Despite the heated debate on whether hybrid work would be the new normal in the post-pandemic wor... more Despite the heated debate on whether hybrid work would be the new normal in the post-pandemic world, it is an exciting, if not new, research phenomenon for Software Engineering (SE) researchers. Hybrid work has a wide range of dimensions and aspects that need exploration and understanding for modern software companies to truly benefit from it. In this paper, we propose a framework that incorporates multiple perspectives on hybrid work in software engineering. We applied the framework to group a set of research topics collected at the GoHyb (Global and Hybrid Work in Software Engineering) workshop collocated with the XP2023 conference, and extrapolated some new topics based on the framework, to demonstrate various research questions that can be asked on hybrid work in software engineering. We conclude the paper with a remark on the need of more contextual and nuanced understanding of hybrid work in software engineering.
This work involved human subjects or animals in its research. The author(s) confirm(s) that all h... more This work involved human subjects or animals in its research. The author(s) confirm(s) that all human/animal subject research procedures and protocols are exempt from review board approval.
Proceedings of the European Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs 2020
In safety-critical systems keeping complete trace of requirements and detailed testing is an extr... more In safety-critical systems keeping complete trace of requirements and detailed testing is an extremely relevant part of software development life cycle. Safety standards like ISO 26262, DO178C and many others prescribe that critical requirements must be completely traceable. These standards also demand detailed and regression testing of system. Here we present some patterns that deal with these concerns in an agile way. First set of patterns describe the key mechanism to list the sources of safety requirements and a mechanism for traceability of those requirements. It uses an approach that satisfies safety standards and adapts agile behavior where possible. The second pattern is about test automation for safety-critical systems, which complements our first set of patterns. It decreases the amount of documentation required for traceability and testing of features but without any compromise on essential testing. These patterns will facilitate the team to perform requirement's traceability and regular, rigorous testing in a timely and cost efficient manner. CCS CONCEPTS • Software and its engineering → Agile software development; Agile software development; Requirements analysis.
Context] The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disruptive impact on how people work and collaborate acr... more Context] The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disruptive impact on how people work and collaborate across all global economic sectors, including software business. While remote working is not new for software engineers, forced Work-from-home situations come with both constraints, limitations and opportunities for individuals, software teams and software companies. As the "new normal" for working might be based on the current state of Work From Home (WFH), it is useful to understand what has happened and learn from that. [Objective] The goal of this study is to gain insights on how their WFH environment impacts software project and software companies. We are also interested in understanding if the impact differs between software startups and established companies. [Method] We conducted a global-scale, cross-sectional survey during spring and summer 2021. Our results are based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of 297 valid responses. [Results] We observed a mixed perception on the impact of WFH on software project management, resilience and innovation. Certain patterns on WFH, control and coordination mechanisms, and collaborative tools are observed globally. We find that team, agility and leadership are the three most important factors for achieving resilience during the pandemic. Although startups do not perceive the impact of WFH differently, there is a difference between engineers who work in a small team context and those who work in a large team context. [Conclusion] The result suggests a contingency approach in studying and improving WFH practices and environment in future software industry.
Metrics can be used by businesses to make more objective decisions based on data. Software startu... more Metrics can be used by businesses to make more objective decisions based on data. Software startups in particular are characterized by the uncertain or even chaotic nature of the contexts in which they operate. Using data in the form of metrics can help software startups to make the right decisions amidst uncertainty and limited resources. However, whereas conventional business metrics and software metrics have been studied in the past, metrics in the specific context of software startup are not widely covered within academic literature. To promote research in this area and to create a starting point for it, we have conducted a multi-vocal literature review focusing on practitioner literature in order to compile a list of metrics used by software startups. Said list is intended to serve as a basis for further research in the area, as the metrics in it are based on suggestions made by practitioners and not empirically verified.
The Internet of Things (IoT) bears great potential for innovation in modern companies. Agility an... more The Internet of Things (IoT) bears great potential for innovation in modern companies. Agility and speed both matter when innovating in such a context. The rst Inno4IoT workshop focuses on how to properly achieve and balance the two aspects while innovating IoT-based solutions, which represents unique opportunities and challenges to researchers and practitioners alike. An overview of the three working papers presented and published in the workshop is provided in this introductory paper.
