SUTOGS – Streamlining Usability and Testing of OpenGeoSys

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Christoph Lehmann
• Subject Area: Geology ; Geotechnics, Hydraulic Engineering
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 528785032

In this project we strive to strengthen the OpenGeoSys (OGS) project as a whole. We do so by improving the usability of the software and the maintainability of the codebase, realizing central measures for quality improvement, providing tools and materials for improved interoperability with other software, and intensifying the exchange with the OGS community. All of this is crucial for the sustainable development of the OGS project far beyond the present project. Improving the usability and maintainability of the code builds on large scale refactorings of OGS-6’s code base, during which many generic features of OGS-6 will be unified. These unifications will counteract feature divergence and make these features available for all physical process models, and mutually compatible, thereby enabling the re-use of implemented features in new application areas. Furthermore, the project focuses on the completeness of the documentation and the testing of OGS-6’s features. A main goal is to quantify and increase the test space coverage of the test suite. The latter will greatly profit from the code restructurings mentioned above. It is vital to extend the user community of OGS-6 and to integrate the users better into the development of OGS-6 and into community activities. In this project we aim to find new users by lowering the entrance threshold for adopting OGS-6 via a series of trainings, improved documentation, and, not least, improved usability and presentations on conferences. We also intend to motivate more users to become active in the OGS-6 project, e.g., testing, feature development, and code review. By the enlarged user and developer base research software engineers working on OGS-6 will have more resources to sharpen their research and development profile in the future.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants