Community Software Facility Discovery Workshop Report: Scientific software best practices, tools, and culture
Kamali, S., Colegrove, D., Mickelson, S., Fitzgerald, K.. (2026). Community Software Facility Discovery Workshop Report: Scientific software best practices, tools, and culture. NCAR Technical Notes, doi:https://doi.org/10.5065/q5jz-k286
| Title | Community Software Facility Discovery Workshop Report: Scientific software best practices, tools, and culture |
|---|---|
| Genre | Workshop Report |
| Author(s) | Soudeh Kamali, Dominique Colegrove, Sheri Mickelson, Katelyn Fitzgerald |
| Abstract | This document synthesizes the key findings from a workshop held in August 2025 to inform software design approaches and culture norms to consider implementing within the NSF NCAR Community Software Facility (CSF). The CSF discovery workshop convened internal and external experts to address the escalating complexity of Earth system modeling, the rapid evolution of computing architectures, and the need for modern software development practices. A major takeaway from the workshop was that improving the quality and sustainability of scientific software requires coordinated investment in people, processes, and organizational culture. This includes integrative teams that align scientific objectives with software design, focused requirements capturing and software architectural planning, structured decision-making, and broad adoption of modern software engineering practices and tools. These efforts must be enabled by deliberate culture change that explicitly recognizes software engineers as critical partners in scientific software development and design, provides dedicated time for training and collaboration, and a commitment to continuous review and improvement of processes and culture. The CSF discovery workshop also highlighted that lasting culture change requires visible leadership commitment and the creation of organizational norms that value software quality, collaboration, learning, and shared ownership of outcomes. Additionally, effective scientific software development is grounded in consistent documentation and knowledge transfer. More information on the motivation, workshop guiding questions, and discussions can be found in the following sections. Detailed key findings can be found in the "Workshop Results: Key Findings and Recommendations" section. |
| Publication Title | NCAR Technical Notes |
| Publication Date | Apr 10, 2026 |
| Publisher's Version of Record | https://doi.org/10.5065/q5jz-k286 |
| OpenSky Citable URL | https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7m90f6w |
| OpenSky Listing | View on OpenSky |
| CISL Affiliations | ASAP, VAST |