The Next Generation of Metadata-Oriented Testing of Research Software
This work targets researchers and developers in scientific computing to reduce failure risks in aging software systems, though it appears incremental in its testing methodology.
The paper addresses the challenge of testing complex research software by proposing a metadata-oriented approach that emphasizes data over code, enabling easier maintenance and automated testing.
Research software refers to software development tools that accelerate discovery and simplifies access to digital infrastructures. However, although research software platforms can be built increasingly more innovative and powerful than ever before, with increasing complexity there is a greater risk of failure if unplanned for and untested program scenarios arise. As systems age and are changed by different programmers the risk of a change impacting the overall system increases. In contrast, systems that are built with less emphasis on program code and more emphasis on data that describes the application can be more readily changed and maintained by individuals who are less technically skilled but are often more familiar with the application domain. Such systems can also be tested using automatically generated advanced testing regimes.