Motivating developer performance to improve project outcomes in a high maturity organization

In this paper we discuss the impact software developer performance has on project outcomes. Project performance remains unreliable in the software industry with many compromised software systems reported in the press. We investigate the impact that developer performance has on aspects of project success and explore how developer performance is motivated. We present interview, focus group and questionnaire data collected from a team of developers working in a software organization that has been assessed at CMM level 5. Our main findings are that developers value technical skills in their colleagues, but appreciate these especially when supplemented with good human skills. Software developers with a proactive, flexible, adaptable approach who are prepared to share knowledge and follow good practice are said to be the best developers. Motivators for these developers are pay and benefits, recognition and opportunities for achievement in their work. Overall, we found that technical competence, interpersonal skills and adherence to good practices are thought to have the biggest impact on software project success.

Response evaluation in computer based tutorials

Abstract  This paper describes a program that allows students to undertake nomenclature tutorials in organic chemistry. The user response is evaluated according to a set of rules, based on those (rules) for naming organic compounds systematically, so that appropriate feedback and help can be given to the user at all levels within the problem. The approach to the design and implementation of this rule-based feature is described and those aspects that are relevant to computer based tutorials in general are discussed.     

A framework for artificial intelligence applications software development

Despite the promise and prominence of artificial intelligence, successful widely-based applications have been rare. Much of previous artificial intelligence work has concentrated on the demonstration of techniques rather than the development of tools that can be used in systems design, analysis and operation. A systematic program of knowledge compilation in artificial intelligence is proposed where extensible function libraries can be used by professionals in various fields and non-programming specialists in developing artificial intelligence applications.     

Motivation in software engineering industrial practice: A cross-case analysis of two software organisations

ContextThe research about motivation in software engineering has provided important insights into characterizing factors and outcomes related to motivation. However, the complex relationships among these factors, including the moderating and mediating effects of organisational and individual characteristics, still require deeper explanatory investigation.ObjectiveOur general goal is to build explanatory theories of motivation in different software organisations and to integrate these local theories towards a comprehensive understanding of the role of motivation in the effectiveness of the individuals and the teams in which they work. In this article, we describe the integrative synthesis of the results of two case studies performed with software organisations in different business contexts.MethodWe performed two case studies using a multiple-case, replication design, focusing on the software engineers as the unit of analysis. For 13 months, we conducted semi structured interviews, diary studies, and document analyses, and analysed the collected data using grounded theory procedures. The results of the two cases were synthesized using a meta-ethnography supported process.ResultsWe built translations of the concepts and propositions from the two studies into one another. We then used the translations to build a central story of motivation that synthesizes the individual stories. This synthesis is contextualized by the differences in organisational and individual characteristics.ConclusionThe differences in organisational contexts and in the characteristics of the software engineers in each study provided rich explanations for contrasts in perceptions and feelings about motivation in both organisations. The theory that emerged from the synthesis, supported by these explanations, provides a deeper understanding of the interplay between motivators and outcomes, and the needs and personal goals of the software engineers. This theory also characterises the role of team cohesion in motivation, advancing previous models about motivation in software engineering.     

Computer support for peer-based methodology tutorials

Abstract This paper reports on a study that was designed to explore computer support for peer-based learning in methodology tutorials. In particular, software was developed to organise group discussion, with the aim of leaving students free to concentrate on the more productive elements of group dialogue, and in particular discussing their ideas. Forty-three undergraduate psychology students in groups of 3–4 were given a series of computer-supported methodology tutorials designed to structure their discussion around issues concerning the design of their Honours dissertation. Students gave individual ratings of their reactions to both the software and the tutorial sessions more generally. A sample of their discussions was videotaped and the dialogues analysed. The written assignments in which they detailed their proposed empirical work (the 'Design Exercise') were blind marked and compared to a sample of similar assignments from the previous year. The results demonstrated that the computer-supported tutorials resulted in better quality Design Exercises, that the students' dialogues were overwhelmingly task-focussed and substantially transactive, and that their expressed satisfaction was generally high but with a desire for more preparation time before and between tutorials. The implications of the study for the use of computers to support groupwork are discussed.     

