Nannette P. Napier

IT project managers' construction of successful project management practice: a repertory grid investigation

Although effective project management is critical to the success of information technology (IT) projects, little empirical research has investigated skill requirements for IT project managers (PMs). This study addressed this gap by asking 19 practicing IT PMs to describe the skills that successful IT PMs exhibit. A semi‐structured interview method known as the repertory grid (RepGrid) technique was used to elicit these skills. Nine skill categories emerged: client management, communication, general management, leadership, personal integrity, planning and control, problem solving, systems development and team development. Our study complements existing research by providing a richer understanding of several skills that were narrowly defined (client management, planning and control, and problem solving) and by introducing two new skill categories that had not been previously discussed (personal integrity and team development). Analysis of the individual RepGrids revealed four distinct ways in which study participants combined skill categories to form archetypes of effective IT PMs. We describe these four IT PM archetypes – General Manager, Problem Solver, Client Representative and Balanced Manager – and discuss how this knowledge can be useful for practitioners, researchers and educators. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.

Combining Perceptions and Prescriptions in Requirements Engineering Process Assessment: An Industrial Case Study

Requirements engineering (RE) is a key discipline in software development and several methods are available to help assess and improve RE processes. However, these methods rely on prescriptive models of RE; they do not, like other disciplines within software engineering, draw directly on stakeholder perceptions and subjective judgments. Given this backdrop, we present an empirical study in RE process assessment. Our aim was to investigate how stakeholder perceptions and process prescriptions can be combined during assessments to effectively inform RE process improvement. We first describe existing methods for RE process assessment and the role played by stakeholder perceptions and subjective judgments in the software engineering and management literature. We then present a method that combines perceptions and prescriptions in RE assessments together with an industrial case study in which the method was applied and evaluated over a three-year period at TelSoft. The data suggest that the combined method led to a comprehensive and rich assessment and it helped TelSoft consider RE as an important and integral part of the broader engineering context. This, in turn, led to improvements that combined plan-driven and adaptive principles for RE. Overall, the combined method helped TelSoft move from Level 1 to Level 2 in RE maturity, and the employees perceived the resulting engineering practices to be improved. Based on these results, we suggest that software managers and researchers combine stakeholder perceptions and process prescriptions as one way to effectively balance the specificity, comparability, and accuracy of software process assessments.

Building contextual ambidexterity in a software company to improve firm-level coordination

Software organizations increasingly face contradictory strategic choices as they develop customized and packaged solutions for the market. They need to improve efficiency of development processes while at the same time adapting to emerging customer needs; they need to exploit software products in relation to existing customers while simultaneously exploring new technology and market opportunities; and, they need to consider both incremental and radical innovations. While the integration of such opposing strategies requires software organizations to become ambidextrous, there is limited actionable advice on how managers can develop such capability. Against this backdrop, we report from a two-year action research study into a small software firm, TelSoft. Based on Pettigrews contextualist inquiry, we develop a framework that integrates existing theory on contextual ambidexterity with a generic process for improving software organizations, and we apply this framework to analyze how TelSoft improved its coordination of products, projects, and innovation efforts. As a result, we offer principles for how software managers can build ambidextrous capability to improve firm-level coordination.

Balancing diversity in innovation networks : Trading zones in university-industry RaD collaboration

Purpose– Although the potential of innovation networks that involve both university and industry actors is great variances in cultures, goals and knowledge poses significant challenges. To better u ...

Integrating authentic learning into a software development course: an experience report

This paper describes our experience integrating an authentic learning project into a junior-level software development course. During the course, students applied full software development life cycle processes to meet a campus need -- providing classroom clicker support without purchasing additional hardware. The paper provides the motivation for this approach, summarizes relevant developments in classroom response systems, details the design of the class project, and shares our results. Finally, we offer reflections describing both intended and unintended outcomes of this experiment.

