RSEng Management and Communication
Introduction
This module comprises the communication and management skills that are relevant for working in the interdisciplinary setting of RSE-professionals.
This includes but is not limited to:
- working in a team (see TEAM in (Goth et al. 2024))
- teaching RSE-basics (see TEACH in (Goth et al. 2024))
- project management (see PM in (Goth et al. 2024))
- interaction with users and other stakeholders (see USERS in (Goth et al. 2024))
The lecture covers project and team management techniques an RSE needs in everyday life and the taught methods are applied and practiced with case-studys, role-plays etc. in the exercise.
Contents
- research management
- research cycle
- open science, FAIR, FAIR4RS
- publication workflow: obstacles and embargoes
- legal aspects of research data, e.g. GDPR
- pseudonymization/anonymization methods for data privacy
- public databases
- quality control
- requirements engineering
- trying goals with quality: test-driven development
- behavior-driven development, Gherkin-Style acceptance testing
- project folder organization
- code review principles
- communication and collaboration
- communication frameworks, e.g. AIDA, RACE, 7 C’s
- personality traits and their impact on cooperation
- collaboration frameworks for remote work
- realisation and benefits of pair programming and mob/ensemble programming
- technical English writing skills: writing in issues and merge requests, code review…
- conflict management, e.g. dealing with researchers that do not listen
- how to address relevant stakeholders (i.e. users and SEs) with different background knowledge, experience and expectations
- equity, diversity and inclusion principles
- team management
- challenges of transient teams (that only exist for 5-15 hours)
- effects of varying team sizes
- management depending on project size/type
- specialised roles in a software team
- intercultural and interdisciplinary differences
- team management methodologies
- importance of shared values in a RSE team
- dual goals: project vs. personal goal
- time and project management
- goal-setting
- project management methods, their strengths and weaknesses
- agile (not necessarily Scrum)
- Lean & Kanban (Small-Batch Philosophies)
- division of tasks into sub-tasks and task-dependencies
- iterative workflows
- continuous delivery
- communication with a manager/supervisor
Piloting Classes
Sources & Implementations:
Courses
Recommended Course Literature
Programs
Goth, F, R Alves, M Braun, LJ Castro, G Chourdakis, S Christ, J Cohen, et al. 2024. “Foundational Competencies and Responsibilities of a Research Software Engineer [Version 1; Peer Review: Awaiting Peer Review].” F1000Research 13 (1429). https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.157778.1.