A study of refactorings during software change tasks

Developers frequently undertake software change tasks that could be partially or fully automated by refactoring tools. As has been reported by others, all too often, these refactoring steps are instead performed manually by developers. These missed opportunities are referred to as occasions of disuse of refactoring tools. We perform an observational study in which 17 developers with professional experience attempt to solve three change tasks with steps amenable to the use of refactoring tools. We found that the strategies developers use to approach these tasks shape their workflow, which, in turn, shape the opportunities for refactoring tool use. We report on a number of findings about developer strategies, demonstrating the difficulty of aligning the kind of refactoring steps that emerge during a change task based on the strategy with the tools available. We also report on findings about refactoring tools, such as the difficulties developers face in controlling the scope of application of the tools. Our findings can help inform the designers of refactoring tools.publishedVersio

Cultivating a Team Mindset about Productivity with a Nudge: A Field Study in Hybrid Development Teams

While there has been significant study of both individuals and teams of knowledge workers, research has focused largely on one or the other, with less focus on the interaction between the two. In this paper, we explore the tensions between the individual and their team, focusing on the choices an individual makes towards their own productivity versus their team's productivity. We developed a technology probe with a team nudge that fosters recurring reflection and prompts individuals to consider how their team helps them to be productive. We examined its impact through a longitudinal field study with 48 participants. We chose to undertake this study with software development teams as they are examples of knowledge workers who collaborate on a shared set of tasks with specific goals. Our exploration took place with hybrid development teams, which have increasingly become the norm. Our analysis of a total of 8338 hourly self-reports and 1389 daily diary entries found that the team nudge increased participants' productivity ratings and team awareness, led to participants spending more time on their own tasks, reshaped their perceptions of themselves and their team, yet, in general, did not increase team cohesion or affect well-being

Developers’ Diverging Perceptions of Productivity

To overcome the ever-growing demand for software, software development organizations strive to enhance the productivity of their developers. But what does productivity mean in the context of software development? A substantial amount of work on developer productivity has been undertaken over the past four decades. The majority of this work considered productivity from a top-down perspective (the manager view) in terms of the artifacts and code created per unit of time. Common examples of such productivity measures are the lines of source code modified per hour, the resolution time for modification requests, or function points created per month. These productivity measures focus on a single, output-oriented factor for quantifying productivity, and do not take into account developers’ individual work roles, practices and other factors that might affect their productivity, such as work fragmentation, the tools used, or the work/office environment. In our research, we investigated how productivity could be quantified from the bottom-up, following a mixed-methods approach that involved more than 800 software developers. By investigating developers’ individual productivity, it is possible to better understand the individual work habits and patterns, how they relate to the productivity perceptions and also which factors are most relevant for a developer’s productivity

Automating intention mining

Dataset available at https://github.com/tkdsheep/Intention-Mining-TSE</p

Child Psychosocial Adjustment and Parenting in Families Affected by Maternal HIV/AIDS

Child adjustment and parenting were examined in 23 9-through 16-year-old youth from families affected by maternal HIV infection and 20 same-age peers whose mothers were not infected. Children whose mothers were seropositive reported significantly more externalizing problems. Infected mothers reported less age-appropriate supervision/monitoring relative to non-infected mothers. Better mother-child relationship quality and less impairment in parental supervision/monitoring of age-appropriate youth behaviors were associated with fewer externalizing difficulties among the HIV-positive group only. Similarly, only among HIV-infected mothers was refraining from engaging in inconsistent disciplinary tactics associated with lower reports of internalizing and externalizing problems. These data highlight the promise of programs targeting parenting skills to prevent or ameliorate child difficulties