Karl Werder

Exploring principles of user-centered agile software development

ContextIn the last decade, software development has been characterized by two major approaches: agile software development, which aims to achieve increased velocity and flexibility during the development process, and user-centered design, which places the goals and needs of the systems end-users at the center of software development in order to deliver software with appropriate usability. Hybrid development models, referred to as user-centered agile software development (UCASD) in this article, propose to combine the merits of both approaches in order to design software that is both useful and usable. ObjectiveThis paper aims to capture the current state of the art in UCASD approaches and to derive generic principles from these approaches. More specifically, we investigate the following research question: Which principles constitute a user-centered agile software development approach? MethodWe conduct a systematic review of the literature on UCASD. Identified works are analyzed using a coding scheme that differentiates four levels of UCASD: the process, practices, people/social and technology dimensions. Through subsequent synthesis, we derive generic principles of UCASD. ResultsWe identified and analyzed 83 relevant publications. The analysis resulted in a comprehensive coding system and five principles for UCASD: (1) separate product discovery and product creation, (2) iterative and incremental design and development, (3) parallel interwoven creation tracks, (4) continuous stakeholder involvement, and (5) artifact-mediated communication. ConclusionOur paper contributes to the software development body of knowledge by (1) providing a broad overview of existing works in the area of UCASD, (2) deriving an analysis framework (in form a coding system) for works in this area, going beyond former classifications, and (3) identifying generic principles of UCASD and associating them with specific practices and processes.

How to gamify? A method for designing gamification

During recent years, gamification has become a popular method of enriching information technologies. Popular business analysts have made promising predictions about penetration of gamification, however, it has also been estimated that most gamifica-tion efforts will fail due to poor understanding of how gamification should be designed and implemented. Therefore, in this paper we seek to advance the understanding of best practices related to the gamifica-tion design process. We approach this research problem via a design science research approach; firstly, by synthesizing the current body of literature on gamification design methods and interviewing 25 gamification experts. Secondly, we develop a method for gamification design, based on the gathered knowledge. Finally, we conduct an evaluation of the method via interviews of 10 gamification experts. The results indicate that the developed method is comprehensive , complete and provides practical utility. We deliver a comprehensive overview of gamification guidelines and shed novel insights into the overall nature of the gamification development and design discourse.

How to design gamification? A method for engineering gamified software

Abstract Context Since its inception around 2010, gamification has become one of the top technology and software trends. However, gamification has also been regarded as one of the most challenging areas of software engineering. Beyond traditional software design requirements, designing gamification requires the command of disciplines such as (motivational/behavioral) psychology, game design, and narratology, making the development of gamified software a challenge for traditional software developers. Gamification software inhabits a finely tuned niche of software engineering that seeks for both high functionality and engagement; beyond technical flawlessness, gamification has to motivate and affect users. Consequently, it has also been projected that most gamified software is doomed to fail. Objective This paper seeks to advance the understanding of designing gamification and to provide a comprehensive method for developing gamified software. Method We approach the research problem via a design science research approach; firstly, by synthesizing the current body of literature on gamification design methods and by interviewing 25 gamification experts, producing a comprehensive list of design principles for developing gamified software. Secondly, and more importantly, we develop a detailed method for engineering of gamified software based on the gathered knowledge and design principles. Finally, we conduct an evaluation of the artifacts via interviews of ten gamification experts and implementation of the engineering method in a gamification project. Results As results of the study, we present the method and key design principles for engineering gamified software. Based on the empirical and expert evaluation, the developed method was deemed as comprehensive, implementable, complete, and useful. We deliver a comprehensive overview of gamification guidelines and shed novel insights into the nature of gamification development and design discourse. Conclusion This paper takes first steps towards a comprehensive method for gamified software engineering.

MEME: toward a method for emotions extraction from github

Software engineering researchers are increasingly interested in the role of emotion during software development. While general tools are available to extract emotions from textual data, these perform poorly in the domain of software engineering. Hence, this paper develops MEME – a Method for EMotion Extraction. Using GHtorrent and GitHub as data sources, the paper presents an implementation of the method. The evaluation results suggest a better performance of MEME in contrast to Syuzhet R package emotion analysis.

The evolution of emotional displays in open source software development teams: an individual growth curve analysis

Software developers communicate and interact with each other in order to solve complex problems. Such communication often includes emotional displays that have been shown to influence team processes and performance. Yet, little is known about the evolution of team emotional displays. Hence, we investigate a sample of 1121 Open Source Software (OSS) projects from GitHub, using longitudinal data analysis. The results from growth curve analysis shows that the team emotional display decrease over time. This negative linear trend decelerates mid-term as suggested by a positive quadratic trend of time. Such deceleration diminishes toward the end as a negative cubic trend suggests.