2022 IEEE/ACM 44th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training (ICSE-SEET)
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic prohibited radically the collocation and face-to-face inter... more The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic prohibited radically the collocation and face-to-face interactions of participants in coding bootcamps and similar experiences, which are key characteristics that help participants to advance technical work. Several specific issues are faced and need to be solved when running online coding camps, which can achieve the same level of positive outcomes for participants. One of such issues is how to keep the same level of fun that participants obtained through physical activities and interactions in the face-to-face settings. In this paper, we report on our experience and insights gained from designing and running a fully remote coding camp that exposes high school students to Agile-based Software Engineering practices to enhance their ability to develop high-quality software. To design the online coding camp, we adapted the face-to-face version of the coding camp to keep the same "level of fun", i.e., adaptations aimed at increasing communication, engaging participants, and introducing fun items to reduce fatigue due to prolonged computer use, while preserving the technical curriculum that enables students to attain the learning goals originally planned. The comparison with the results of the face-to-face coding camp shows that we succeeded in keeping the fun alive in the online edition, and the participants of online camp were able to produce the results at the same level of quality in terms of product and process as in the face-to-face edition. From our experience, we synthesize lessons learned, and we sketch some guidelines for educators. CCS CONCEPTS • Applied computing → Distance learning; Collaborative learning; • Software and its engineering → Collaboration in software development.
Context: Software startups develop innovative, software-intensive products. Given the uncertainty... more Context: Software startups develop innovative, software-intensive products. Given the uncertainty associated with such an innovative context, experimentation, an approach based on validating assumptions about the software product through data obtained from diverse techniques, like A/B tests or interviews, is valuable for these companies. Relying on data rather than opinions reduces the chance of developing unnecessary products or features, improving the likelihood of success, especially in early development stages, when implementing unnecessary features represents a higher risk for companies' survival. Nevertheless, researchers have argued that the lack of clearly defined practices led to limited adoption of experimentation. Since the first step of the approach is to define hypotheses, testable statements about the software product features, based on which software development teams will create experiments, eliciting hypotheses is a natural first step to develop practices. Objective: We aim to develop a systematic technique for identifying hypotheses in early-stage software startups to support experimentation in these companies and, consequently, improve their software products. Methods: We followed a Design Science approach consisting of an artifact construction process, divided in three phases, and an evaluation within three startups. Results: We developed the HyMap, a hypotheses elicitation technique based on cognitive mapping. It consists of a process conducted by a facilitator using pre-defined questions, supported by a visual language to depict a cognitive map representing the founder's understanding of the product. Our evaluation showed that founders perceived the artifacts as clear, easy to use, and useful leading to hypotheses and facilitating their idea's visualization. Conclusion: From a theoretical perspective, our study provides a better understanding of the guidance founders use to develop their startups and, from a practical point of view, a technique to identify hypotheses in early-stage software startups.
2017 IEEE/ACM 39th International Conference on Software Engineering Companion (ICSE-C), 2017
Recent research in software engineering supports the "happy-productive" thesis, and the desire of... more Recent research in software engineering supports the "happy-productive" thesis, and the desire of flourishing happiness among programmers is often expressed by industry practitioners. Recent literature has suggested that a cost-effective way to foster happiness and productivity among workers could be to limit unhappiness of developers due to its negative impact. However, possible negative effects of unhappiness are still largely unknown in the software development context. In this paper, we present the first results from a study exploring the consequences of the unhappy developers. Using qualitative data analysis of the survey responses given by 181 participants, we identified 49 potential consequences of unhappiness while developing software. These results have several implications. While raising the awareness of the role of moods, emotions and feelings in software development, we foresee that our classification scheme will spawn new happiness studies linking causes and effects, and it can act as a guideline for developers and managers to foster happiness at work.
Software startup companies develop innovative, software-intensive products within limited timefra... more Software startup companies develop innovative, software-intensive products within limited timeframes and with few resources, searching for sustainable and scalable business models. Software startup ...
2019 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software and System Processes (ICSSP), 2019
Internet-of-Things applications are not only the new opportunity for digital businesses but also ... more Internet-of-Things applications are not only the new opportunity for digital businesses but also a major driving force for the modification and creation of software systems in all industries and businesses. Compared to other types of software-intensive products, the development of Internet-of-Things applications lacks a systematic approach and guidelines. This paper aims at understanding the methodological commonalities among startups who are developing Internet-of-Things products. Using the SEMAT Essence framework, we captured common team compositions, common types of Minimum Viable Products and common way of working in early stage Internetof-Things startups. We found that startups include various engineering and business competence, but do not cover all of what is needed. The development of Internet-of-Things applications adopts certain speed-favor approaches, i.e. rapid prototyping, iterative development and outsourcing. The finding implies some recommendations for both researchers and practitioners in the area of Internet-of-Things development.
