Sustainable HPC Software: A Maintainer’s Perspective
Date:
I recently had the honor of presenting an extended talk in the HPC Best Practices Webinar series, addressing the fundamental challenges of maintaining foundational scientific computing software for longevity.
Drawing on over five years of experience as a Maintainer of the Kokkos Project, the presentation provided firsthand anecdotes and practical strategies for mitigating the three core threats to software sustainability:
Bus Factor: Managing critical knowledge bottlenecks and single points of failure.
Technical Debt: Fighting the “silent drag” of architectural rigidity and short-term incentives.
Hyrum’s Law: Navigating hidden dependencies that risk breaking the user ecosystem with every necessary change.
The talk demonstrated how proactive maintenance, strategic standardization, and robust community processes are essential for building reliable and impactful HPC software, ensuring its relevance for years to come.
https://ideas-productivity.org/events/hpcbp-094-sustainable-sw