Towards Effective Collaboration between Software Engineers and Data Scientists developing Machine Learning-Enabled Systems

TL;DR

This paper explores how to improve collaboration between software engineers and data scientists in developing ML-enabled systems through focus groups and practical recommendations.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights and specific recommendations for enhancing collaboration between software engineers and data scientists in ML system development.

Findings

Collaboration is crucial for effective ML system development.

Clear responsibilities and documentation improve team communication.

Recommendations from literature can be applied to real-world tasks.

Abstract

Incorporating Machine Learning (ML) into existing systems is a demand that has grown among several organizations. However, the development of ML-enabled systems encompasses several social and technical challenges, which must be addressed by actors with different fields of expertise working together. This paper has the objective of understanding how to enhance the collaboration between two key actors in building these systems: software engineers and data scientists. We conducted two focus group sessions with experienced data scientists and software engineers working on real-world ML-enabled systems to assess the relevance of different recommendations for specific technical tasks. Our research has found that collaboration between these actors is important for effectively developing ML-enabled systems, especially when defining data access and ML model deployment. Participants provided concrete examples of how recommendations depicted in the literature can benefit collaboration during different tasks. For example, defining clear responsibilities for each team member and creating concise documentation can improve communication and overall performance. Our study contributes to a better understanding of how to foster effective collaboration between software engineers and data scientists creating ML-enabled systems.