Software startups need to work in a systematic fashion just like mature organizations. However, e... more Software startups need to work in a systematic fashion just like mature organizations. However, existing software engineering methods and practices are not aimed at software startups. They do not account for the business aspect of startups and may not be well suited for software startups in general. The Lean Startup Methodology on the other hand contains some useful practices for software startups but is nonetheless impractical, offering little in the way of telling you what to do. Software startups are thus required to tailor their own method. Currently, many software startups simply work ad hoc or use various Agile methods and practices. In terms of Agile methods and practices, little consensus exists between startups. In this chapter, we discuss methods and method tailoring. We give guidelines on how to create your own way of working and recommend a tangible tool for doing so: the Essence Theory of Software Engineering.
Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, 2017
It is essential for startups to quickly experiment business ideas by building tangible prototypes... more It is essential for startups to quickly experiment business ideas by building tangible prototypes and collecting user feedback on them. As prototyping is an inevitable part of learning for early stage software startups, how fast startups can learn depends on how fast they can prototype. Despite of the importance, there is a lack of research about prototyping in software startups. In this study, we aimed at understanding what are factors influencing different types of prototyping activities. We conducted a multiple case study on twenty European software startups. The results are two folds; firstly we propose a prototype-centric learning model in early stage software startups. Secondly, we identify factors occur as barriers but also facilitators for prototyping in early stage software startups. The factors are grouped into (1) artifacts, (2) team competence, (3) collaboration, (4) customer and (5) process dimensions. To speed up a startup's progress at the early stage, it is important to incorporate the learning objective into a well-defined collaborative approach of prototyping.
Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2019
The need of skills other than technical from software developers is becoming evident. The DevOps ... more The need of skills other than technical from software developers is becoming evident. The DevOps movement is an example of that applied to operational tasks. Startup development methodologies focus on business activities in innovative organizations. Several universities offer courses based on these methodologies to software engineering students, mainly to improve their creativity, problem solving, and business skills. This paper investigates how software engineering students learned startup development methodologies and discusses what are the challenges and benefits in their learning process. We conducted a multi-method study in three different universities. The data was collected in two phases and analyzed using thematic analysis. Our study reveals that students realized the importance of collaboration with other courses and the importance of user involvement in development. However, students tend to oversimplify concepts, trying to adapt them to what they are familiar with. The results indicate the necessity of business education for technical students and directions for improvements. CCS CONCEPTS • Social and professional topics → Software engineering education.
Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, 2017
The happy-productive worker thesis states that happy workers are more productive. Recent research... more The happy-productive worker thesis states that happy workers are more productive. Recent research in software engineering supports the thesis, and the ideal of flourishing happiness among software developers is often expressed among industry practitioners. However, the literature suggests that a cost-effective way to foster happiness and productivity among workers could be to limit unhappiness. Psychological disorders such as job burnout and anxiety could also be reduced by limiting the negative experiences of software developers. Simultaneously, a baseline assessment of (un)happiness and knowledge about how developers experience it are missing. In this paper, we broaden the understanding of unhappiness among software developers in terms of (1) the software developer population distribution of (un)happiness, and (2) the causes of unhappiness while developing software. We conducted a large-scale quantitative and qualitative survey, incorporating a psychometrically validated instrument for measuring (un)happiness, with 2 220 developers, yielding a rich and balanced sample of 1 318 complete responses. Our results indicate that software developers are a slightly happy population, but the need for limiting the unhappiness of developers remains. We also identified 219 factors representing causes of unhappiness while developing software. Our results, which are available as open data, can act as guidelines for practitioners in management positions and developers in general for fostering happiness on the job. We suggest considering happiness in future studies of both human and technical aspects in software engineering.
