Automated Unit Testing of Hydrologic Modeling Software with CI/CD and Jenkins

Abstract

Composed of developers with diverse backgrounds in multiple disciplines, the NSF CyberWater project team needed to research and implement effective software testing methods to improve the team's workflow efficiency and software quality. In this paper we present a practical and effective strategy for automated black-box testing of CyberWater modules using a Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipeline and the Jenkins automation server, Python unittest and ptest, and a novel technique we call object-method replacement, which isolates the backend from the front-end logic. Our experience can be adapted and extended to other research projects to mitigate the risk of programming errors and mistakes incurred through continuous development on a code repository.