13,685 research outputs found
The Affect of Software Developers: Common Misconceptions and Measurements
The study of affects (i.e., emotions, moods) in the workplace has received a
lot of attention in the last 15 years. Despite the fact that software
development has been shown to be intellectual, creative, and driven by
cognitive activities, and that affects have a deep influence on cognitive
activities, software engineering research lacks an understanding of the affects
of software developers. This note provides (1) common misconceptions of affects
when dealing with job satisfaction, motivation, commitment, well-being, and
happiness; (2) validated measurement instruments for affect measurement; and
(3) our recommendations when measuring the affects of software developers.Comment: 2 pages. Research note to be presented at the 2015 IEEE/ACM 8th
International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software
Engineering (CHASE 2015
Qualitative software engineering research -- reflections and guidelines
Researchers are increasingly recognizing the importance of human aspects in
software development and since qualitative methods are used to, in-depth,
explore human behavior, we believe that studies using such techniques will
become more common.
Existing qualitative software engineering guidelines do not cover the full
breadth of qualitative methods and knowledge on using them found in the social
sciences. The aim of this study was thus to extend the software engineering
research community's current body of knowledge regarding available qualitative
methods and provide recommendations and guidelines for their use.
With the support of an epistemological argument and a literature review, we
suggest that future research would benefit from (1) utilizing a broader set of
research methods, (2) more strongly emphasizing reflexivity, and (3) employing
qualitative guidelines and quality criteria.
We present an overview of three qualitative methods commonly used in social
sciences but rarely seen in software engineering research, namely
interpretative phenomenological analysis, narrative analysis, and discourse
analysis. Furthermore, we discuss the meaning of reflexivity in relation to the
software engineering context and suggest means of fostering it.
Our paper will help software engineering researchers better select and then
guide the application of a broader set of qualitative research methods.Comment: 30 page
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