Quick explanations

SE fundamentals and the description are based on SWEBOK. RSE equivalent terms and the description of RSE practice are based on the opinion of research software developers.

RSE awareness and RSE usage are coarse estimates of recognition/adoption of the practices for research software. 0=effectively no awareness/usage to 3=widespread awareness/usage. Sources for the estimates are noted in parentheses.

SER potential is a coarse estimate of the potential for additional software engineering research to increase the awareness/adoption by RSEs. 0=effectively no opportunity to 3=significant SE research would be beneficial. Opportunity briefly describes the software engineering research opportunity.

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Term: Performance testing

Source: SWEBOK section 05.02.02.07

SE Fundamental RSE Equivalent
  • Performance testing
  • Scalability testing
  • Performance testing
  • Scalability testing
Fundamental description RSE practice
Performance testing verifies that the software meets the specified performance requirements. Scalability testing assesses the software’s ability to scale up non-functional requirements such as load, number of transactions, volume of data. It could integrate or extend load, elasticity and stress testing. Performance testing verifies that the software obtains suitable performance on the target systems. Scalability testing ensures that the software can be parallelized across a suitable number of computer nodes. Many software developers will pay some attention to performance and scalability; fewer will explicitly perform tests separate from monitoring the performance/scalability of science runs.
SER potential (source) and
opportunities 		RSE awareness (source) and
usage (sources)
0 (expert judgement) 3 (expert judgement)
Due to the cultural differences, this fundamental is interpreted differently for most research/scientific software than for other types of software. 2 (expert judgement)

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