“I think we need to do a little more all-weather testing.” – Pete Conrad (NASA)
Automation and testing are important capabilities for software development and
implementation of any process that must be executed repeatedly and without errors.
Implementing open source software and well-documented processes also increases transparency, which helps increase trust and supports collaboration.
Many analyses related to water resources can be difficult to implement and explain to others due to large datasets, complex operations, and simulation of water law and regulations. Ensuring that software and processes generate correct results helps to avoid unexpected cases, errors in interpretation, and legal problems. Automation also avoids repetitive human tasks that lead to staff boredom and burn-out. Institutional knowledge can be represented in automated workflows, thereby minimizing the risk of dependence on any single individual.
OWF has developed software tools that automate data processing and include built-in features to
automate testing and quality control, including:
- TSTool – focuses on time series and database processing
- GeoProcessor – focuses on spatial data processing
OWF provides the following products and services related to automation and testing:
- training and consulting to implement automated testing for software
- implementing automated workflows for data processing to support business decisions
- helping to transfer institutional knowledge into automated workflows
- implementing technology solutions to enable hands-off automation, including cloud-hosted solutions
- implementing automation for multiple datasets from multiple sources and formats