A team building approach for competency development.

International audienceAn approach for multidisciplinary team building is proposed through three steps. We suppose that tasks and team members are characterized by a set of attributes (technical competencies). First, the calculation of distance measure between task and team member (profile matching) are proposed. Second, an array-based clustering algorithm is used as an effective means for providing an alternative solution in task and team-member clustering. The proposed approach generates a systematic formation of task and team member families by sequencing the rows and the columns of a task/team member incidence matrix. Finally, an integer programming model is formulated to solve the task assignment problem. The proposed method is demonstrated by applying it to an example in a team building problem

A fuzzy array-based clustering method in team building.

International audienceAn array-based approach is proposed as an effective mean for providing an alternative solution in team building problem. The proposed approach generates a systematic formation of task and team member families by sequencing the rows and the columns of a task-personnel incidence matrix. To obtain the task-personnel incidence matrix, a fuzzy sets approach will be proposed to combine two fundamental incidence matrices : the task-discipline and personnel-discipline incidence matrices. The proposed method is demonstrated by applying to an example in team building problem

Méthodologie pour la constitution d'équipes de projet de conception.

International audiencePiloter un projet comporte plusieurs dimensions organisationnelles comme l'organisation des tâches du projet, la formation des équipes et le développement des compétences. Dans la littérature, à notre connaissance, il n'existe pas le travail considérant simultanément ces trois aspects. Dans ce papier, nous présentons une méthodologie d'aide à la constitution des équipes d'un projet de conception comme un premier pas vers la prise en compte de ces trois aspects. Deux étapes fondamentales de notre approche seront présentées : l'organisation des tâches et la constitution des équipes. En premier lieu, la théorie de la logique floue et un algorithme de regroupement (Rank Order Clustering-ROC) seront utilisés pour regrouper des tâches du projet. Ensuite, on s'appuiera sur une méthode d'aide à la décision multicritères pour constituer les équipes, avec prise en compte d'un critère portant sur le développement des compétences

A discussion on the Role of People in Global Software Development.

Literature is producing a considerable amount of papers which focus on the risks, challenges and solutions of global software development (GSD). However, the influence of human factors on the success of GSD projects requires further study. The aim of our paper is twofold. First, to identify the challenges related to the human factors in GSD and, second, to propose the solution(s), which could help in solving or reducing the overall impact of these challenges. The main conclusions of this research can be valuable to organizations that are willing to achieve the quality objectives regarding GSD projects

Employee-Task Assignments for Organization Modeling: A Review of Models and Applications

In this study, we present a review of task assignment problems in organizations, an area that has become more important as tasks become more complex and personnel skills become more specialized. The challenge is to design task assignments that meet all requirements and result in the best organizational performance. The consequences of poor design include failed tasks, reduced efficiency, and inability to meet deadlines. Moreover, inequity of workload between employees can cause lack of job satisfaction, loss of motivation and also boredom. In general, work processes in organizations consist of different tasks, which require different expertise. Personnel usually have various degrees of qualifications and their performance may vary for different tasks. The outcome of the work process depends heavily on which tasks are assigned to which personnel. Performance of an organization can be increased by assigning the tasks to the most qualified available personnel. However, it could result in overloading some personnel while the others remain under-loaded. So, the even distribution of the workload between them also needs to be taken into consideration. In addition, it helps to increase organization\u27s productivity by distributing personnel\u27s knowledge, time, and attention more extensively. We review task-employee assignment problems in organization modeling with the computational models that have been reported in the literature with their applications. Human factors engineering, in terms of workload in organizational modeling is included as the work process performance is heavily dependent on the human (personnel). Based on the initial findings, we propose to investigate an improved workload model that allows the use of optimization of select constraints, such as balancing workload among team members. While current workload models allow the evaluation of workload among team members interacting in a work process, it is up to the analyst to suggest improvements. By providing an optimized solution, we present the Engineering Manager, that can then be adjusted to meet practical criteria

Decisions in software development proyects management: an exploratory study.

