One of our software architects, Steve Crouch, taught a few sessions at the Advanced School on Scientific Software Development in Trieste this March. We were very pleased to read the following blog post by Yalda Kolahdooz, from the Sharif University of Technology, following the session on software sustainability.

Today's lectures were super-useful for me!

At the moment, my lab-mates and I are the only users of my software, and all the information about the software is exchanged verbally!!! No documentation, no formal procedures and licensing, etc. I was really inspired to develop software in a more professional way, so that it does not decay right after its current tasks are done.

Most of my answers to software evaluation questions are "No" (except for Analysability questions)! It may seem disappointing, but I don't look at it that way, cause I am now aware of so many issues that had to be included in my software. This awareness is a big step forward for me

And I think I am not the only one in my institute (and even my country) who writes software without documentation and sustainability evaluations. I am going to consider these issues in all my future software and encourage others to do so as well.