For a research software project that currently doesn't have testing in place, or has limited local testing, is it better to minimise time and effort by using a hosted, maintained testing platform such as pipelines, or to invest some time and effort in setting up a custom testing platform which would incur some ongoing financial and time costs?
Understanding the limitations of the fully hosted and maintained service is critical to making the decision. Taking specific examples of more mature and operational research software such as Devito (which uses pipelines), and Firedrake (which uses Jenkins), clear and non-technical learning materials can guide the decision-making process.
tmbgreaves
commented
5 years ago
For a research software project that currently doesn't have testing in place, or has limited local testing, is it better to minimise time and effort by using a hosted, maintained testing platform such as pipelines, or to invest some time and effort in setting up a custom testing platform which would incur some ongoing financial and time costs?
Understanding the limitations of the fully hosted and maintained service is critical to making the decision. Taking specific examples of more mature and operational research software such as Devito (which uses pipelines), and Firedrake (which uses Jenkins), clear and non-technical learning materials can guide the decision-making process.