Given the importance of software in today's world, the development of software systems is a key activity that requires complex management scenarios. This article explores the implications of hard decisions in the context of software development projects (SDPs). More in deep, it focuses on the emotional consequences of making hard decisions in IT organisations. Complex SDPs involve a great variety of actors. This fact entails morale, feelings and emotions, which play an important role for communication, interaction and, ultimately, decision making. The aim of the article is twofold. First (Study 1), to identify which are the most important hard decisions in SDPS. Second (Study 2), to study the influence of emotions on decision-making processes (Study 2). Findings show the complex emotional consequences and difficulties that managers must face in hard decision-making processes.Publicad

Réplica de un experimento que estudia las relaciones extroversión-calidad y extroversión-satisfacción en equipos de desarrollo de software

Versión electrónica de la ponencia presentada en la XVII Jornadas de Ingeniería del Software y de Bases de Datos (JISBD’2012), celebrada en 2012 en AlmeríaA la hora de formar un equipo de desarrollo se suelen tener en cuenta factores tales como el conocimiento y la pericia de los distintos miembros que formarán parte del equipo. Existe una tendencia, defendida por los sociólogos, que recomienda que también se tengan en cuenta factores relativos a la personalidad de los miembros del equipo, entre ellos, la extroversión de los mismos. En un estudio anterior se llevó a cabo un experimento controlado para estudiar la relación entre la extroversión de los miembros del equipo de trabajo y la calidad de los productos software obtenidos y la satisfacción percibida durante el proceso de desarrollo. En dicho estudio se concluyó que equilibrar la presencia de miembros extrovertidos y no extrovertidos en un equipo de trabajo lleva a conseguir productos de mejor calidad y, especialmente, a que la satisfacción percibida por los miembros del equipo sea muy superior que cuando los equipos sólo cuentan con miembros de carácter únicamente extrovertido o no extrovertido. Este trabajo presenta una réplica del estudio original y los resultados obtenidos confirman los resultados del experimento original para la relación positiva y directa entre los equipos con un número equilibrado de integrantes extrovertidos y no extrovertidos y la calidad de las especificaciones de requisitos software desarrolladas. Al mismo tiempo, la percepción de la satisfacción de los integrantes de los equipos sigue siendo positiva en la mayor parte de los casos.Esta investigación se ha financiado gracias a los siguientes proyectos: MEDUSAS (CDTI-MICINN and FEDER IDI-20090557), ORIGIN (CDTIMICINN and FEDER IDI-2010043(1-5)), PEGASO/MAGO (MICINN and FEDER, TIN2009-13718-C02-01), EECCOO (MICINN TRA2009_0074), MECCA (JCMM PII2I09-0075-8394), IMPACTUM (JCCM PEII11-0330-4414), Tecnologías para la Replicación y Síntesis de Experimentos en IS (MICINN TIN2011-23216) and Go Lite (MICINN TIN2011-24139)

Environmental Factors Influencing Individual Decision-Making Behavior in Software Project: A Systematic Literature Review

As one of the crucial human aspects, individual decision-making behavior that may affect the quality of a software project is adaptive to the environment in which the individual is. However, no comprehensive reference framework of the environmental factors influencing individual decision-making behavior in software projects is presently available. This paper undertakes a systematic literature review (SLR) to gain insight into existing studies on this topic. After a careful SLR process, 40 studies were targeted to solve this question. Based on these extracted studies, we first provided a taxonomy of environmental factors comprising eight categories. Then a total of 237 factors are identified and classified using these eight categories, and some major environmental factors of each category are listed in the paper. The environmental factors listing and the taxonomy can help researchers and practitioners to better understand and predict the behavior of individuals during decision making and to design more effective solutions to improve people management in software projects

How can non-technical end users effectively test their spreadsheets?

Purpose – An alarming number of spreadsheet faults have been reported in the literature, indicating that effective and easy-to-apply spreadsheet testing techniques are not available for “non-technical,” end-user programmers. The purpose of this paper is to alleviate the problem by introducing a metamorphic testing (MT) technique for spreadsheets. Design/methodology/approach – The paper discussed four common challenges encountered by end-user programmers when testing a spreadsheet. The MT technique was then discussed and how it could be used to solve the common challenges was explained. An experiment involving several “real-world” spreadsheets was performed to determine the viability and effectiveness of MT. Findings – The experiment confirmed that MT is highly effective in spreadsheet fault detection, and yet MT is a general technique that can be easily used by end-user programmers to test a large variety of spreadsheet applications. Originality/value – The paper provides a detailed discussion of some common challenges of spreadsheet testing encountered by end-user programmers. To the best of the authors knowledge, the paper is the first that includes an empirical study of how effective MT is in spreadsheet fault detection from an end-user programmer's perspective