Skip to main content
Software Engineering

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

Required fields*

12
  • 3
    Does this answer your question? Unit testing for a scientific computing library Commented Aug 5, 2020 at 17:12
  • 5
    Scientific models don't require tests, but they certainly benefit from them. Tests help ensure that you don't break things when making changes. The last modeling tool I worked with (product demand and pricing) had many tests. Breaking changes might not result in errors, but rather invalid data that could result in dramatic financial losses. Commented Aug 5, 2020 at 18:45
  • 4
    Also, hire a seasoned software developer to work in the same team as the scientists if you can. He/she will teach you the best practices while working on getting your code and deployment (if any) together. It may also be good for recruitment, since the developer can learn a bit into your scientific field "for free" while working on a paid job. Such an opportunity often attracts great minds. Commented Aug 19, 2020 at 14:19
  • 2
    Publication is key here, as peer review is how scientific results gain credibility. Having reproducible results is getting more attention/oversight in peer review and some more software focused journals, e.g. JOSS, require, at minimum 'documented manual steps' to objectively demonstrate functionality. Commented Aug 19, 2020 at 17:35
  • 1
    No software requires tests. Literally everything can work without them. But the proper software development process requires tests. Tests are for us: developers. And from that point of view there is no difference between scientific or not. Commented Nov 30, 2024 at 8:32