César França

Preliminary Findings about the Nature of Work in Software Engineering: An Exploratory Survey

Context: Work Design refers to the different ways in which a given work or task can be designed and performed. The study of work design is important because every decision related to how the work is performed can affect the outcomes of individuals and the effectiveness of teamwork. Goal: To investigate work design characteristics of software engineering work and identify areas for future research. Method: We performed a survey with professional software engineers working in different commercial software companies in Brazil. We sent invitations to just over 150 professionals and received 77 valid answers from participants working in 35 distinct software companies. We measured 21 work design constructs, as well as job burnout, role conflict, role ambiguity, and two constructs related to job rotation. Results: Comparisons of our sample with other sample consisting of a diversity of professions showed that software engineering work has distinct characteristics, but some results require further investigation. Conclusion: We identified relevant characteristics of software engineering work and areas for further research. In particular, longitudinal studies are needed to address the temporal variations impossible to identify in cross sectional studies.

Using qualitative metasummary to synthesize empirical findings in literature reviews

Context- A common problem in Systematic Reviews in software engineering is that they provide very limited syntheses. Goal- In the search for alternatives of effective methods for synthesizing empirical evidence, in this paper, we explore the use of the Qualitative Metasummary method, which is a quantitatively oriented aggregation of mixed research findings. Method - We describe the use of qualitative metasummary through an example using 15 studies addressing antecedents of performance of software development teams. Qualitative metasummary includes extraction and grouping of findings, and calculation of frequency and intensity effect sizes. Results -- The instance described in this paper produced a 10-factor model that effectively summarizes the current empirical knowledge on performance of software development teams. Then, we assessed the method in terms of ease of use, usefulness and reliability of results. Conclusion -- The Qualitative Metasummary method offers rich indexes of experiences and events under investigation, focusing on the effects of a variable over other, which is consistent with the central interest of systematic reviews. However, its main limitations are (i) challenging comparability/integratability between primary studies, (ii) loss of detailed contextual information, (iii) and the great deal of effort demanded to synthesize larger sets of papers.

Team maturity in software engineering teams

Background: In Software Engineering (SE) the term maturity is often linked to the work process and product quality. In many cases, team maturity is seen as a backdrop to the process of SE, and sometimes as something that is known to exist, but which cannot be understood, neither measured accurately nor even dimension its value. Aim: In this article, we seek to understand the concept of mature teams in the context of SE, from the perspective of the software engineers themselves. Methods: We performed an exploratory qualitative research, collecting data from 26 practitioners, from 6 companies in 4 cities in Brazil. Data was analyzed using coding techniques from qualitative research. Results: Our findings pointed out three major dimensions of the concept of Team Maturity - Learning, Relationship and Technical Maturity - which, when kept in balance, can enhance the collective productivity, product quality and also the customer satisfaction. Conclusions: These results extend our current understanding of maturity of SE teams, shedding light on aspects that have been little explored so far in this field. The proposed model can serve as a guide for teams to enhance their approach of teamwork and for future research in this area.

What Aspects of Context Should Be Described in Case Studies About Software Teams? Preliminary Results from a Mapping Study.

In this article, we report the findings of a systematic literature mapping study aimed at identifying contextual factors that should be described in case studies about teams in software engineering. As a result, we identified 26 factors, which we organized in five dimensions: characteristics of individuals, groups, team processes, projects and organizations. These dimensions and factors can guide future reports to present better descriptions of the context in which their software teams are studied.

The Obscure Process of Innovation Assessment: A Report of an Industrial Survey

Context - Software companies should track innovation as rigorously as core business operations. For that, the assessment of innovation projects is a critical process, in particular to make their innovation initiatives funded. Objective - In this article, we aim to evaluate the need for more practical measurement tools, by checking the agreement of very experienced analysts, from the industry, about the innovation degree of four actual software projects. Method - We conducted a survey with eight business analysts, using a combination of the Three Horizons Model and the Gartners Hyper Cycle for emerging technologies as a frame of reference. Results - In general, the level of agreement about the innovation degree in the projects was very low. Looking at the cases in isolation, it is possible to suggest reasons for the low level of agreement between the evaluators. Conclusions - Our data support the fact that innovation is an activity difficult to characterize and even more difficult to measure, and the need for practices to achieve better intersubjective agreement for innovation assessment became evident in this work.