Sensemaking Practices in the Everyday Work of AI/ML Software Engineering

This paper considers sensemaking as it relates to everyday software engineering (SE) work practices and draws on a multi-year ethnographic study of SE projects at a large, global technology company building digital services infused with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities. Our findings highlight the breadth of sensemaking practices in AI/ML projects, noting developers' efforts to make sense of AI/ML environments (e.g., algorithms/methods and libraries), of AI/ML model ecosystems (e.g., pre-trained models and "upstream"models), and of business-AI relations (e.g., how the AI/ML service relates to the domain context and business problem at hand). This paper builds on recent scholarship drawing attention to the integral role of sensemaking in everyday SE practices by empirically investigating how and in what ways AI/ML projects present software teams with emergent sensemaking requirements and opportunities

Understanding collaboration in Global Software Engineering (GSE) teams with the use of sensors: introducing a multi-sensor setting for observing social and human aspects in project management

This paper discusses on-going research in the ways Global Software Engineering (GSE) teams collaborate for a range of software development tasks. The paper focuses on providing the means for observing and understanding GSE team member collaboration including team coordination and member communication. Initially the paper provides the background on social and human issues relating to GSE collaboration. Next the paper describes a pilot study involving a simulation of virtual GSE teams working together with the use of asynchronous and synchronous communication over a virtual learning environment. The study considered the use of multiple data collection techniques recordings of SCRUM meetings, design and implementation tasks. Next, the paper discusses the use of a multi-sensor for observing human and social aspects of project management in GSE teams. The scope of the study is to provide the means for gathering data regarding GSE team coordination for project managers including member emotions, participation pattern in team discussions and potentially stress levels

Understanding collaboration in Global Software Engineering (GSE) teams with the use of sensors: introducing a multi-sensor setting for observing social and human aspects in project management

This paper discusses on-going research in the ways Global Software Engineering (GSE) teams collaborate for a range of software development tasks. The paper focuses on providing the means for observing and understanding GSE team member collaboration including team coordination and member communication. Initially the paper provides the background on social and human issues relating to GSE collaboration. Next the paper describes a pilot study involving a simulation of virtual GSE teams working together with the use of asynchronous and synchronous communication over a virtual learning environment. The study considered the use of multiple data collection techniques recordings of SCRUM meetings, design and implementation tasks. Next, the paper discusses the use of a multi-sensor for observing human and social aspects of project management in GSE teams. The scope of the study is to provide the means for gathering data regarding GSE team coordination for project managers including member emotions, participation pattern in team discussions and potentially stress levels

A reflection on the first run of the Runestone Project at Tongji University: observations on cross cultural distributed teams vs face to face teams

China has long been an education import nation, so non-commercial and mutually beneficial collaborations between Chinese and Western universities are rare. Nevertheless, the School of Software Engineering at Tongji University in China has developed mutually beneficial collaboration with several Western universities; among them the most important partner is Uppsala University. In spite of the great challenges encountered by both sides during developing and conducting the collaboration due to their sharply contrasting cultural backgrounds and different educational and political systems, the collaboration between the institutions has been deepening and widening steadily and continuously. Following successful student and teacher exchange programs, the Runestone project was launched between Uppsala and Tongji Universities in 2009. It was taken as a triumph that the Sino-Swedish globally distributed Runestone teams fulfilled the course requirements. However, it was also noticed that some advantages of cross cultural collaboration in learning which were observed in the face to face teams were not realized in the Sino-Swedish Runestone teams. The students in the cross cultural face to face teams displayed evident complementarities in their work. This positive effect of the different cultural backgrounds seemingly disappeared when the students moved from the face to face teams to the globally distributed teams. This report records observations on students’ work in the two types of cross cultural teams. In addition, on the basis of these reflections on the experience, some practical measures and areas for research are suggested in the hope of helping improve such global collaborations in future

Dynamics of collaborative work in global software development environment.

