Working in Harmony: Towards Integrating RSEs into Multi-Disciplinary CSE Teams

TL;DR

This paper explores strategies for effectively integrating research software engineers into multi-disciplinary computational science and engineering teams to enhance collaboration and productivity.

Contribution

It highlights the importance of systematic approaches to bridge the gap between CSE and software engineering through RSE integration.

Findings

RSEs are key to advancing scientific software development.

Bridging CSE and software engineering improves team collaboration.

Systematic teaming strategies are needed for better integration.

Abstract

Within the rapidly diversifying field of computational science and engineering (CSE), research software engineers (RSEs) represent a shift towards the adoption of mainstream software engineering tools and practices into scientific software development. An unresolved challenge is the need to effectively integrate RSEs and their expertise into multi-disciplinary scientific software teams. There has been a long-standing "chasm" between the domains of CSE and software engineering, and the emergence of RSEs as a professional identity within CSE presents an opportunity to finally bridge that divide. For this reason, we argue there is an urgent need for systematic investigation into multi-disciplinary teaming strategies which could promote a more productive relationship between the two fields.