Statistical Software for Psychology: Comparing Development Practices
Between CRAN and Other Communities
Abstract
Different communities rely heavily on software, but use quite different
software development practices. {\bf Objective}: We wanted to measure the state
of the practice in the area of statistical software for psychology to
understand how it compares to best practices. {\bf Method}: We compared and
ranked 30 software tools with respect to adherence to best software engineering
practices on items that could be measured by end-users. {\bf Results} We found
that R packages use quite good practices, that while commercial packages were
quite usable, many aspects of their development is too opaque to be measures,
and that research projects vary a lot in their practices. {\bf Conclusion} We
recommend that more organizations adopt practices similar to those used by CRAN
to facilitate success, even for small teams. We also recommend close coupling
of source code and documentation, to improve verifiability.