PDISC – Towards a Method for Software Product DISCovery

For the creation of software products, the idea of iterative and incremental development and design is widely accepted and embedded in various methodologies. However, earlier activities within software projects are often the cause for the projects termination. Such activities are often described as the product discovery phase. Therefore, this study develops PDISC, a method for software product discovery. Following a design science research approach, a systematic literature review extracts design requirements and method fragments from literature. The method fragments describe early activities and are documented using process deliverable diagrams. Collectively, such method fragments form a method database that is used to develop PDISC. PDISC helps practitioners to conduct early activities in a systematic way in order to create a product vision.

Explaining the emergence of team agility: a complex adaptive systems perspective [in press]

Agile software development helps software producing organizations to respond to manifold challenges. While prior research focused on agility as a project or process phenomenon, the authors suggest that agility is an emergent phenomenon on the team level. The paper aims to discuss this issue.,Using the theory of complex adaptive systems (CASs), the study captures the multiple influencing levels of software development teams (SDTs) and their interplay with self-organization and emergence. The authors investigate three agile SDTs in different contextual environments that participate with four or more different roles each.,The results suggest self-organization as a central process when understanding team agility. While contextual factors often provide restriction on self-organization, they can help the team to enhance its autonomy.,The theoretical contributions result from the development and test of theory grounded propositions and the investigation of mature agile development teams.,The findings help practitioners to improve the cost-effectiveness ratio of their team’s operations.,The study provides empirical evidence for the emergence of team agility in agile SDTs. Using the lens of CAS, the study suggests the importance of the team’s autonomy.

Teams in agile software development: Design principles and examination of human factors

In response to new customer requirements, market dynamics, mergers, and technological innovation, modern software development organizations are adopting agile software development (ASD). Yet, the simple adoption of agile methods such as Scrum or eXtreme programming does not automatically result in a very agile team. While we understand the introduction and adoption of ASD from a methodical perspective, we have yet to explore design principles that guide methodical extensions of ASD, and we need to learn more about the human factors that influence software development teams. This thesis presents four studies. Studies 1 and 2 investigate the methodical extension of ASD by identifying design principles from secondary data. Study 1 extends ASD with processes and practices from user-centered design. Study 2 investigates early activities that precede development activities. The thesis also investigates human factors of agile software development in studies 3 and 4. Study 3 compares teams along their extents of agility in order to identify influential factors using a multicase study design. Study 4 tests the effects of emotional contagion in virtual software development teams using a large dataset from an open source software repository. Thus, this thesis makes two primary contributions. First, it develops design principles for methodical extensions of ASD; second, it contributes to the human factors that influence software development teams. Managers also receive guidance on the improvement of ASD in their organization.

Towards a Software Product Industry Classification.

The demand for and the number of software product offers are evolving rapidly. Despite the importance of the software industry, its representation within current classification systems is often obstructed. Therefore, researchers often neglect the variety of software products within their work. Using a systematic approach, we develop an industry classification for the software product industry. The empirical-to-conceptual approach allows us to establish concepts that are dominant in practice. As a result, we derive three major sectors, i.e. business function software, industrial software and consumer software. Experts from the software industry are interviewed to evaluate the results. The suggested industry classification helps practitioners to communicate clearly, identify competitors and possible innovations within the software product industry. The classification helps scholars to improve theory building.

Usability für die betriebliche Praxis - Anwendbare Forschung für den Mittelstand

Intuitiv bedienbare und an den realen Bedarfen der Endanwender entwickelte Software ist zu einem wichtigen Wettbewerbsfaktor geworden – sowohl fur Anwenderunternehmen, als auch als Qualitatsmerkmal fur Anwendungsentwickler. Doch trotz der Bedeutung des The-mas kommt es in der betrieblichen Praxis immer noch zu kurz, da es am Bewusstsein und Wissen mangelt, der Mehrwert von Managern, Controllern und Kunden nicht gesehen wird oder Methoden schlicht zu aufwendig sind. Auch finden sich Ausenstehende im Dickicht von Begriffen wie Software Ergonomie, Usability, User Experience, User Research, Interac-tion Design, Design Thinking, etc. kaum noch zurecht. Unter dem Motto „Anwendbare Forschung fur den Mittelstand“ soll auf den Workshop die Bedeutung von Usability und User Experience (UUX) fur die betriebliche Praxis diskutiert werden. Des Weiteren sollen gangige Methoden auf ihre Gebrauchstauglichkeit im Alltag von KMU untersucht werden. Das Motto zielt auch auf die Herausforderung ab, das Thema UUX praktisch erlebbar und anwendbar zu machen, um Kunden, Manager, Entwickler hierfur zu begeistern. Es soll hierdurch auch die Frage aufgeworfen werden, welche Formen der Wissensvermittlung es jenseits akademischer Lehrbucher gibt, um UUX-Methoden nicht theoretisch zu vermitteln, sondern insbesondere den Mehrwert und Anwendung praktisch erfahrbar zu machen.