Cooperative and human aspects of software engineering

Empirical Software Engineering, 2011

This column discusses the application of qualitative research for research in Software Engineering (SE). Specifically, we outline what research questions are suitable for investigation using qualitative research, what research tools are used for data gathering in qualitative research and how the qualitative data analysis process guides the formulation of answers to the research questions. Accordingly, the column provides basic knowledge for determining whether qualitative research is suitable for the investigation of specific research questions in SE. By doing so, the column contributes to researchers in the field and assists them in deciding whether to adopt the qualitative research approach.

Context: Researchers perform experiments to check their proposals under controlled conditions. Thus, experiments are an important category of empirical studies and are the classical approach for identifying cause-effect relationships. Goal: Quantitatively characterize and analyze the controlled experiments in software engineering published in journal and conference proceedings over the decade 2003-2013. Method: We performed a systematic mapping study that includes all full papers published at EASE, ESEM and ESEJ. Results: We obtained 110 papers that report controlled experiments. In these experiments we obtained quantitative data about authors and institutions, subjects, tasks, environment, replication and threats to validity. Conclusions: The main contribution of this work is to show the amount of experiments published in the three main venues of Empirical Software Engineering between the years 2003-2013 and also how these experiments have being reported and executed.

IEEE Software, 2000

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2002

ÐWhile empirical studies in software engineering are beginning to gain recognition in the research community, this subarea is also entering a new level of maturity by beginning to address the human aspects of software development. This added focus has added a new layer of complexity to an already challenging area of research. Along with new research questions, new research methods are needed to study nontechnical aspects of software engineering. In many other disciplines, qualitative research methods have been developed and are commonly used to handle the complexity of issues involving human behavior. This paper presents several qualitative methods for data collection and analysis and describes them in terms of how they might be incorporated into empirical studies of software engineering, in particular how they might be combined with quantitative methods. To illustrate this use of qualitative methods, examples from real software engineering studies are used throughout.

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2016

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J. Inf. Syst. Educ., 2008

Collaboration has become increasingly widespread in the software industry as systems have become larger and more complex, adding human complexity to the technological complexity already involved in developing software systems. To deal with this complexity, human-centric software development methods, such as Extreme Programming and other agile methods, have been developed and implemented. Aiming to prepare future software developers for today's software industry, this paper presents a framework for developing collaborative learning tools and activities, and examples that were developed for the course "Human Aspects of Software Engineering" in order to assist students in learning collaborative software development. The learning processes and knowledge construction undergone by the students in the study were examined empirically, both in general and with respect to collaboration in particular. Results indicate that, based on their individual and group in- class experience...

International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 2008

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2005

The classical method for identifying cause-effect relationships is to conduct controlled experiments. This paper reports upon the present state of how controlled experiments in software engineering are conducted and the extent to which relevant information is reported. Among the 5,453 scientific articles published in 12 leading software engineering journals and conferences in the decade from 1993 to 2002, 103 articles (1.9 percent) reported controlled experiments in which individuals or teams performed one or more software engineering tasks. This survey quantitatively characterizes the topics of the experiments and their subjects (number of subjects, students versus professionals, recruitment, and rewards for participation), tasks (type of task, duration, and type and size of application) and environments (location, development tools). Furthermore, the survey reports on how internal and external validity is addressed and the extent to which experiments are replicated. The gathered data reflects the relevance of software engineering experiments to industrial practice and the scientific maturity of software engineering research.

Proceedings of the 2008 international workshop on Cooperative and human aspects of software engineering - CHASE '08, 2008

We have developed software tools that aim to support the cooperative software engineering tasks and promote an awareness of social dependencies that is essential to successful coordination. The tools share common characteristics that can be traced back to the principles of the Continuous Coordination (CC) paradigm. However, the development of each sprung from carrying out a different set of activities during its development process. In this paper, we outline the principles of the CC paradigm, the tools that implement these principles and focus on the social aspects of software engineering. Finally, we discuss the socio-technical and human-centered processes we adopted to develop these tools. Our conclusion is that the cooperative dimension of our tools represents the cooperation between researchers, subjects, and field sites. Our conclusion suggests that the development processes adopted to develop like-tools need to reflect this cooperative dimension.

2008

Software engineering is a complex socio-technical activity, due to the need for discussing and sharing knowledge among team members. This has raised the need for effective ways of sharing ideas, knowledge, and artifacts among groups and their members. The social aspect of software engineering process also demands computer support to facilitate the development by means of collaborative tools, applications and environments. In this paper, we present a survey of relevant works from psychology, mathematics and computer science studies. The combination of these fields provides the required infrastructure for engineering social and collaborative applications as well as the software engineering process. We also discuss possible solutions for the encountered shortcomings, and how they can improve software development.