially work individually through the material on their own with the aid of helpers (or follow an instructor).
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In later sections, exercises involve more group work and learners from the same group form a development team and collaborate on a mini software project.
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# How the lesson came to be
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The Software Sustainability Institute conducted an international RSE survey in 2018 as well as a series of internal interviews with the key RSE group leaders and
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[Open Call reseach software projects](https://www.software.ac.uk/news/need-free-help-your-research-software-try-institutes-open-call-1) we supported with free
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software development expertise and consultancy.
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In terms of training, they all came back to us with a single feedback - what software engineering skills to learn next
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after gaining foudnational computational skills via Software, Data or Library Carpentry and where to find such training resources.
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There was also a shift from working on research software development projects in isolation and solo towards working in teams and collaboratively,
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as software is developed in industry, and how to learn those skills.
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Original lesson authors Aleksandra Nenadic, James Graham, and Steve Crouch from the Software Sustainability Institute joined up to create this
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course to fill on those gaps and started working on this course in late 2019.
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# Acknowledgements
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Original lesson authors Aleksandra Nenadic, James Graham, and Steve Crouch were supported by the UK's Software Sustainability Institute
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via the EPSRC, BBSRC, ESRC, NERC, AHRC, STFC and MRC grant EP/S021779/1.
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Since then, many people have contributed to the course material - see [AUTHORS](https://github.com/carpentries-incubator/python-intermediate-development/blob/gh-pages/AUTHORS).
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# References
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See [paper.bib](https://github.com/carpentries-incubator/python-intermediate-development/blob/gh-pages/paper.bib) file.
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