Introduction

Managing Research Software Projects

Greg Wilson

2026

Learning Objectives

Explain how research software differs from commercial software.
Describe what a manager of a research software team is responsible for.
Identify the decisions a team lead must make.
Recognize how the workshop is organized around a running example.

How Research Software Differs

Contributors are usually users, and volunteers rather than employees.
Project life cycles are tied to grant cycles.
“Done” is shaped by publication rather than revenue.
A feature is finished when it appears in a publication, not when a pull request merges.

What the Workshop Covers

Ideas and tools for managing a team of up to a dozen people.
How to build research software as a team.
What to know when you are responsible for other people’s output.
Ideas drawn from commercial product development.

The Learner Persona

Jess, 31, completed a PhD in ecology and works for a national lab.
Her grad school software is used by two dozen research groups.
Contributors send fixes and extensions of varying quality.
She now manages a post-doc and a junior programmer.

A Note on AI

Some exercises ask you to interact with LLMs. We recognize that many people have concerns about these tools, and that they are still so new that nobody’s really sure how to use them. We are therefore especially grateful for feedback on these parts of the material.