An Empirical Study of Bots in Software Development -- Characteristics and Challenges from a Practitioner's Perspective

Software engineering bots - automated tools that handle tedious tasks - are increasingly used by industrial and open source projects to improve developer productivity. Current research in this area is held back by a lack of consensus of what software engineering bots (DevBots) actually are, what characteristics distinguish them from other tools, and what benefits and challenges are associated with DevBot usage. In this paper we report on a mixed-method empirical study of DevBot usage in industrial practice. We report on findings from interviewing 21 and surveying a total of 111 developers. We identify three different personas among DevBot users (focusing on autonomy, chat interfaces, and "smartness"), each with different definitions of what a DevBot is, why developers use them, and what they struggle with. We conclude that future DevBot research should situate their work within our framework, to clearly identify what type of bot the work targets, and what advantages practitioners can expect. Further, we find that there currently is a lack of general purpose "smart" bots that go beyond simple automation tools or chat interfaces. This is problematic, as we have seen that such bots, if available, can have a transformative effect on the projects that use them.Comment: To be published at the ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE

Users' trust in information resources in the Web environment: a status report

This study has three aims; to provide an overview of the ways in which trust is either assessed or asserted in relation to the use and provision of resources in the Web environment for research and learning; to assess what solutions might be worth further investigation and whether establishing ways to assert trust in academic information resources could assist the development of information literacy; to help increase understanding of how perceptions of trust influence the behaviour of information users

Corporate Innovation Subsidiaries: A Framework for Knowledge Transfer

To remain abreast of ongoing rapid transformations in the industry, incumbent automotive manufacturers have been establishing so-called corporate innovation subsidiaries in prominent innovation clusters, such as Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, and Beijing, since the mid- to late 1990s. This study is concerned with the transfer of knowledge from these innovation subsidiaries into their respective headquarters. Reviewing previous work in the field of international business, particularly the topics of internationalisation, transfer of knowledge, and subsidiary-headquarters relations, shows a clear gap in the literature: a lack of a holistic approach to reverse, intra-firm knowledge transfer, considering factors not in isolation, but on an aggregate level, including interactions between them. To address this gap, an initial conceptual framework is developed, providing an integrated overview of the factors affecting knowledge transfer. This framework is modified through two phases of in-depth qualitative case studies of automotive corporate innovation subsidiaries. Results reveal that, while the conceptual framework developed from the literature is highly applicable to the research context, there appear to be deeper, underlying issues at work that pose a fundamental obstacle to knowledge transfer from innovation subsidiaries to their headquarters: • Knowledge transfer is not linear as previously suggested by the literature; • Roles of actors are less clear-cut than previously suggested; • Considering global networks of subsidiaries brings added complexities. This study makes two contributions. Firstly, a holistic conceptual framework for knowledge transfer from corporate innovation subsidiaries to their headquarters is developed, illustrating the various factors affecting this transfer, as well as their interconnections. Secondly, by considering not only the dyadic knowledge transfer between a single corporate innovation subsidiary and its headquarters, but by discussing global networks of such subsidiaries, this study contributes to the literature on global innovation (manufacturing, engineering, and R&D) networks.EPSRC Doctoral Training Allowance and the Sandy Ross-Macdonald Scholarship awarded through St. John's College

Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2022, which was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in June 2022. XP is the premier agile software development conference combining research and practice. It is a unique forum where agile researchers, practitioners, thought leaders, coaches, and trainers get together to present and discuss their most recent innovations, research results, experiences, concerns, challenges, and trends.  XP conferences provide an informal environment to learn and trigger discussions and welcome both people new to agile and seasoned agile practitioners. This year’s conference was held with the theme “Agile in the Era of Hybrid Work”. The 13 full papers and 1 short paper presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 40 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: agile practices; agile processes; and agile in the large

Production and use of documentation in scientific software development

Software is becoming ubiquitous in science. The success of the application of scientific software depends on effective communication about what the software does and how it operates. Documentation captures the communication about the software. For that reason, practices around scientific software documentation need to be better understood. This thesis presents four qualitative empirical studies that look in depth at the production and use of documentation of scientific software. Together, the studies provide evidence emphasising the importance of documentation and shows the handshake between written documentation and the informal, ephemeral information exchange that happens within the community. Four reasons behind the obstacles to producing effective scientific software documentation are identified: 1) the insufficient resources; 2) lack of incentives for researchers; 3) the influence of the community of practice; 4) the necessity of keeping up with the regular advancements of science. Benefits of the process of producing documentation are also identified: 1) aiding reasoning; 2) supporting reproducibility of science; 3) in certain contexts, expanding the community of users and developers around the software. The latter is investigated through a case study of documentation ‘crowdsourcing’. The research reveals that there is a spectrum of users, with differing needs with respect to documentation. This, in turn, requires different approaches in addressing their needs. The research shows that the view of what constitutes documentation must be broad, in order to recognise how wide a range of resources (e.g., formal documents, email, online fora, comments in the source code) is actually used in communicating knowledge about scientific software. Much of the information about the software resides within the community of practice (and may not be documented). These observations are of practical use for those producing documentation in different contexts of scientific software development, for example providing guidance about engaging a community in ‘crowdsourcing’ documentation

