Open source programming languages have become a common part of the actuarial toolkit over the years. Using tools like R and Python, highly technical actuaries can automate onerous processes, easily work with massive amounts of data, create models and generate reports. Although these tools excel at turbo-charging analysts, it can be difficult for benefits to inure to the rest of the organization given the learning curve (“Can’t you just put this in Excel?”), control risks (“So your entire process could break overnight if some random person in Nebraska changes something?”), and internal IT environments.Listen in on a panel discussion where presenters share their personal stories of working with open source in a production setting. Hear about real world business problems, how open source tools were used, what risks were present, how they were overcome and the final business result.
Your learning outcomes for participants include:
- Practical use cases for open source that meet stakeholders needs regardless of technical aptitude
- Strategies to address common risks of unintentional changes, third-party dependencies and the all too familiar “it works for me” problem
- Advice on converting one-off projects into proper software with documentation and robust testing
- A working knowledge of Git/GitHub, environments, Quarto, Shiny and other tools