Automated assembly of Internet-scale software systems involving autonomous agents

On the Internet, there is a great amount of distributed software entities deployed independently and behaving autonomously. This paper describes an automated approach to constructing Internet-scale software systems based on autonomous software agents. In the approach, the systems are modeled by interconnected divisions and cooperative roles. The approach adopts a dynamic trial-and-evaluation strategy to select high quality autonomous agents to undertake the responsibilities of roles, and implements a special mobile agent, called delegate, carrying the interaction information specified for responsibilities of roles to facilitate the interoperations among autonomous agents. The experiments show that the approach is highly scalable and improves the overall qualities of systems remarkably.     

Motivated humans for reliable software products

This paper focuses on the software engineer, as opposed to some software engineering discipline. The author's worldwide experience in software development has resulted in concluding that the vast majority of problems encountered while developing software are more people oriented rather than technology based. Therefore, for there to be any improvements in the reliability of software, it may be wise to revisit some of the people issues, otherwise, even the best methods, tools and techniques will not make an impact on the software development process so as to result in higher levels of software quality. Many are the problems which the software engineer is faced with while trying to piece together the complex information systems that the current global market dictates. Lack of office space and engineer concentration, unpaid overtime, non-productive meeting cultures, performance appraisals and absence of team work all contribute to the demotivation of the software engineer. Trying to introduce a new tool or a new technique to a demotivated staff is simply a waste of time. Thus, it is of paramount importance to realize that in the labour intensive software development world, the focus must first be on the human factor. Basic human nature has not changed over the years, therefore, the author sought out solutions from the past regarding the management of people, so as to be applied today in the development of software. This paper concludes with a ‘euphoria quadrant’ so as to provide a simple means for software producing units to gauge their management style and their overall working environment.     

Leadership characteristics and developers’ motivation in open source software development

Open Source Software (OSS) is generally developed by interested professionals who have decided to participate in the process. The presence of effective leaders who both steer the development and motivate the developers is crucial to ensure a successful product. Using path-goal theory and built on leadership and motivation theories, we proposed and tested a model that can be used to assess the relationship between an OSS project leader's leadership style and a developer's motivation to contribute to the software development. We specifically decomposed the leadership and motivation construct to understand the hidden mechanisms by which leadership impacts motivation. A set of survey data collected from 118 OSS developers on Sourceforge.net was used to test our hypotheses. Our results indicate that leaders’ transformational leadership is positively related to developers’ intrinsic motivation and that leaders’ active management style is positively related to the developers’ extrinsic motivation.     

Volunteers’ involvement in online community based software development

We sought to gain understanding of voluntary developers’ involvement in open source software (OSS) projects. Data were collected from voluntary developers working on open source projects. Our findings indicated that a voluntary developer's involvement was very important to his or her performance and that involvement was dependent on individual motivations (personal software needs, reputation and skills gaining expectation, enjoyment in open source coding) and project community factors (leadership effectiveness, interpersonal relationship, community ideology). Our work contributes theoretically and empirically to the body of OSS research and has practical implications for OSS project management.     

Tropism-based cognition: a novel software architecture for agents in colonies

A novel architecture for agents in colonies has been developed in order to investigate certain forms of group interaction. Specifically, we are interested in the extent to which overall goals for a colony can be achieved when each agent is only aware of limited local goals, whether the architecture allows for emergence of unexpected behaviour, and whether explicit communication among agents facilitates or hinders task performance. The architecture supports several forms of learning. Large colonies of agents (as many as 100) have been studied in simulation experiments, where they carried out fetch-and-carry tasks in the presence of predators and with limited energy reserves. In addition, a physical colony of four agents has been fabricated with the same architecture, to ensure that the behaviours observed in simulation were also present in the hardware implementations.     

Performance of software agents in non-transferable payoff group buying

Abstract

In previous papers (O'Hearn &; Stachniak 1989b, Stachniak &; O'Hearn 1990, Stachniak 1989,1990a) we proposed an algebraic methodological framework for the introduction and analysis of resolution proof systems for finitely-valued logical calculi. In the present paper we extend this approach to a wider class of the so-called resolution logics.     

