Good Software Engineering Practice for R Packages Workshop Reflections
Dr. Daniel Sabanés Bové came to Korea to attend the International Biometric Conference 2026. Before his visit, he told me that he would like to give a lecture as part of an openstatsware workshop. I therefore reached out to Professor Juhee Cho, Chair of the Department of Clinical Research Design and Evaluation at the Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Sciences & Technology. Professor Danbee Kang and Professor Hyerin Choi also kindly supported the event. With funding from the Digital Bio project, we were able to provide meals for the participants and secure a suitable venue for the workshop.
To recruit participants, I created a poster using AI and PowerPoint tools and also set up a Google Form for registration. Along the way, I realized that I had forgotten to collect participants’ email addresses, so I later added an email field to the form. Through small mistakes like this, I learned a lot about how to organize and manage an event.
More than 20 people attended the “Good Software Engineering Practice for R Packages” workshop. They participated enthusiastically in the lectures and actively engaged in the Q&A sessions. I have also been developing my own R package, cgmguru, which I released on CRAN and continue to update regularly. However, because I have relied quite a bit on AI during the development process, I had not always gone through every step manually myself. By following the process step by step during this workshop, I was able to gain a more systematic understanding of how R packages are developed. It reminded me that even when we have access to powerful tools, the fundamentals are still essential. Understanding the basics is what ultimately allows us to use those tools effectively and apply them in more advanced ways.
After the workshop, Professor Juhee Cho, Dr. Daniel, my wife SooYoung Kwak, who helped me prepare for the workshop, and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner together. The day before the workshop, I had also invited Daniel and his family to my home for dinner, and we had a great time together. These experiences reminded me once again that welcoming people and sharing conversations with them can bring new inspiration and a great deal of joy.
https://openstatsware.github.io/shortcourse-seoul2026/