2017 IEEE/ACM 2nd International Workshop on Emotion Awareness in Software Engineering (SEmotion), 2017
The growing literature on affect among software developers mostly reports on the linkage between ... more The growing literature on affect among software developers mostly reports on the linkage between happiness, software quality, and developer productivity. Understanding the positive side of happiness-positive emotions and moods-is an attractive and important endeavor. Scholars in industrial and organizational psychology have suggested that also studying the negative side-unhappiness-could lead to cost-effective ways of enhancing working conditions, job performance, and to limiting the occurrence of psychological disorders. Our comprehension of the consequences of (un)happiness among developers is still too shallow, and is mainly expressed in terms of development productivity and software quality. In this paper, we attempt to uncover the experienced consequences of unhappiness among software developers. Using qualitative data analysis of the responses given by 181 questionnaire participants, we identified 49 consequences of unhappiness while doing software development. We found detrimental consequences on developers' mental well-being, the software development process, and the produced artifacts. Our classification scheme, available as open data, will spawn new happiness research opportunities of cause-effect type, and it can act as a guideline for practitioners for identifying damaging effects of unhappiness and for fostering happiness on the job.
Following the highly pervasive and effective use of agile methods at the team level, many softwar... more Following the highly pervasive and effective use of agile methods at the team level, many software organisations now wish to replicate this success at the organisational level, adopting large-scale agile methods such as SAFe, Scrum-at-Scale, and others. However, this has proven significantly challenging. An analysis of the extant literature reveals a disparate set of studies across each individual method, with no cross-method comparison based on empirical evidence. This systematic literature review compares the main large-scale agile methods, namely SAFe, LeSS, Scrum-at-Scale, DAD, and the Spotify model. It is the first study to analyse and compare each of the method's principles, practices, tools, and metrics in a standardised manner. For each method, it presents not just the original method specifications but also all extensions and modifications to each method proposed by subsequent empirical research. It includes in this comparison not just commercial large-scale methods but also those that have been custom-built in organisations such as Nokia, Ericsson, and others. Based on the findings reported in this study, practitioners can make a more informed decision as to which commercial method or method component or, indeed, custom-built method is better suited to their needs. Our study reveals a number of theoretical and practical issues in the current literature, such as an emphasis on the practices of commercial frameworks at the expense of their underlying principles, or indeed any of the custom method. A set of challenges and success factors associated with the use of large-scale agile methods are identified. The study also identifies a number of research gaps to be addressed across methods.
Context: Startups are disrupting traditional markets and replacing wellestablished actors with th... more Context: Startups are disrupting traditional markets and replacing wellestablished actors with their innovative products.To compete in this age of disruption, large and established companies cannot rely on traditional ways of advancement, which focus on cost efficiency, lead time reduction and quality improvement. Corporate management is now looking for possibilities to innovate like startups. Along with it, the awareness and the use of the Lean startup approach have grown rapidly amongst the software startup community and large companies in recent years. Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate how Lean internal startup facilitates software product innovation in large companies. This study also identifies the enablers and inhibitors for Lean internal startups.
International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science, 2014
The mobile device market has witnessed swift industrial growth over the last decade. The quick ex... more The mobile device market has witnessed swift industrial growth over the last decade. The quick expansion of this new computing platform has almost outpaced the software engineering processes customized to mobile application development. However, there is still lack of novel research initiatives around the mobile application development process. There remains a deficiency in development standards and best practices which expose the mobile device to potential attacks. This deficiency needs to be addressed promptly and requires further work. The objective of this research is to better understand the current methodologies adapted and to investigate challenges faced during the mobile application development processes that are different from traditional enterprise application. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted from the mobile research and development community. The survey questions covered the entire mobile application development lifecycle starting with requirements, and ending with bringing to life a complete mobile application. The study contributes towards a greater understanding of mobile application development process, examines real challenges confronted, and investigates the best practices that can be successfully implemented to enhance, evaluate, and improve the performance of the mobile application development process. These findings can also be considered as a possible research topic that indicates the breadth of research requirements and prospects in mobile computing. Index Terms-Mobile devices, mobile apps, mobile app development, mobile computing, mobile issues and challenges, mobile development best practices
Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Software and System Process, 2015
A growing number of companies are discovering that their software development processes must be i... more A growing number of companies are discovering that their software development processes must be in compliance with some form of regulation. This is particularly so when it comes to safety-critical or business-critical systems such as Automotive Software, Robotics, Medical Devices or Financial Management systems. These regulations affect the software development process itself in various forms. Furthermore, much attention is being given to ways of improving the efficiency of businesses, for example, by adopting lean principles. This raises the question for how to adopt lean principles for software development within a regulated environment? This poster presents the results of our empirical research into lean and regulated software development. Built from a combination of data sources, we have developed a conceptual framework comprising five primary components. In addition the relationships they have with both the central focus of the framework (the situated software development practices) and with each other are indicated.
