Why developing research software is like a startup (and why this matters)

1. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Why developing research software is like a startup (and why this matters) Neil Chue Hong, N.ChueHong@software.ac.uk ISGC 2015, Taipei, 19th March 2015 Institute Software Sustainability www.software.ac.uk Supported by Project funding from Where indicated slides licensed under

2. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.ukThe problem with mushrooms…

3. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk The Software Sustainability Institute A national facility for cultivating better, more sustainable, research software to enable world- class research • Software reaches boundaries in its development cycle that prevent improvement, growth and adoption • Providing the expertise and services needed to negotiate to the next stage • Developing the policy and tools to support the community developing and using research software Supported by EPSRC Grant EP/H043160/1

4. Communication Website & blog Campaigns Advice Guides Courses Workshops Fellowship Research Software Policy Training Community Consultancy 41 projects 92 evaluations 4 surgeries 33 UK SWC workshops 1000+ learners 50,000 readers 41 domain ambassadors 20+ workshops organised 740 researchers 50,000 grants analysed 150+ contributed articles 19,000 unique visitors per month 272 RSEs engaged 1700 signatures 13 issues highlighted

5. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Software isn’t special, it’s mainstream 69%92% Survey of researchers from 15 Russell Group unis conducted by SSI between Aug- Oct 2014. 406 respondents covering representative range of funders, discipline and seniority. http://www.software.ac.uk/blog/2014-12-04-its-impossible-conduct-research-without-software-say-7-out-10-uk- researchers

6. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk And everyone’s a developer Survey of researchers from 15 Russell Group unis conducted by SSI between Aug- Oct 2014. 406 respondents covering representative range of funders, discipline and seniority. http://www.software.ac.uk/blog/2014-12-04-its-impossible-conduct-research-without-software-say-7-out-10-uk- researchers 56%

7. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.ukCan we learn? Picture by Heisenberg Media Picture by PNNLPicture by nengard

8. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Startup Survival Rules 1. Pick good co-founders 2. Launch fast 3. Let your idea evolve 4. Understand your users 5. Better to make a few users love you than a lot ambivalent 6. Offer surprisingly good customer service 7. You make what you measure 8. Spend little 9. Get ramen profitable 10.Avoid distractions 11.Don’t get demoralised 12.Don’t give up 13.Deals fall through http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html

9. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Software Survival Rules 1. Pick good collaborators 2. Release early 3. Let your idea evolve 4. Understand your users 5. Better to make a few users love you than a lot ambivalent 6. Offer surprisingly good support 7. You make what you measure 8. Spend little 9. Get paper profitable 10.Avoid distractions 11.Don’t get demoralised 12.Don’t give up 13.Funding often falls through

10. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Understand your users Wealth created / Impact enabled Numberofusers How much you improve their lives “As in science, the hard part is not answering questions but asking them: the hard part is seeing something new that users lack. The better you understand them the better the odds of doing that. That's why so many successful startups make something the founders needed.” Paul Graham, Y-Combinator Where can you make most difference?

11. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Startup companies are all about reaching sustainability by understanding users

12. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Four stages of startups Discovery Validation Efficiency Scale Are you solving a problem that others are interested in? Have you implemented core features that users want? Can you support new users by refining your processes? Ready to drive growth. Back-end scalability refactoring http://blog.startupcompass.co/pages/marmer-stages

14. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Stage 1: Discovery • Are you solving a problem that others are interested in?  Many pieces of software created by researchers have small user bases – this is particularly true of scripts  Not a problem if you are writing the software for yourself only – but it affects how large the project to support the software can be • Software development as research and prototyping – is the science interesting?

15. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Case Study: Ligand Binding • Centre for Computational Chemistry, Bristol  New methods for rapid MC sampling of biomolecular systems modelled using QM/MM  Developed two codes ProtoMS (F77) + Sire (C++)  Water-Swap Reaction Coordinate method to calculate absolute protein-ligand binding free energies • SSI’s work helped assess users + scale devs  Ran user observations with 4 different users  ASPIRE/ACQUIRE framework has multiple devs • Split architecture between ASPIRE (adaptive multiresolution hybrid MD simulation) and ACQUIRE (WorkPacket scheduling system with optimisation for time to result vs “green-ness” • http://www.software.ac.uk/resources/case-studies/getting-grips- molecules • http://www.siremol.org/adaptive_dynamics

17. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Stage 2: Validation • Have you implemented core features that users want?  Do you know who’s using your software? Why are they using it?  If you asked them “how would you feel if you can no longer use this software”, how many would be disappointed?  These are your core users: what do they want and how can you give it to them? • At this point, research software projects often start giving demonstrations, presentations, workshops

18. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Case Study: Climate Policy Modelling • CIAS team at Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia  Develop linked climate and economic models for detailed analysis  Their software was not ready to be used by other groups • One researcher/developer at UEA, several users • SSI’s work means the software is robust enough that it can be installed and used by others  Enabled use of the software by the WWFN’s Climascope project and James Cook University • Documented software to allow extensions by contributors • Made it easier to maintain and backup • Added job scheduling to improve modeling throughput • New modelling framework enables new models i.e. new science • http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/research/cias

20. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Stage 3: Efficiency • Can you support new users by refining your processes?  If you had conflicting requirements from users, how would you deal with them?  What infrastructure changes do you need to make to support new/additional users? • At this point, research software projects often start designating specific community/product managers, user support staff

21. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Case Study: ICAT • Science and Technology Facilities Council  Metadata catalogue, used by RAL UK (ISIS, DIAMOND, CLF), SNS US, ELLETRA Italy  ICAT operationally critical at sites  Huge projects looking to use ICAT (PaNdataODI, EuDAT)  Scalability issues and lack of proper processes • SSI’s work provided 33 recommendations  15 interviews with different stakeholders  92 observations set out in report  “…we must focus on doing the right things, and this report will help us” • Alistair Mills, STFC  Governance and outreach changes to support additional users • http://www.software.ac.uk/preparing-icat-thousands-new-users • http://www.icatproject.org/

23. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Stage 4: Scale • Are you ready to drive growth of users, to reengineer and refactor on an ongoing basis?  This is when software quality considerations become very important, as you have increased reputational risk  This is also the point where traditionally a PI would step aside to become Chief Technology Officer / Chief Scientist and enlist new management • After this, next stage is sustain (then conserve)  Though this might be at a small scale if appropriate

24. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Research software at scale Some of the largest and most popular research software started out as code developed in an academic context designed to address a specific problem

25. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Open Source Software Projects • “Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer's personal itch.”  Eric Raymond, The Cathedral and the Bazaar • Producers start by having a direct interest in the success of the software  Just like in science • OSS projects need to satisfy two aims:  Acquire users (a.k.a. researchers)  Acquire contributors (a.k.a. collaborating researchers) • Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project by Karl Fogel

26. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Why do you need users? • Funding  Direct: fees, subscriptions, …  Indirect funding: letters of support, citations, collaborations  Advertising: recommendations and referrals • Direction (indirection?)  Requirements, bug reports, change requests • Community  Users supporting other users  Users becoming contributors  Sustainability and success

27. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Idea Prototype Supported At scale Seed Angel VC IPO Self- supported Research Grant Platform Grant ? Funding Modes For-profit Not-for-profit / foundation Licensing Services

28. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk The entrepreneur vs the researcher? • Entrepreneurs have ideas, and don’t mind if some of them aren’t successful  “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new”  “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” • Researchers find it difficult to get away from the questions they choose to focus on • Yet successful researchers are able to switch from one area to another, because it’s interesting to them

29. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Take home messages 1. Scratch your own itch 2. Understand your users 3. Embrace your contributors 4. Don’t give up before you start

30. Software Sustainability Institute www.software.ac.uk Find out more about the SSI • Community Engagement (Lead: Shoaib Sufi)  Fellowship Programme  Events and Workshops • Consultancy (Lead: Steve Crouch)  Open Call for Projects / Collaborations  Software Evaluation • Policy and Publicity (Lead: Simon Hettrick)  Case Studies / Policy Campaigns  Software and Research Blog • Training (Lead: Aleksandra Pawlik)  Software Carpentry (300+ students/year)  Guides and Top Tips • Journal of Open Research Software (Editor: Neil Chue Hong) • Collaboration between universities of Edinburgh, Manchester, Oxford and Southampton

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