Essential competencies of exceptional professional software engineers

Department Head: Rodney R. Oldehoeft.1991 Fall.Includes bibliographical references (pages 141-144).This dissertation presents a differential study of exceptional and non-exceptional professional software engineers in the work environment. The first phase of the study reports an in-depth review of 20 engineers. The study reports biographical data, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test results, and Critical Incident Interview data for 10 exceptional and 10 non-exceptional subjects. Phase 1 concludes with a description of 38 essential competencies of software engineers. Phase 2 of this study surveys 129 engineers. Phase 2 reports biographical data for the sample and concludes that the only simple demographic predictor of performance is years of experience in software. This variable is able to correctly classify 63% of the cases studied. Phase 2 also has the participants complete a Q-Sort of the 38 competencies identified in Phase 1. Nine of these competencies are differentially related to engineer performance. A10 variable Canonical Discriminant Function is derived which is capable of correctly classifying 81% of the cases studied. This function consists of three biographical variables and seven competencies. The competencies related to Personal Attributes and Interpersonal Skills are identified as the most significant factors contributing to performance differences

An empirical study into the causes of lateness of new product development projects

In this paper we investigate the causes of lateness of new product development projects. From literature, we have identified three possible causes of lateness: optimistic estimates of processing times, instability of project networks and the impact of due date nearness on engineer's performance. Over a time-span of 42 weeks, detailed empirical data were collected of two product development projects to verifY the occurrence of these three causes in real-life product development projects. The data reveal that indeed engineers produce optimistic estimates, but only for large work packages, that the project networks were highly unstable, and that the engineer's performance was highly affected by due date nearness. The data suggest that project lateness is mainly due to the combined effect of project network instability and the engineer performance being dependent on due date nearness. From the interpretation of the data implications are derived for the management ofnew product development projects

The Planning Fallacy as an Explanation for Over-Requirement in Software Development

Over-Requirement occurs in software development projects when a software product is specified beyond the actual needs. This study shows empirically that Over-Requirement happens partially due to the Planning Fallacy, i.e., the tendency of people to underestimate the time needed to complete a task. Underestimating the time needed to develop a software feature during project planning, we argue, may lead to including within the project scope more required and unrequired features than can be completed by the project deadline. To investigate this argument, we conducted an experiment in which participants were asked to estimate the time it would take to develop various software features in a software development project and then, given the project\u27s duration, to recommend which of the features to include within scope. The results confirmed that the Planning Fallacy occurs in the context of software development and influences the Over-Requirement phenomenon

Credit Where It’s Due: The Law and Norms of Attribution

The reputation we develop by receiving credit for the work we do proves to the world the nature of our human capital. If professional reputation were property, it would be the most valuable property that most people own because much human capital is difficult to measure. Although attribution is ubiquitous and important, it is largely unregulated by law. In the absence of law, economic sectors that value attribution have devised non-property regimes founded on social norms to acknowledge and reward employee effort and to attribute responsibility for the success or failure of products and projects. Extant contract-based and norms-based attribution regimes fail optimally to protect attribution interests. This article proposes a new approach to employment contracts designed to shore up the desirable characteristics of existing norms-based attribution systems while allowing legal intervention in cases of market failure. The right to public attribution would be waivable upon proof of a procedurally fair negotiation. The right to attribution necessary to build human capital, however, would be inalienable. Unlike an intellectual property right, attribution rights would not be enforced by restricting access to the misattributed work itself; the only remedy would be for the lost value of human capital. The variation in attribution norms that currently exists in different workplace cultures can and should be preserved through the proposed contract approach. The proposal strikes an appropriate balance between expansive and narrow legal protections for workplace knowledge and, in that respect, addresses one of the most vexing current debates at the intersection of intellectual property and employment law

Unraveling the Mystery of New Technology Use: An Investigation into the Interplay of Desire for Control, Computer Self-efficacy, and Personal Innovativeness

In this paper, we examine how intrinsically motivated competence and autonomy (two basic psychological needs derived from self-determination theory) in concert with personal innovativeness in IT motivate individuals to try new information technologies. In a study with 202 participants we found 1) competence, operationalized as general computer self-efficacy (GCSE), and 2) autonomy, operationalized as desire for control over information technology (DCIT), to positively influence individuals’ intention to use new or unfamiliar technologies. Further, we hypothesize and find evidence of an interaction effect that suggests there may be a tradeoff between these constructs. That is, individuals may be inclined to use new technologies because they perceive themselves as having high levels of ability or because they have high levels of desire; they are either competence-driven or desire-driven users. Therefore, correctly identifying potential users into the appropriate user category and providing the necessary training or control mechanisms will likely increase an individual’s intention to try new and innovative IT products

