Just Enough Software Engineering

For Social and Data Scientists

Preface

Welcome to Just Enough Software Engineering for Social and Data Scientists by Michael Mullarkey.

I write production code as a Machine Learning Engineer, and I used to be both a data scientsit at a couple of startups + a social scientist who did a ton of academic data work.

I’m sympathetic to the structural limitations inherent to data + social scientist roles. And I still think just enough software engineering can improve people’s lives in these roles.

About This Book

The goal of this book is to provide just enough software engineering knowledge to be effective without overwhelming you with unnecessary detail.

Who This Book Is For

This book is designed for:

• Data scientists looking to improve their engineering practices
• Social scientists who are curious about how better software engineering can make their lives easier
• Anyone who uses code to solve problems who wants to improve their coding practices

How to Use This Book

This book is more about how to think about code vs. how to write language-specific code. Each chapter builds on the previous one, so I recommend reading the book in order.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Dr. Christopher Beevers and the Mood Disorders Laboratory for providing the time/resources that made this book possible!