Business Intelligence and Analytics in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

This thesis presents a study of Business Intelligence and Analytics (BI&A) adoption in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Although the importance of BI&A is widely accepted, empirical research shows SMEs still lag in BI&A proliferation. Thus, it is crucial to understand the phenomenon of BI&A adoption in SMEs. This thesis will investigate and explore BI&A adoption in SMEs, addressing the main research question: How can we understand the phenomenon of BI&A adoption in SMEs? The adoption term in this thesis refers to all the IS adoption stages, including investment, implementation, utilization, and value creation. This research uses a combination of a literature review, a qualitive exploratory approach, and a ranking-type Delphi study with a grounded Delphi approach. The empirical part includes interviews with 38 experts and Delphi surveys with 39 experts from various Norwegian industries. The research strategy investigates the factors influencing BI&A adoption in SMEs. The study examined the investment, implementation, utilization, and value creation of BI&A technologies in SMEs. A thematic analysis was adopted to collate the qualitative expert interview data and search for potential themes. The Delphi survey findings were further examined using the grounded Delphi method. To better understand the study’s findings, three theoretical perspectives were applied: resource-based view theory, dynamic capabilities, and IS value process models. The thesis’ research findings are presented in five articles published in international conference proceedings and journals. This thesis summary will coherently integrate and discuss these results.publishedVersio

An exploratory study of social innovation in for-profit social entrepreneurial ventures in India

Innovation is identified in extant research as a defining characteristic of social entrepreneurial ventures (SEVs). Social innovations are desirable as they create employment opportunities, develop new industries and introduce new business models that address social needs. In recognition, governments and practitioners worldwide are looking at ways of fostering social innovations. Although there is growing interest in social innovation in various fields of research, there is little evidence of an in-depth empirical exploration of social innovations within the context ofSEVs. Further, empirical research on social innovation in developing countries like India is lacking, though India is reported to have high levels of social entrepreneurial activity. This research intends to fill these gaps by empirically investigating social innovations in three for-profit SEVs in India. This thesis was based on the interpretive paradigm and adopted a subjective stance in exploring social innovations in for-profit SEVs. The objectives of this research are twofold. First, it attempts to understand the resource constraints under which social innovation emerges. Second, it investigates how SEV s overcome resource constraints through novel combinations of different forms of capital in line with the Schumpeterian view on innovation. In this inductive, exploratory study, qualitative data was collected from semi-structured interviews with multiple informants in three for-profit SEVs in India. The empirical evidence showed that social innovations are distinct in that they develop under resource constraints. In particular, access to financial and human capital was found to be lacking. The findings indicate that social capital was a key enabler of social innovations, and SEVs leveraged their social capital extensively to overcome resource constraints in their environments. Further, the entrepreneurial role of introducing a novel resource (capital) combination was performed by more collectivist forms of entrepreneurship. This included: collaborative entrepreneurship where an individual entrepreneur collaborated with a network of supporters; team entrepreneurship involving a team of social entrepreneurs; and collective entrepreneurship in a cooperative venture. This research underlines the complexity of the social innovation process and highlights the innovative use of capital fonns in overcoming resource constraints. Suggestions for social entrepreneurs and practitioners on how to manage social innovations are implicit in its finding

Human factors in developing automated vehicles: A requirements engineering perspective

Automated Vehicle (AV) technology has evolved significantly both in complexity and impact and is expected to ultimately change urban transportation. Due to this evolution, the development of AVs challenges the current state of automotive engineering practice, as automotive companies increasingly include agile ways of working in their plan-driven systems engineering—or even transition completely to scaled-agile approaches. However, it is unclear how knowledge about human factors (HF) and technological knowledge related to the development of AVs can be brought together in a way that effectively supports today\u27s rapid release cycles and agile development approaches. Based on semi-structured interviews with ten experts from industry and two experts from academia, this qualitative, exploratory case study investigates the relationship between HF and AV development. The study reveals relevant properties of agile system development and HF, as well as the implications of these properties for integrating agile work, HF, and requirements engineering. According to the findings, which were evaluated in a workshop with experts from academia and industry, a culture that values HF knowledge in engineering is key. These results promise to improve the integration of HF knowledge into agile development as well as to facilitate HF research impact and time to market

Identifying critical success factors of ERP systems at the higher education sector

In response to a range of contextual drivers, the worldwide adoption of ERP Systems in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has increased substantially over the past decade. Though the difficulties and high failure rate in implementing ERP systems at university environments have been cited in the literature, research on critical success factors (CSFs) for ERP implementations in this context is rare and fragmented. This paper is part of a larger research effort that aims to contribute to understanding the phenomenon of ERP implementations and evaluations in HEIs in the Australasian region; it identifies, previously reported, critical success factors (CSFs) in relation to ERP system implementations and discusses the importance of these factors