RSEConUK 2019

When the software produced by a research project is to be re-used in several subsequent projects, it ought to be high-quality and sustainable. Yet in an heterogeneous team of researchers from several international institutions, each of them with their own background and priorities, all of them under stringent result and reporting constraints, and none of them a formally identified research software engineer, those who volunteer their time to provide quality control and run support software infrastructure are instrumental in ensuring that the team doesn't lose sight of the exigence of quality and sustainability.

In this talk, we will share our experience of taking up RSE duties in a multi-partner international space robotics project. We will give concrete examples of the technical and cultural challenges we faced, sometimes unsuccessfully. We will also sum up the lessons that we have learnt into recommendations for project leaders and RSEs, so that they can profit from our experience.