  Developing cyberinfrastructure for the growing needs of multi-messenger
astrophysics requires expertise in both software development and domain
science. However, due to the nature of scientific software development, many
scientists neglect best practices for software engineering which results in
software that is difficult to maintain. We present here a mitigation strategy
where scientists adopt software development best practices by collaborating
with professional software developers. Such a partnership brings inherent
challenges. For the scientists, this can be a dependence on external resources
and lack of control in the development process. For developers, this can be a
reduction in effort available for core, non-scientific development goals. These
issues can be alleviated by structuring the partnership using established
software development practices, such as the Agile Scrum framework. This paper
presents a case study wherein a scientist user group, the SuperNova Early
Warning System (SNEWS), collaborated with a group of scientific software
developers, the Scalable Cyberinfrastructure for Multi-Messenger Astrophysics
(SCiMMA) project. The two organizations utilized an Agile Scrum framework to
address the needs of each organization, mitigate the concerns of collaboration,
and avoid pitfalls common to scientific software development. In the end, the
scientists profited from a successful prototype and the software developers
benefited from enhanced cyberinfrastructure and improved development skills.
This suggests that structured collaborations could help address the prevailing
difficulties in scientific computing.
