Research Invitation: Testing Research Software

Drs. Upulee Kanewala (upulee.kanewala@unf.edu), Jeffrey Carver (carver@cs.ua.edu), and Nasir Eisty (nasireisty@boisestate.edu) are conducting a research study titled "Testing Research Software". They wish to assess current practices, identify challenges, and inform the community of potential improvements of testing practice within the research software domain.

The use of the proper testing techniques is important during the development of Research Software because of its complex computational behavior. This complexity, along with the fact that the expected outputs are often unknown, makes it difficult for developers to define appropriate tests and identify input domain boundaries. In many cases, the input space of research software is so vast, it is not feasible, or even possible, to develop a test suite that adequately exercises the limits of the software. This survey seeks to gather your experiences with testing practices and the challenges you face to help us better understand these issues.

Taking part in this study requires completing this survey, which should take about 15 minutes. We will make de-identified results available to the community so they can learn more about testing practices for research software.

Your participation is completely anonymous and voluntary. You are free not to participate or stop participating at any time before you submit your answers. You must be 18 years of age or older to participate in the study and the survey.

This research study has been approved by the University of Alabama Institutional Review Board.

This survey is different than the one we conducted in 2019. We would greatly appreciate your participation in the survey. Thank you in advance.

Survey Link

The survey will close August 31.