Despite the heated debate on whether hybrid work would be the new normal in the post-pandemic wor... more Despite the heated debate on whether hybrid work would be the new normal in the post-pandemic world, it is an exciting, if not new, research phenomenon for Software Engineering (SE) researchers. Hybrid work has a wide range of dimensions and aspects that need exploration and understanding for modern software companies to truly benefit from it. In this paper, we propose a framework that incorporates multiple perspectives on hybrid work in software engineering. We applied the framework to group a set of research topics collected at the GoHyb (Global and Hybrid Work in Software Engineering) workshop collocated with the XP2023 conference, and extrapolated some new topics based on the framework, to demonstrate various research questions that can be asked on hybrid work in software engineering. We conclude the paper with a remark on the need of more contextual and nuanced understanding of hybrid work in software engineering.
This work involved human subjects or animals in its research. The author(s) confirm(s) that all h... more This work involved human subjects or animals in its research. The author(s) confirm(s) that all human/animal subject research procedures and protocols are exempt from review board approval.
Proceedings of the European Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs 2020
In safety-critical systems keeping complete trace of requirements and detailed testing is an extr... more In safety-critical systems keeping complete trace of requirements and detailed testing is an extremely relevant part of software development life cycle. Safety standards like ISO 26262, DO178C and many others prescribe that critical requirements must be completely traceable. These standards also demand detailed and regression testing of system. Here we present some patterns that deal with these concerns in an agile way. First set of patterns describe the key mechanism to list the sources of safety requirements and a mechanism for traceability of those requirements. It uses an approach that satisfies safety standards and adapts agile behavior where possible. The second pattern is about test automation for safety-critical systems, which complements our first set of patterns. It decreases the amount of documentation required for traceability and testing of features but without any compromise on essential testing. These patterns will facilitate the team to perform requirement's traceability and regular, rigorous testing in a timely and cost efficient manner. CCS CONCEPTS • Software and its engineering → Agile software development; Agile software development; Requirements analysis.
Context] The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disruptive impact on how people work and collaborate acr... more Context] The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disruptive impact on how people work and collaborate across all global economic sectors, including software business. While remote working is not new for software engineers, forced Work-from-home situations come with both constraints, limitations and opportunities for individuals, software teams and software companies. As the "new normal" for working might be based on the current state of Work From Home (WFH), it is useful to understand what has happened and learn from that. [Objective] The goal of this study is to gain insights on how their WFH environment impacts software project and software companies. We are also interested in understanding if the impact differs between software startups and established companies. [Method] We conducted a global-scale, cross-sectional survey during spring and summer 2021. Our results are based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of 297 valid responses. [Results] We observed a mixed perception on the impact of WFH on software project management, resilience and innovation. Certain patterns on WFH, control and coordination mechanisms, and collaborative tools are observed globally. We find that team, agility and leadership are the three most important factors for achieving resilience during the pandemic. Although startups do not perceive the impact of WFH differently, there is a difference between engineers who work in a small team context and those who work in a large team context. [Conclusion] The result suggests a contingency approach in studying and improving WFH practices and environment in future software industry.
Metrics can be used by businesses to make more objective decisions based on data. Software startu... more Metrics can be used by businesses to make more objective decisions based on data. Software startups in particular are characterized by the uncertain or even chaotic nature of the contexts in which they operate. Using data in the form of metrics can help software startups to make the right decisions amidst uncertainty and limited resources. However, whereas conventional business metrics and software metrics have been studied in the past, metrics in the specific context of software startup are not widely covered within academic literature. To promote research in this area and to create a starting point for it, we have conducted a multi-vocal literature review focusing on practitioner literature in order to compile a list of metrics used by software startups. Said list is intended to serve as a basis for further research in the area, as the metrics in it are based on suggestions made by practitioners and not empirically verified.
The Internet of Things (IoT) bears great potential for innovation in modern companies. Agility an... more The Internet of Things (IoT) bears great potential for innovation in modern companies. Agility and speed both matter when innovating in such a context. The rst Inno4IoT workshop focuses on how to properly achieve and balance the two aspects while innovating IoT-based solutions, which represents unique opportunities and challenges to researchers and practitioners alike. An overview of the three working papers presented and published in the workshop is provided in this introductory paper.
