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avoid 'SW developer', use RSE instead #306

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Jul 25, 2024
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avoid 'SW developer', use RSE instead #306

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899c9de
avoid 'SW developer', use RSE instead
knarrff Jul 18, 2024
33ad0a6
fix merge conflict with current main
knarrff Jul 18, 2024
6d9c35f
Merge branch 'main' into developer->RSE
knarrff Jul 22, 2024
793732c
Merge branch 'main' into developer->RSE
mhagdorn Jul 22, 2024
359435d
Update competencies.md
knarrff Jul 25, 2024
28b34c2
handle some comments to revert some RSEs back to developers
knarrff Jul 25, 2024
30eaaf4
Merge branch 'developer->RSE' of https://github.com/the-teachingRSE-p…
knarrff Jul 25, 2024
bbadbb1
fix table caption SWE -> technical skills
knarrff Jul 25, 2024
63150bb
Merge branch 'main' into developer->RSE
knarrff Jul 25, 2024
434d588
make spellchecker aware of new label
knarrff Jul 25, 2024
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2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion .github/spellignore.txt
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Expand Up @@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ codebase
codebases
CodeMeta
CodeRefinery
comp-lvls-se
comp-lvls-techn
Coursera
CRSP
CSE
Expand Down
54 changes: 27 additions & 27 deletions competencies.md
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Expand Up @@ -826,7 +826,7 @@ At different career levels, differing skills are required. We have set this up a
- Senior RSE: They have gained experience, both concerning their software skills as well as in their research collaborations in potentially many different fields. They can set the standards in a software project.
- Principal RSE: Their actual job description varies a lot. These may be RSE team leaders based in a professional services type role, or they may be professors or research group leaders based in a more academic-focused role. They are often the people responsible for bringing in the funding that supports new and sustains existing projects. Generally speaking, they do not need to be actively involved in the day-to-day technical tasks, but they should be able to guide projects from both a technical and a research perspective while providing an inclusive working space and in many cases, lead research or RSE teams.

@tbl:comp-lvls-se, @tbl:comp-lvls-res, and @tbl:comp-lvls-comm elaborate on the required facets of the competencies in different roles.
@tbl:comp-lvls-techn, @tbl:comp-lvls-res, and @tbl:comp-lvls-comm elaborate on the required facets of the competencies in different roles.
A story-like example of an individual through the hierarchies can be found in @subsec:examplecareer .

\blandscape
Expand All @@ -841,7 +841,7 @@ A story-like example of an individual through the hierarchies can be found in @s
| \gls{SWREPOS} | Should seamlessly interact with the repository of their project. | Should be well-versed in the intricacies of a repository, and probably interact with repositories of multiple projects. | Should promote the use of repositories and be able to convey best practices of sharing and reviewing to junior and senior RSEs. |
| \gls{MOD} | Should have a basic grasp of their piece of the software in order to use basic tools such as a debugger. | Should understand the characteristics of large parts of the codebase considering a variety of the metrics. | Should understand the big idea of the software project in order to define the task that the software solves. |

Table: Levels of software eng. skills expected per RSE career stage. {#tbl:comp-lvls-se}
Table: Levels of technical skills expected per RSE career stage. {#tbl:comp-lvls-techn}

\newpage

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -947,36 +947,36 @@ They need to manage and lead their research group (\gls{PM}, \gls{TEAM}).

In @tbl:teams-se, @tbl:teams-res, and @tbl:teams-comm, we look at individual or team competencies and approaches to them,
considering how these differ depending on whether an RSE or researcher is working alone on a software project,
or whether they are working as part of a team of research software developers.
We extend this to consider how things differ when a developer or a group
of developers is based locally within a research team or department,
or whether they are working as part of a team of RSEs.
We extend this to consider how things differ when an RSE or a group
of RSEs is based locally within a research team or department,
or when they are based in a dedicated, centralised RSE team.
We also look at organisational aspects in the context of each of the considered
competencies, since there are a variety of ways that organisations can contribute
to and support them, complementing those proposed by [@Katerbow2018]. Some of them are brought to life in the example career path of @subsec:examplemaster.
We first summarise the meaning of each of the columns in the tables:

- **Competency:** The code assigned to the competency being considered, as defined in @sec:required-generic-skills, e.g. \gls{TEAM}.
- **Individual developer (Locally-based):** A single person working on some
research software - often a researcher with RSE skills. Often time-constrained,
- **Individual RSE (Locally-based):** A single person working on some
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Here the developer could fit.