This study aims to explore the dynamics of collaborative work in global software development projects. The study explored the nature of collaboration, the patterns of collaborative behaviors in different tasks in computer science, and the impact of the tasks to the collaboration among students. Four different collaborative software development tasks were assigned to the globally distributes teams. The study used data from 230 students from five universities, namely Atilim University (Turkey), Middle East Technical University (Turkey), Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá (Panama), University of North Texas (US), and Middlesex University (UK). The findings involve the recommendations for building effective collaborative working environments and guidelines for building collaborative virtual communities

Exploring collaboration patterns among global software development teams.

This study examines communication behaviors in global software student teams. The authors of the paper characterize the types of communication behaviors that occur when student teams are engaged in a software development project. The authors present findings from a one-semester study that examined factors contributing to successful distributed programming interactions among students enrolled at the University of Atilim (Turkey), Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, University of North Texas, and Middlesex University (UK). Using content and cluster analyses techniques, we identified distinct patterns of collaboration and examined how these patterns were associated with task, culture, GPA, and performance of collaborative teams. Our results suggest that communication patterns among global software learners may be related to task type, culture and GPA. It is hoped that these findings will lead to the development of new strategies for improving communication among global software teams

Student teamwork: developing virtual support for team projects

In the 21st century team working increasingly requires online cooperative skills as well as more traditional skills associated with face to face team working. Virtual team working differs from face to face team working in a number of respects, such as interpreting the alternatives to visual cues, adapting to synchronous communication, developing trust and cohesion and cultural interpretations. However, co-located student teams working within higher education can only simulate team working as it might be experienced in organisations today. For example, students can learn from their mistakes in a non-threatening environment, colleagues tend to be established friends and assessing teamwork encourages behaviour such as “free-riding”. Using a prototyping approach, which involves students and tutors, a system has been designed to support learners engaged in team working. This system helps students to achieve to their full potential and appreciate issues surrounding virtual teamwork. The Guardian Agent system enables teams to allocate project tasks and agree ground rules for the team according to individuals’ preferences. Results from four cycles of its use are presented, together with modifications arising from iterations of testing. The results show that students find the system useful in preparing for team working, and have encouraged further development of the system

Project Management Learning in a Collaborative Distant Learning Context - An Actual On-going Experience

The goal of this paper is to show the results of an on-going experience on teaching project management to grade students by following a development scheme of management related competencies on an individual basis. In order to achieve that goal, the students are organized in teams that must solve a problem and manage the development of a feasible solution to satisfy the needs of a client. The innovative component advocated in this paper is the formal introduction of negotiating and virtual team management aspects, as different teams from different universities at different locations and comprising students with different backgrounds must collaborate and compete amongst them. The different learning aspects are identified and the improvement levels are reflected in a rubric that has been designed ad hoc for this experience. Finally, the effort frameworks for the student and instructor have been established according to the requirements of the Bologna paradigms. This experience is developed through a software-based support system allowing blended learning for the theoretical and individual?s work aspects, blogs, wikis, etc., as well as project management tools based on WWW that allow the monitoring of not only the expected deliverables and the achievement of the goals but also the progress made on learning as established in the defined rubri

Scrum2Kanban: Integrating Kanban and Scrum in a University Software Engineering Capstone Course

Using university capstone courses to teach agile software development methodologies has become commonplace, as agile methods have gained support in professional software development. This usually means students are introduced to and work with the currently most popular agile methodology: Scrum. However, as the agile methods employed in the industry change and are adapted to different contexts, university courses must follow suit. A prime example of this is the Kanban method, which has recently gathered attention in the industry. In this paper, we describe a capstone course design, which adds the hands-on learning of the lean principles advocated by Kanban into a capstone project run with Scrum. This both ensures that students are aware of recent process frameworks and ideas as well as gain a more thorough overview of how agile methods can be employed in practice. We describe the details of the course and analyze the participating students' perceptions as well as our observations. We analyze the development artifacts, created by students during the course in respect to the two different development methodologies. We further present a summary of the lessons learned as well as recommendations for future similar courses. The survey conducted at the end of the course revealed an overwhelmingly positive attitude of students towards the integration of Kanban into the course