2022 IEEE/ACM 44th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training (ICSE-SEET)
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic prohibited radically the collocation and face-to-face inter... more The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic prohibited radically the collocation and face-to-face interactions of participants in coding bootcamps and similar experiences, which are key characteristics that help participants to advance technical work. Several specific issues are faced and need to be solved when running online coding camps, which can achieve the same level of positive outcomes for participants. One of such issues is how to keep the same level of fun that participants obtained through physical activities and interactions in the face-to-face settings. In this paper, we report on our experience and insights gained from designing and running a fully remote coding camp that exposes high school students to Agile-based Software Engineering practices to enhance their ability to develop high-quality software. To design the online coding camp, we adapted the face-to-face version of the coding camp to keep the same "level of fun", i.e., adaptations aimed at increasing communication, engaging participants, and introducing fun items to reduce fatigue due to prolonged computer use, while preserving the technical curriculum that enables students to attain the learning goals originally planned. The comparison with the results of the face-to-face coding camp shows that we succeeded in keeping the fun alive in the online edition, and the participants of online camp were able to produce the results at the same level of quality in terms of product and process as in the face-to-face edition. From our experience, we synthesize lessons learned, and we sketch some guidelines for educators. CCS CONCEPTS • Applied computing → Distance learning; Collaborative learning; • Software and its engineering → Collaboration in software development.
Context: Software startups develop innovative, software-intensive products. Given the uncertainty... more Context: Software startups develop innovative, software-intensive products. Given the uncertainty associated with such an innovative context, experimentation, an approach based on validating assumptions about the software product through data obtained from diverse techniques, like A/B tests or interviews, is valuable for these companies. Relying on data rather than opinions reduces the chance of developing unnecessary products or features, improving the likelihood of success, especially in early development stages, when implementing unnecessary features represents a higher risk for companies' survival. Nevertheless, researchers have argued that the lack of clearly defined practices led to limited adoption of experimentation. Since the first step of the approach is to define hypotheses, testable statements about the software product features, based on which software development teams will create experiments, eliciting hypotheses is a natural first step to develop practices. Objective: We aim to develop a systematic technique for identifying hypotheses in early-stage software startups to support experimentation in these companies and, consequently, improve their software products. Methods: We followed a Design Science approach consisting of an artifact construction process, divided in three phases, and an evaluation within three startups. Results: We developed the HyMap, a hypotheses elicitation technique based on cognitive mapping. It consists of a process conducted by a facilitator using pre-defined questions, supported by a visual language to depict a cognitive map representing the founder's understanding of the product. Our evaluation showed that founders perceived the artifacts as clear, easy to use, and useful leading to hypotheses and facilitating their idea's visualization. Conclusion: From a theoretical perspective, our study provides a better understanding of the guidance founders use to develop their startups and, from a practical point of view, a technique to identify hypotheses in early-stage software startups.
2017 IEEE/ACM 39th International Conference on Software Engineering Companion (ICSE-C), 2017
Recent research in software engineering supports the "happy-productive" thesis, and the desire of... more Recent research in software engineering supports the "happy-productive" thesis, and the desire of flourishing happiness among programmers is often expressed by industry practitioners. Recent literature has suggested that a cost-effective way to foster happiness and productivity among workers could be to limit unhappiness of developers due to its negative impact. However, possible negative effects of unhappiness are still largely unknown in the software development context. In this paper, we present the first results from a study exploring the consequences of the unhappy developers. Using qualitative data analysis of the survey responses given by 181 participants, we identified 49 potential consequences of unhappiness while developing software. These results have several implications. While raising the awareness of the role of moods, emotions and feelings in software development, we foresee that our classification scheme will spawn new happiness studies linking causes and effects, and it can act as a guideline for developers and managers to foster happiness at work.
Software startup companies develop innovative, software-intensive products within limited timefra... more Software startup companies develop innovative, software-intensive products within limited timeframes and with few resources, searching for sustainable and scalable business models. Software startup ...
2019 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software and System Processes (ICSSP), 2019
Internet-of-Things applications are not only the new opportunity for digital businesses but also ... more Internet-of-Things applications are not only the new opportunity for digital businesses but also a major driving force for the modification and creation of software systems in all industries and businesses. Compared to other types of software-intensive products, the development of Internet-of-Things applications lacks a systematic approach and guidelines. This paper aims at understanding the methodological commonalities among startups who are developing Internet-of-Things products. Using the SEMAT Essence framework, we captured common team compositions, common types of Minimum Viable Products and common way of working in early stage Internetof-Things startups. We found that startups include various engineering and business competence, but do not cover all of what is needed. The development of Internet-of-Things applications adopts certain speed-favor approaches, i.e. rapid prototyping, iterative development and outsourcing. The finding implies some recommendations for both researchers and practitioners in the area of Internet-of-Things development.
