Foundational Competencies and Responsibilities of a Research Software Engineer: Current State and Suggestions for Future Directions

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Goth, Florian, Alves, Renato, Braun, Matthias, Castro, Leyla Jael, Chourdakis, Gerasimos, Christ, Simon, Cohen, Jeremy, Druskat, Stephan, Erxleben, Fredo, Grad, Jean-Noël, Hagdorn, Magnus, Hodges, Toby, Juckeland, Guido, Kempf, Dominic, Lamprecht, Anna-Lena, Linxweiler, Jan, Löffler, Frank, Martone, Michele, Schwarzmeier, Moritz, Seibold, Heidi, Thiele, Jan Philipp, von Waldow, Harald, Wittke, Samantha
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866908456193097728
author Goth, Florian
Alves, Renato
Braun, Matthias
Castro, Leyla Jael
Chourdakis, Gerasimos
Christ, Simon
Cohen, Jeremy
Druskat, Stephan
Erxleben, Fredo
Grad, Jean-Noël
Hagdorn, Magnus
Hodges, Toby
Juckeland, Guido
Kempf, Dominic
Lamprecht, Anna-Lena
Linxweiler, Jan
Löffler, Frank
Martone, Michele
Schwarzmeier, Moritz
Seibold, Heidi
Thiele, Jan Philipp
von Waldow, Harald
Wittke, Samantha
author_facet Goth, Florian
Alves, Renato
Braun, Matthias
Castro, Leyla Jael
Chourdakis, Gerasimos
Christ, Simon
Cohen, Jeremy
Druskat, Stephan
Erxleben, Fredo
Grad, Jean-Noël
Hagdorn, Magnus
Hodges, Toby
Juckeland, Guido
Kempf, Dominic
Lamprecht, Anna-Lena
Linxweiler, Jan
Löffler, Frank
Martone, Michele
Schwarzmeier, Moritz
Seibold, Heidi
Thiele, Jan Philipp
von Waldow, Harald
Wittke, Samantha
contents The term Research Software Engineer, or RSE, emerged a little over 10 years ago as a way to represent individuals working in the research community but focusing on software development. The term has been widely adopted and there are a number of high-level definitions of what an RSE is. However, the roles of RSEs vary depending on the institutional context they work in. At one end of the spectrum, RSE roles may look similar to a traditional research role. At the other extreme, they resemble that of a software engineer in industry. Most RSE roles inhabit the space between these two extremes. Therefore, providing a straightforward, comprehensive definition of what an RSE does and what experience, skills and competencies are required to become one is challenging. In this community paper we define the broad notion of what an RSE is, explore the different types of work they undertake, and define a list of fundamental competencies as well as values that define the general profile of an RSE. On this basis, we elaborate on the progression of these skills along different dimensions, looking at specific types of RSE roles, proposing recommendations for organisations, and giving examples of future specialisations. An appendix details how existing curricula fit into this framework.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_11457
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Foundational Competencies and Responsibilities of a Research Software Engineer: Current State and Suggestions for Future Directions
Goth, Florian
Alves, Renato
Braun, Matthias
Castro, Leyla Jael
Chourdakis, Gerasimos
Christ, Simon
Cohen, Jeremy
Druskat, Stephan
Erxleben, Fredo
Grad, Jean-Noël
Hagdorn, Magnus
Hodges, Toby
Juckeland, Guido
Kempf, Dominic
Lamprecht, Anna-Lena
Linxweiler, Jan
Löffler, Frank
Martone, Michele
Schwarzmeier, Moritz
Seibold, Heidi
Thiele, Jan Philipp
von Waldow, Harald
Wittke, Samantha
Software Engineering
Computers and Society
Computational Physics
The term Research Software Engineer, or RSE, emerged a little over 10 years ago as a way to represent individuals working in the research community but focusing on software development. The term has been widely adopted and there are a number of high-level definitions of what an RSE is. However, the roles of RSEs vary depending on the institutional context they work in. At one end of the spectrum, RSE roles may look similar to a traditional research role. At the other extreme, they resemble that of a software engineer in industry. Most RSE roles inhabit the space between these two extremes. Therefore, providing a straightforward, comprehensive definition of what an RSE does and what experience, skills and competencies are required to become one is challenging. In this community paper we define the broad notion of what an RSE is, explore the different types of work they undertake, and define a list of fundamental competencies as well as values that define the general profile of an RSE. On this basis, we elaborate on the progression of these skills along different dimensions, looking at specific types of RSE roles, proposing recommendations for organisations, and giving examples of future specialisations. An appendix details how existing curricula fit into this framework.
title Foundational Competencies and Responsibilities of a Research Software Engineer: Current State and Suggestions for Future Directions
topic Software Engineering
Computers and Society
Computational Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.11457