Releasing Scientific Software in GitHub: A Case Study on SWMM2PEST
Citation:
Lin, X., M. Simon, AND N. Niu. Releasing Scientific Software in GitHub: A Case Study on SWMM2PEST. IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering, Montreal, Quebec, CANADA, May 25 - 31, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
To present a methodology for releasing and maintaining scientific software for the technical public. Release engineering involves the activities of code development, integration, testing, and software delivery. It has been widely applied to deliver software of high-quality to users. Researchers have made considerable efforts to software release engineering and its continuous use in industry practice. However, there are very few studies on the release engineering pipeline of scientific software. To shorten this gap, we present a case study in this paper to show a GitHub-driven release workflow is applied on SWMM2PEST, a software system automating parameter calibration for the U.S. EPA’s Storm Water Management Model (SWMM). Moreover, we analyze the software version updates and requirements changes to develop strategies for improving the ongoing releases. The feasibility of improvement strategies is demonstrated by our consecutively released versions of SWMM2PEST. The results offered insights into the continuous release of scientific software.
Description:
Release engineering involves the activities of code development, integration, testing, and software delivery. It has been widely applied to deliver software of high-quality to users. Researchers have made considerable efforts to software release engineering and its continuous use in industry practice. However, there are very few studies on the release engineering pipeline of scientific software. To shorten this gap, we present a case study in this paper to show a GitHub-driven release workflow is applied on SWMM2PEST, a software system automating parameter calibration for the U.S. EPA’s Storm Water Management Model (SWMM). Moreover, we analyze the software version updates and requirements changes to develop strategies for improving the ongoing releases. The feasibility of improvement strategies is demonstrated by our consecutively released versions of SWMM2PEST. The results offered insights into the continuous release of scientific software.