Software startups need to work in a systematic fashion just like mature organizations. However, e... more Software startups need to work in a systematic fashion just like mature organizations. However, existing software engineering methods and practices are not aimed at software startups. They do not account for the business aspect of startups and may not be well suited for software startups in general. The Lean Startup Methodology on the other hand contains some useful practices for software startups but is nonetheless impractical, offering little in the way of telling you what to do. Software startups are thus required to tailor their own method. Currently, many software startups simply work ad hoc or use various Agile methods and practices. In terms of Agile methods and practices, little consensus exists between startups. In this chapter, we discuss methods and method tailoring. We give guidelines on how to create your own way of working and recommend a tangible tool for doing so: the Essence Theory of Software Engineering.
Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, 2017
It is essential for startups to quickly experiment business ideas by building tangible prototypes... more It is essential for startups to quickly experiment business ideas by building tangible prototypes and collecting user feedback on them. As prototyping is an inevitable part of learning for early stage software startups, how fast startups can learn depends on how fast they can prototype. Despite of the importance, there is a lack of research about prototyping in software startups. In this study, we aimed at understanding what are factors influencing different types of prototyping activities. We conducted a multiple case study on twenty European software startups. The results are two folds; firstly we propose a prototype-centric learning model in early stage software startups. Secondly, we identify factors occur as barriers but also facilitators for prototyping in early stage software startups. The factors are grouped into (1) artifacts, (2) team competence, (3) collaboration, (4) customer and (5) process dimensions. To speed up a startup's progress at the early stage, it is important to incorporate the learning objective into a well-defined collaborative approach of prototyping.
Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2019
The need of skills other than technical from software developers is becoming evident. The DevOps ... more The need of skills other than technical from software developers is becoming evident. The DevOps movement is an example of that applied to operational tasks. Startup development methodologies focus on business activities in innovative organizations. Several universities offer courses based on these methodologies to software engineering students, mainly to improve their creativity, problem solving, and business skills. This paper investigates how software engineering students learned startup development methodologies and discusses what are the challenges and benefits in their learning process. We conducted a multi-method study in three different universities. The data was collected in two phases and analyzed using thematic analysis. Our study reveals that students realized the importance of collaboration with other courses and the importance of user involvement in development. However, students tend to oversimplify concepts, trying to adapt them to what they are familiar with. The results indicate the necessity of business education for technical students and directions for improvements. CCS CONCEPTS • Social and professional topics → Software engineering education.
Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, 2017
The happy-productive worker thesis states that happy workers are more productive. Recent research... more The happy-productive worker thesis states that happy workers are more productive. Recent research in software engineering supports the thesis, and the ideal of flourishing happiness among software developers is often expressed among industry practitioners. However, the literature suggests that a cost-effective way to foster happiness and productivity among workers could be to limit unhappiness. Psychological disorders such as job burnout and anxiety could also be reduced by limiting the negative experiences of software developers. Simultaneously, a baseline assessment of (un)happiness and knowledge about how developers experience it are missing. In this paper, we broaden the understanding of unhappiness among software developers in terms of (1) the software developer population distribution of (un)happiness, and (2) the causes of unhappiness while developing software. We conducted a large-scale quantitative and qualitative survey, incorporating a psychometrically validated instrument for measuring (un)happiness, with 2 220 developers, yielding a rich and balanced sample of 1 318 complete responses. Our results indicate that software developers are a slightly happy population, but the need for limiting the unhappiness of developers remains. We also identified 219 factors representing causes of unhappiness while developing software. Our results, which are available as open data, can act as guidelines for practitioners in management positions and developers in general for fostering happiness on the job. We suggest considering happiness in future studies of both human and technical aspects in software engineering.
