Results from an ethnographically-informed study in the context of test driven development

Background: Test-driven development (TDD) is an iterative software development technique where unit tests are defined before production code. Previous studies fail to analyze the values, beliefs, and assumptions that inform and shape TDD. Aim: We designed and conducted a qualitative study to understand the values, beliefs, and assumptions of TDD. In particular, we sought to understand how novice and professional software developers, arranged in pairs (a driver and a pointer), perceive and apply TDD. Method: 14 novice software developers, i.e., graduate students in Computer Science at the University of Basilicata, and six professional software developers (with one to 10 years work experience) participated in our ethnographically informed study. We asked the participants to implement a new feature for an existing software written in Java. We immersed ourselves in the context of the study, and collected data by means of contemporaneous field notes, audio recordings, and other artifacts. Results: A number of insights emerge from our analysis of the collected data, the main ones being: (i) refactoring (one of the phases of TDD) is not performed as often as the process requires and it is considered less important than other phases, (ii) the most important phase is implementation, (iii) unit tests are almost never up-to-date, (iv) participants first build a sort of mental model of the source code to be implemented and only then write test cases on the basis of this model; and (v) apart from minor differences, professional developers and students applied TDD in a similar fashion. Conclusions: Developers write quick-and-dirty production code to pass the tests and ignore refactoring.This research is supported in part by the Academy of Finland Project no. 278354. We would like to acknowledge Dr. Lucas Layman and Dr. Hakan Erdogmus, who designed the task used in the study. We thank the students and the professional developers for their participation in our ethnographically-informed study

Indicating Knowledge Development: An Empirical Investigation from the Perspective of Knowledge Maturing

To remain competitive, organizations need to continuously develop their knowledge. While knowledge work is performed similarly in organizations across different sectors, the measurement and assessment of its results currently lacks standardized approaches. This paper sets out to identify indicators that are suitable for making knowledge development transparent to support monitoring of knowledge work. Therefore, a multi-phase mixed methods approach was chosen. In a series of three studies, an activity-focused perspective towards knowledge work was adopted, where knowledge is viewed as passing through a phased maturing process. An initial set of indicators was identified in an ethnographically-informed study and subsequently refined in an online survey. In the interview study, data was collected from 121 European organizations of different sizes, sectors and knowledge-intensity. Feedback from respondents provided evidence for the suitability of items for indicating knowledge maturing and revealed a structure of five factors that were labeled, interpreted and discussed

Integrating ethnographic, multidimensional, corpus linguistic and systemic functional approaches to genre description : an illustration through university history and engineering assignments

Our research aims to describe genres of assessed writing at British universities (ESRC RES-000-23-0800). To this end we have developed a corpus of 2800 texts from four years of study across four broad disciplinary groupings. Our research design integrates a corpus linguistic account of formal features in the corpus with an ethnographic investigation of the disciplinary context, a multi-dimensional analysis of register, and a functional linguistic analysis of genres. In this paper I illustrate this design with examples from history and engineering. The contextual information shows that history students write mostly essays, written as pedagogical genres, while engineering students engage in a wide range of written assignments: scientific papers are written as if to report findings to an academic audience; funding proposals are written as if to persuade a professional readership; posters are designed to inform a lay audience (e.g. visitors to a transport museum); and reflective journals are written for personal and professional development. The writing process also differs. Some assignments are written individually whereas others involve teamwork

The Multimethodological Investigation of Knowledge Sharing Practices in Eastwei

The sequential or parallel application of a number of complementary methods offers researchers the potential of a holistic perspective to analyse and interpret a phenomenon. In this paper, we report on our multimethodological investigation into the knowledge sharing practices of Eastwei, a medium sized firm providing professional services in China, guided by an overarching action research framework. We introduce the research context, explain the selection of methods, and describe our experiences in their application. We then reflect on the integration of complementary research methods and epistemologies in this research project, as well as the potential for similar integrations in future research as we assess the contributions of the research. Finally, we summarise the lessons learned and conclude the pape

“An ethnographic seduction”: how qualitative research and Agent-based models can benefit each other

We provide a general analytical framework for empirically informed agent-based simulations. This methodology provides present-day agent-based models with a sound and proper insight as to the behavior of social agents — an insight that statistical data often fall short of providing at least at a micro level and for hidden and sensitive populations. In the other direction, simulations can provide qualitative researchers in sociology, anthropology and other fields with valuable tools for: (a) testing the consistency and pushing the boundaries, of specific theoretical frameworks; (b) replicating and generalizing results; (c) providing a platform for cross-disciplinary validation of results

Promoting Asset Based Approaches for Health and Wellbeing: Exploring a Theory of Change and Challenges in Evaluation

This project sought to explore two key areas that are critical for moving to a more systematised approach to asset based action for health. These two areas are: 1. The need to develop further a Theory of Change for asset based approaches aligned to an asset model for health 2. The requirement to understand how to measure and illustrate impact and benefit from asset based approaches. Following work to develop an understanding of practice, through site visits, interviews and a think piece event, a new Theory of Change for asset-based working is presented. A rapid review of published and grey literature was also conducted to map and categorise evaluation approaches and measures used in asset-based programmes. The map of literature (33 studies) showed that a variety of methodologies and evaluation strategies are used in asset-based practice. Seven clusters were identified: Asset Based Community Development; Asset Mapping; Community-based evaluation; Conceptual frameworks for measurement; Resilience; Salutogenesis; Other

Is Participation in Community Media an Agent of Change?

In accounts of community media, participation is often described as a social process that is linked with social change. By encouraging participation, it is often argued, it should be possible to achieve socially progressive aims, such as civic democracy, social sustainability and the equitable redress of power imbalances. However, different conceptual frameworks of participation relate in different ways to the variable circumstances, practices and outcomes that are encompassed in community media. These differences are difficult to reconcile, as they relate to a wide range of dispositions and social phenomenon, which are themselves variable and indeterminate. The significance of participation as a conceptual tool, then, which is useful in the study of community media, must therefore be tested and re-examined in situ, and as it is related to the social practices that are observable. Using Herbert Blumer’s concept of neutral social processes, this paper draws on empirical evidence that was gathered from an extended period of ethnographically informed participation in Leicester’s community media networks. This study was undertaken as part of a doctoral thesis at the Centre for Commuting and Social Responsibility, De Montfort University, which sought to account for community media practices that were negotiated by agents acting in creative networks and situations. The conceptual underpinning of this study is an adaptation of Herbert Blumer’s assertion that social processes are neutral, and thereby necessitate a revaluation of our understanding of the frameworks of expectation that are associated with participative practices (Baugh, 1990; Blumer, 1990; Lauer & Handel, 1983)