Research, Develop, Deploy: Building a Full Spectrum Software Engineering and Research Department

TL;DR

This paper describes Sandia National Laboratories' interdisciplinary Software Engineering and Research Department, which employs a Research, Develop, and Deploy workflow to foster impactful research software engineering careers and innovations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel organizational model for research software engineering that integrates research, development, and deployment to accelerate impactful scientific computing projects.

Findings

The RDD workflow enhances collaboration between research and deployment teams.

The department acts as an incubator for impactful ideas.

Interdisciplinary approach improves software sustainability and career pathways.

Abstract

At Sandia National Laboratories, the Software Engineering and Research Department seeks to provide sustainable career pathways for research software engineers (RSEs). The conceptual model for our organization follows what we call a Research, Develop, and Deploy (RDD) workflow pattern, enabling RSEs to partner with research and deployment specialists. We argue that this interdisciplinary model allows our department to act as an incubator and an accelerator for impactful ideas. We describe these tactics and our experiences as a RSE team in a scientific computing center.