2017 IEEE/ACM 2nd International Workshop on Emotion Awareness in Software Engineering (SEmotion), 2017
The growing literature on affect among software developers mostly reports on the linkage between ... more The growing literature on affect among software developers mostly reports on the linkage between happiness, software quality, and developer productivity. Understanding the positive side of happiness-positive emotions and moods-is an attractive and important endeavor. Scholars in industrial and organizational psychology have suggested that also studying the negative side-unhappiness-could lead to cost-effective ways of enhancing working conditions, job performance, and to limiting the occurrence of psychological disorders. Our comprehension of the consequences of (un)happiness among developers is still too shallow, and is mainly expressed in terms of development productivity and software quality. In this paper, we attempt to uncover the experienced consequences of unhappiness among software developers. Using qualitative data analysis of the responses given by 181 questionnaire participants, we identified 49 consequences of unhappiness while doing software development. We found detrimental consequences on developers' mental well-being, the software development process, and the produced artifacts. Our classification scheme, available as open data, will spawn new happiness research opportunities of cause-effect type, and it can act as a guideline for practitioners for identifying damaging effects of unhappiness and for fostering happiness on the job.
Following the highly pervasive and effective use of agile methods at the team level, many softwar... more Following the highly pervasive and effective use of agile methods at the team level, many software organisations now wish to replicate this success at the organisational level, adopting large-scale agile methods such as SAFe, Scrum-at-Scale, and others. However, this has proven significantly challenging. An analysis of the extant literature reveals a disparate set of studies across each individual method, with no cross-method comparison based on empirical evidence. This systematic literature review compares the main large-scale agile methods, namely SAFe, LeSS, Scrum-at-Scale, DAD, and the Spotify model. It is the first study to analyse and compare each of the method's principles, practices, tools, and metrics in a standardised manner. For each method, it presents not just the original method specifications but also all extensions and modifications to each method proposed by subsequent empirical research. It includes in this comparison not just commercial large-scale methods but also those that have been custom-built in organisations such as Nokia, Ericsson, and others. Based on the findings reported in this study, practitioners can make a more informed decision as to which commercial method or method component or, indeed, custom-built method is better suited to their needs. Our study reveals a number of theoretical and practical issues in the current literature, such as an emphasis on the practices of commercial frameworks at the expense of their underlying principles, or indeed any of the custom method. A set of challenges and success factors associated with the use of large-scale agile methods are identified. The study also identifies a number of research gaps to be addressed across methods.
Context: Startups are disrupting traditional markets and replacing wellestablished actors with th... more Context: Startups are disrupting traditional markets and replacing wellestablished actors with their innovative products.To compete in this age of disruption, large and established companies cannot rely on traditional ways of advancement, which focus on cost efficiency, lead time reduction and quality improvement. Corporate management is now looking for possibilities to innovate like startups. Along with it, the awareness and the use of the Lean startup approach have grown rapidly amongst the software startup community and large companies in recent years. Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate how Lean internal startup facilitates software product innovation in large companies. This study also identifies the enablers and inhibitors for Lean internal startups.
International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science, 2014
The mobile device market has witnessed swift industrial growth over the last decade. The quick ex... more The mobile device market has witnessed swift industrial growth over the last decade. The quick expansion of this new computing platform has almost outpaced the software engineering processes customized to mobile application development. However, there is still lack of novel research initiatives around the mobile application development process. There remains a deficiency in development standards and best practices which expose the mobile device to potential attacks. This deficiency needs to be addressed promptly and requires further work. The objective of this research is to better understand the current methodologies adapted and to investigate challenges faced during the mobile application development processes that are different from traditional enterprise application. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted from the mobile research and development community. The survey questions covered the entire mobile application development lifecycle starting with requirements, and ending with bringing to life a complete mobile application. The study contributes towards a greater understanding of mobile application development process, examines real challenges confronted, and investigates the best practices that can be successfully implemented to enhance, evaluate, and improve the performance of the mobile application development process. These findings can also be considered as a possible research topic that indicates the breadth of research requirements and prospects in mobile computing. Index Terms-Mobile devices, mobile apps, mobile app development, mobile computing, mobile issues and challenges, mobile development best practices
Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Software and System Process, 2015
A growing number of companies are discovering that their software development processes must be i... more A growing number of companies are discovering that their software development processes must be in compliance with some form of regulation. This is particularly so when it comes to safety-critical or business-critical systems such as Automotive Software, Robotics, Medical Devices or Financial Management systems. These regulations affect the software development process itself in various forms. Furthermore, much attention is being given to ways of improving the efficiency of businesses, for example, by adopting lean principles. This raises the question for how to adopt lean principles for software development within a regulated environment? This poster presents the results of our empirical research into lean and regulated software development. Built from a combination of data sources, we have developed a conceptual framework comprising five primary components. In addition the relationships they have with both the central focus of the framework (the situated software development practices) and with each other are indicated.
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Papers by Xiaofeng Wang