Why don't we practice what we teach? Engineering Software for Computer Science Research in Academia

The development. process used by researchers often seems to be random and unsystematic. A Software Development. Life Cycle (SDLC) is often not, considered, internal commenting is scarce, and external documentation takes the form of erasure marks left on whiteboards. Configuration management is paid lip-service, but is not standard practice. This paper examines some reasons behind the apparent. large-scale non-adoption of software engineering in academic research. We also look at the effects on some projects where it was adopted. Finally we present a new SDLC designed for the academic research environment suggest an organisational structure to maximize the benefit to research students, academics, and the institution.