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I agree

research software - often an RSE with focus on their own research. Often time-constrained,
may be self-taught.
- **Individual developer (RSE team-based):** A single person working on research
- **Individual RSE (RSE team-based):** A single person working on research
software - generally a professional RSE assigned to support another team's software on their own,
who however is connected to an RSE team.
- **Group of developers (Locally-based):** A group of RSEs/researchers within
a research group or team, working together on developing software to support
- **Group of RSEs (Locally-based):** A group within
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I find that here developer also fits, simply because many people might read this from a job title perspective.
The team might have one person actually hired as an RSE and the others as PhDs, PostDocs, permanent scientific staff but they need those skills too to effectively work on the software together.

a research group or team, working together on software to support
or undertake a single research goal/project.
Similarly to the individual RSE, they are often researchers with RSE skills,
Similarly to the individual RSE, they are often research-focused with RSE skills,
often self-taught.
- **Group of developers (RSE team-based):** A group of members of the RSE team
working together on a research software project for a research group.
- **Organisation-level support:** How the defined competencies are recognised
- **Group of RSEs (RSE team-based):** An RSE team
working together on research software projects for a research group.
- **Organisation-level RSE support:** Describes how the defined competencies are recognised
and represented at an organisational level and what the organisation can
do to support the RSEs in the context of the different team structures.
These can be read as policy/action recommendations.

These tables take the perspective of the expected skill set of each developer or team
of developers, similarly to personas in a user experience analysis.
These tables take the perspective of the expected skill set of each RSE or team
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maybe also just developer?

of RSEs, similarly to personas in a user experience analysis.
The current situation may differ.

\blandscape
Expand All @@ -985,8 +985,8 @@ The current situation may differ.
\begin{longtable}{|p{1.8cm}|p{3.5cm}|p{3.5cm}|p{3.5cm}|p{3.5cm}|p{4.5cm}|}
\caption{Levels of software eng. skills expected per team structure.}\label{tbl:teams-se}\\
\hline
\multirow{2}{*}{Competency} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Working as an individual developer}
& \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Working with a group of developers} & \multirow{2}{*}{Organisation-level support} \\
\multirow{2}{*}{Competency} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Working as an individual RSE}
& \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Working with a group of RSEs} & \multirow{2}{*}{Organisation-level support} \\
\cline{2-5}
& Locally-based & RSE-Team based & Locally-based & RSE-Team based &\\\hline
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Expand All @@ -999,7 +999,7 @@ The current situation may differ.
less aware of key practices.&
Has stronger ingrained focus on team-based \gls{PM} and development
methodologies, resulting in higher quality, more reusable code.&
Should offer training and other resources in core topics to support individual developers.
Should offer training and other resources in core topics to support individual RSEs.
Should have research software guidance/policies that provide advice.\\
\hline
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1042,7 +1042,7 @@ The current situation may differ.
If project taken on from another developer,
there may be challenges in transferring the mental model.&
As local, but more aware of need for future transition to other
developer(s), likely provides docs, issues, and other
RSE(s), likely provides docs, issues, and other
support from central services to support this. May only need to know
parts of the code.&
Internal team training ensures ability to build necessary
Expand All @@ -1062,8 +1062,8 @@ The current situation may differ.
\begin{longtable}{|p{1.8cm}|p{3.5cm}|p{3.5cm}|p{3.5cm}|p{3.5cm}|p{4.5cm}|}
\caption{Levels of research skills expected per team structure.}\label{tbl:teams-res}\\
\hline
\multirow{2}{*}{Competency} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Working as an individual developer}
& \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Working with a group of developers} & \multirow{2}{*}{Organisation-level support} \\
\multirow{2}{*}{Competency} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Working as an individual RSE}
& \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Working with a group of RSEs} & \multirow{2}{*}{Organisation-level support} \\
\cline{2-5}
& Locally-based & RSE-Team based & Locally-based & RSE-Team based &\\\hline
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1103,8 +1103,8 @@ The current situation may differ.
\gls{SP}&
Has limited knowledge and motivation regarding \gls{SP}.&
Applies practices, workflows, and policies established in the RSE team.&
As locally-based individual&
As team-based individual&
As locally-based RSE&
As team-based RSE&
Should raise awareness about software as a publishable scientific output, provide recommendations and checklists to support software publications, and have legal experts in place to offer advice on complex cases.
\\\hline
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Expand All @@ -1125,8 +1125,8 @@ The current situation may differ.
\begin{longtable}{|p{1.8cm}|p{3.5cm}|p{3.5cm}|p{3.5cm}|p{3.5cm}|p{4.5cm}|}
\caption{Levels of communication skills expected per team structure.}\label{tbl:teams-comm}\\
\hline
\multirow{2}{*}{Competency} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Working as an individual developer}
& \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Working with a group of developers} & \multirow{2}{*}{Organisation-level support} \\
\multirow{2}{*}{Competency} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Working as an individual RSE}
& \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Working with a group of RSEs} & \multirow{2}{*}{Organisation-level support} \\
\cline{2-5}
& Locally-based & RSE-Team based & Locally-based & RSE-Team based &\\\hline
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Expand All @@ -1153,7 +1153,7 @@ The current situation may differ.
\\\hline
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\gls{PM}&
Is organised enough to be able to transfer the codebase to future developers.&
Is organised enough to be able to transfer the codebase to future RSEs.&
Follows the project management approach set by the team, or can suggest such \gls{PM} approaches.&
Has additional \gls{PM} challenges, but may not have awareness of or experience with key \gls{PM} skills,
which can be acquired with low-key courses.&
Expand Down
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