Towards understanding the underlying structure of motivational factors for software engineers to guide the definition of motivational programs

Aim

In this article, factors influencing the motivation of software engineers is studied with the goal of guiding the definition of motivational programs.

Method

Using a set of 20 motivational factors compiled in a systematic literature review and a general theory of motivation, a survey questionnaire was created to evaluate the influence of these factors on individual motivation. Then, the questionnaire was applied on a semi-random sample of 176 software engineers from 20 software companies located in Recife-PE, Brazil.

Results

The survey results show the actual level of motivation for each motivator in the target population. Using principal component analysis on the values of all motivators, a five factor structure was identified and used to propose a guideline for the creation of motivational programs for software engineers.

Conclusions

The five factor structure provides an intuitive categorization for the set of variables and can be used to explain other motivational models presented in the literature. This contributes to a better understanding of motivation in software engineering.     

Visualizing protected variations in evolving software designs

Identifying and tracking evolving software structures at a design level is a challenging task. Although there are ways to visualize this information statically, there is a need for methods that help analyzing the evolution of software design elements. In this paper, we present a new visual approach to identify variability zones in software designs and explore how they evolve over time. To verify the usefulness of our approach, we did a user study in which participants had to browse software histories and find visual patterns. Most participants were able to find interesting observations and found our approach intuitive and useful. We present a number of design aspects that were observed by participants and the authors using our IHVis tool on four open-source projects.     

一种软件智能部署方法的研究

研究了能够根据不同环境自动调整软件部署过程的软件智能部署问题。介绍并分析现有软件的部署工具,提出了软件智能部署的概念、整体框架和部署工作流程。介绍并分析了软件规范化描述语言和客户端信息的模型描述方法。在此基础之上,提出了一种能够根据环境差异,自动调整软件部署过程的软件智能部署算法。最后,对比并分析了软件智能部署实际应用效果。     

A fuzzy logic based approach for phase-wise software defects prediction using software metrics

ContextThe software defect prediction during software development has recently attracted the attention of many researchers. The software defect density indicator prediction in each phase of software development life cycle (SDLC) is desirable for developing a reliable software product. Software defect prediction at the end of testing phase may not be more beneficial because the changes need to be performed in the previous phases of SDLC may require huge amount of money and effort to be spent in order to achieve target software quality. Therefore, phase-wise software defect density indicator prediction model is of great importance.ObjectiveIn this paper, a fuzzy logic based phase-wise software defect prediction model is proposed using the top most reliability relevant metrics of the each phase of the SDLC.MethodIn the proposed model, defect density indicator in requirement analysis, design, coding and testing phase is predicted using nine software metrics of these four phases. The defect density indicator metric predicted at the end of the each phase is also taken as an input to the next phase. Software metrics are assessed in linguistic terms and fuzzy inference system has been employed to develop the model.ResultsThe predictive accuracy of the proposed model is validated using twenty real software project data. Validation results are satisfactory. Measures based on the mean magnitude of relative error and balanced mean magnitude of relative error decrease significantly as the software project size increases.ConclusionIn this paper, a fuzzy logic based model is proposed for predicting software defect density indicator at each phase of the SDLC. The predicted defects of twenty different software projects are found very near to the actual defects detected during testing. The predicted defect density indicators are very helpful to analyze the defect severity in different artifacts of SDLC of a software project.     

Motivating and achievement-eliciting pop-ups in online environments: A user experience perspective

The aim of the present research was to develop pop-up windows that motivate users and evoke a positive user experience. Several variants of achievement eliciting pop-ups were designed and tested on a real business-website. A pre-test examined the effectiveness of 24 combinations of pictures and words in eliciting achievement motivation. The strongest effects on user experience were found for pop-ups containing a congruent achievement-related picture and word. The three pop-up variants with the most positive ratings were employed in a subsequent experiment.The main experiment tested the effects of a sequence of three pop-ups that were presented on a website. We had three conditions with different display times of the sequence of pop-ups. They were presented to 78 website-users for either 1, 2 or 3 s, and compared to a control group on subsequent motivation-related ratings. The results demonstrated that the website was stronger associated with achievement motivation if pop-ups were presented for only 1 or 2 s, compared with 3 s or the control group. This indicates that short presentations of pop-ups could activate achievement motivation in users of learning and business websites. It could be an important design guideline to flash shorter pop-ups that make online environments more appealing to users.     

