Software Carpentry: Lessons Learned

TL;DR

Software Carpentry has grown over 15 years from a US-based training to a global volunteer movement, improving scientific computing practices and facing ongoing challenges and future plans.

Contribution

This paper shares lessons learned and future directions from the long-term development of the Software Carpentry initiative.

Findings

Growth from local to global training efforts

Identification of key challenges in scientific computing education

Strategic plans for future community engagement

Abstract

Over the last 15 years, Software Carpentry has evolved from a week-long training course at the US national laboratories into a worldwide volunteer effort to raise standards in scientific computing. This article explains what we have learned along the way the challenges we now face, and our plans for the future.