Information Outlook, October 2004

Volume 8, Issue 10https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_io_2004/1009/thumbnail.jp

Development of a process for continuous creation of lean value in product development organizations

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-206).Ideas and methodologies of lean product development were developed into tools and processes that help product development organizations improve their performances. The definition of waste in product development processes was re-examined and developed into a frugal set to cover all types of waste in product development processes through preliminary case studies. Value stream mapping (VSM) was optimized for measuring the waste indicators in product development processes. Typical causes for low product development project performances were organized into a root-cause analysis diagram. Three case studies in product development companies were performed. The tools were tested and improved through intensive interviews with both project managers and engineers. VSM was effective for identifying and measuring waste indicators. The root-cause analysis diagram was effective for quickly identifying root causes for low product development project performances. Synchronized uses of these tools made it possible to measure each root cause's impact on project performances. The result of measurements revealed both problems shared by all the projects and the ones specific to the projects, indicating that the tools and processes developed in this research can provide suggestions for continuous improvement of product development processes. Some waste indicators were more prevalent than the others, implying that the number of waste indicators to be considered can be reduced. Inventory of information was prevalent in all the projects, and the analyses of it implied that Today's product development processes are as premature as those of manufacturing several decades ago.(cont.) Wastefulness of information inventory was proved quantitatively. Time spent on one occurrence of rework was proved to take longer near the end of a project than at the beginning of it.by Jin Kato.S.M

Proceedings of : conference on utilization of scientists and engineers

"October 22-23, 1959.""October 1, 1960.

Explorations of knowledge management in a defence engineering environment

This thesis originates from first hand early experiences of the researcher regarding current processes and practices in operation in BAE SYSTEMS Ltd (now referred to hereafter as `the Company'), and recognises the potential for improvement within the realm of knowledge management. The huge volume of internal and external information overwhelms the majority of organisations and knowledge management provides solutions to enable organisations to be effective, efficient, and competitive. The software agent approach and information retrieval technique indicates great potential for effectively managing information. This research seeks to answer the questions of whether software agents can provide the Company with solutions to the knowledge management issues identified in this inquiry and whether they can also be used elsewhere within the organisation to improve other aspects of the business. The research analysis shows that software agents offer a wide applicability across the Company; can be created with relative ease and can provide benefits by improving the effectiveness and efficiency of processes. Findings also provided valuable insight into human-computer-interface design and usability aspects of software agent applications. The research deals with these questions using action research in order to develop a collaborative change mechanism within the Company and a practical applicability of the research findings in situ. Using a pluralistic methodology the findings provide a combination of the subjective and objective views intermittently within the research cycles thereby giving the researchera more holistic view of this research. Little attention has been paid to integrating software agent technologies into the knowledge management processes.This research proposes a software agent application that incorporates: (1) Co-ordination of software agents for information retrieval to manage information gathering, filtering, and dissemination; (2) To promote effective interpretation of information and more efficient processes;(3) Building accurate search profiles weighted on pre-defined criteria; (4) Integrating and organising a Company resource management knowledge-base; (5) Ensuring that the right information gets to the right personnel at the right time; and (6) So the Company can effectively assign the right experts to the right roles within the Company

The Making of a New Product Development Process

The core process that almost all manufacturing organizations are built on is new product development. It is the new product development process that determines how the Technical Operations, i.e., Engineering, Manufacturing, etc., of a particular company will be organized. In 1993, Michael Hammer and James Champy wrote a revolutionary book entitled 11Reengineering the Corporation. In this book, they tell businesses to forget most of what they know about how business should run -- because it is all wrong. They say that businesses must learn to reinvent themselves in order to compete in the ever-changing business climate of the 1990s and beyond. Hammer and Champy recommend that companies reinvent themselves by reengineering their most basic processes that dictate how the different departments work together to add value to a product. With this in mind, this project will first show Diagraph1s tremendous need for a new product development process. Then, this project will propose a new product development process that will sufficiently meet Diagraph1s needs and solve many, if not all of the Diagraph1s past problems in the area of new product development. To build the new process we will be using ideas gathered through surveys, interviews and from the published works of the leading writers and thinkers on the subject of new product development today. A detailed analysis and critique by the author and by an outside evaluator follows the presentation of the new process along with a comprehensive appendix section containing the completed results of all of the surveys and interviews used to create Diagraph Corporation\u27s New Product Development Process