An empirical analysis of the impact of software development problem factors on software maintainability

Many problem factors in the software development phase affect the maintainability of the delivered software systems. Therefore, understanding software development problem factors can help in not only reducing the incidence of project failure but can also ensure software maintainability. This study focuses on those software development problem factors which may possibly affect software maintainability. Twenty-five problem factors were classified into five dimensions; a questionnaire was designed and 137 software projects were surveyed. A K-means cluster analysis was performed to classify the projects into three groups of low, medium and high maintainability projects. For projects which had a higher level of severity of problem factors, the influence on software maintainability becomes more obvious. The influence of software process improvement (SPI) on project problems and the associated software maintainability was also examined in this study. Results suggest that SPI can help reduce the level of severity of the documentation quality and process management problems, and is only likely to enhance software maintainability to a medium level. Finally, the top 10 list of higher-severity software development problem factors was identified, and implications were discussed.     

Supporting visually impaired children with software agents in a multimodal learning environment

Visually impaired children have a great disadvantage in the modern society since their ability to use modern computer technology is limited due to inappropriate user interfaces. The aim of the work presented in this paper was to develop a multimodal software architecture and applications to support learning of visually impaired children. The software architecture is based on software agents, and has specific support for visual, auditory and haptic interaction. It has been used successfully with different groups of 7-8 year-old and 12 year-old visually impaired children. In this paper we discuss the enabling software technology and interaction techniques aimed to realize our goal and our experiences in the actual use of the system.     

WSN in cyber physical systems: Enhanced energy management routing approach using software agents

Recently, the cyber physical system has emerged as a promising direction to enrich the interactions between physical and virtual worlds. Meanwhile, a lot of research is dedicated to wireless sensor networks as an integral part of cyber physical systems. A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a wireless network consisting of spatially distributed autonomous devices that use sensors to monitor physical or environmental conditions. These autonomous devices, or nodes, combine with routers and a gateway to create a typical WSN system. Shrinking size and increasing deployment density of wireless sensor nodes implies the smaller equipped battery size. This means emerging wireless sensor nodes must compete for efficient energy utilization to increase the WSN lifetime. The network lifetime is defined as the time duration until the first sensor node in a network fails due to battery depletion. One solution for enhancing the lifetime of WSN is to utilize mobile agents. In this paper, we propose an agent-based approach that performs data processing and data aggregation decisions locally i.e., at nodes rather than bringing data back to a central processor (sink). Our proposed approach increases the network lifetime by generating an optimal routing path for mobile agents to transverse the network. The proposed approach consists of two phases. In the first phase, Dijkstra’s algorithm is used to generate a complete graph to connect all source nodes in a WSN. In the second phase, a genetic algorithm is used to generate the best-approximated route for mobile agents in a radio harsh environment to route the sensory data to the base-station. To demonstrate the feasibility of our approach, a formal analysis and experimental results are presented.     

A comparison of paper-based and video tutorials for software learning

Instruction on software usage has long been dominated by the paper-based tutorial. This dominance is now being challenged with the rise of facilities for producing and publishing recorded demonstrations (video). Typically, each instructional medium has its own qualities. The present study aimed to optimize the design of a video tutorial for software training by attending to both its strengths and its weaknesses vis-à-vis a paper-based tutorial. Based on a distinction between two functionally different components in software tutorials, four tutorial configurations were compared: Paper-based, Mixed A (paper-based preview and video procedure), Mixed B (video preview and paper-based procedure), and Video. The 111 fifth and sixth grade participants (mean age 11.8) received instructions about Word's formatting options. The findings indicated significant and substantial improvements from pre-test to training in all conditions. In addition, participants in the Mixed A, Mixed B, and Video conditions outperformed those in the Paper-based condition. Significant and substantial learning gains were found from pre-test to post-test. Both the Mixed B and Video conditions outperformed the Paper-based condition. The success of the Mixed A, Mixed B, and Video tutorials is ascribed to the use of design guidelines for software training that direct the designer to optimize video's strong qualities and moderate or reduce its relative weaknesses.