Transforming programming-intensive courses with course-embedded research

In this paper, we discuss the Software Engineering Research Project (SERP) initiated at GGC College, a public four-year institution in southeastern United States. The long-term goal of SERP involves motivating students to pursue graduate degrees, research careers, or challenging industry work. Before students can engage in software engineering research, they need to develop a deeper appreciation for professional practice, scholarly literature, and research paradigms. To that end, we have identified activities to embed in two junior-level programming-intensive courses: Software Development I and Advanced Programming. Our three-pronged approach includes attendance at professional events, participation in a research project, and exposure to computing research at a leading research university. In this paper, we detail our goals and objectives for the SERP program, illustrate a course redesign for two of the courses, and provide initial results from a pilot study.

Programming Boot Camp to retain women in IT: An experience report

Underrepresented students in computing can face critical challenges to retention including lack of prior exposure to programming and feelings of isolation due to a non-diverse classroom. Consequently, students may delay enrolling in programming courses, which interrupts progress towards their degree and decreases confidence in their ability to succeed in college and computing careers. One strategy to overcome the perceived and actual difficulties undergraduate students encounter in an introductory programming course is to participate in a summer Programming Boot Camp (PBC). PBC is a short-term, intense event focused on improving Java programming skills, providing career and professional development, and building a stronger network with faculty, peers, and industry experts. In this paper, we describe the structure and format of a weeklong PBC held at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) for female computing undergraduates. We report on the impacts of the program in terms of increasing confidence, improving programming skills, and encouraging student engagement.

Can Programming Boot Camp Help Under-represented College Students Succeed in Computing Degrees? (Abstract Only)

Programming Boot Camp is one strategy to overcome the perceived and actual difficulties undergraduate students encounter in an introductory programming course. It is estimated that of the over two million students starting computer science studies in universities and colleges all over the world in 1999, 33% dropped or failed their first programming course. Consequently, undergraduate students delay enrolling in programming courses, which interrupts progress toward their degree and decreases confidence in their ability to succeed in college and computing careers. Programming Boot Camp provides a combination of intense programming labs with professional development and community building activities to help increase confidence, create awareness of opportunities, and build a supporting peer network. How does this strategy work on different campuses with different demographics? Attendees will be able to connect with people who have implemented boot camp, are interested in sharing resources, and discussing how appropriate a boot camp would be for their students. Those who have already implemented a boot camp will be encouraged to share their curriculum, workshop strategies, and how effective they were in goals like: increasing the programming skills of the participants and their confidence in it, inspiring participants to persist in computing, and building a network of mentors and peers to support persistence in computing. Participants who seek to increase success in programming courses will be encouraged to discuss campus specific needs to gather input from those who have implemented boot camps and how they adapted the concept to their population and institutional culture.

How to Plan and Run Summer Computing Camps: Logistics (Abstract Only)

This workshop will provide details on how to plan and run non-residential computing summer camps for 4th -- 12th grade students. Georgia Tech has been offering computing summer camps since 2004. These camps are financially self-sustaining and effective. Items used in past camps include: CS Unplugged, LightBot, Scratch, Alice, LEGO robots (WeDo, NXT, EV3, and Tetrix), EarSketch, and App Inventor. Georgia Tech helped start or expand other computing camps at eleven other colleges and universities in Georgia from 2007 to 2010 as part of Georgia Computes!. This last year as part of the Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) NSF grant we have also helped institutions start or expand summer computing camps in South Carolina, Massachusetts, and California. The workshop will distribute a link to forms, a timeline, sample agendas, sample flyers, budget plans, a planning checklist, suggested projects, surveys, pre and post-tests, evaluation results, lessons learned, and more. Laptops Recommended

Operation Java blitz: extracurricular programming workshops to engage it students

An engaging context has been shown to improve student motivation and performance in programming courses. Therefore, we incorporated six hands-on, supplementary, voluntary workshops (called Operation Java Blitz, or OJB) on subjects that were not exhaustively included in the current programming curriculum in Spring 2014. The poster will discuss the sessions, the initial results from 34 students, and future plans.