Reusability in Science: From Initial User Engagement to Dissemination of Results

Abstract: Effective use of parallel and distributed computing in science depends upon multiple interdependent entities and activities that form an ecosystem. Active engagement between application users and technology catalysts is a crucial activity that forms an integral part of this ecosystem. Technology catalysts play a crucial role benefiting communities beyond a single user group. An effective user-engagement, use and reuse of tools and techniques has a broad impact on software sustainability. From our experience, we sketch a life-cycle for user-engagement activity in scientific computational environment and posit that application level reusability promotes software sustainability. We describe our experience in engaging two user groups from different scientific domains reusing a common software and configuration on different computational infrastructures.