2012 SBES - Towards an Explanatory Theory of Motivation in Software Engineering: A Qualitative Case...

Illustrations from images.google.com & freedigitalphotos.net

BY

CÉSAR FRANÇA, DAVID CARNEIRO, FABIO Q. B. DA SILVA

SBES’2012

Towards an Explanatory Theory of

Motivation in Software Engineering: A Qualitative Case Study of a

Small Software Company


Foreword

What is this research about?

How the motivation of software engineers in the workplace is affected by contextual and individual factors?

Presentation agenda

• BackgroundWhy is it relevant?

What is already known?

• Research DesignMethods

• ResultsFindings

• ConclusionsNext ste

2

motivation of software engineersHow


Part I – RelevanceWhy is it Relevant?

3


Software engineering is a

socio-technical activity

“in practice, it is difficult to disentangle the way people do

things from the methods, techniques, and computing

technologies they use”

4

Guinan et al., 1998


Generalized world scarcity of

Skilled Professionals

“Competition for skilled humanresources, Turnover & Knowledge

losses”

5

Burn et. al (1991)


Software Engineering is a

unique professional field

“Information Systems people may be a distinctive group from

the average population

(…) IS personnel had higher growth need (GNS) and lower

social needs (SNS) than the general population”

6

Couger and Zawacki (1980)


The Agile Manifesto says:

“Build projects around motivated individuals”

So, “how to meet software engineers’

motivational needs” ?

7

Beecham et al (2007)


Open Source Initiatives

have gained more and more attention

What drives those people to spendconsiderable time and effort in OSS

projects “for free” ?

8

Hertel , Niedner, Herrman (2003)


9

Current research effort on Motivation in Software Engineering around the Globe

DA SILVA; FRANÇA 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012...

REHMAN; MAHMOOD, A., 2011; REHMAN et al., 2011

BHATTI et al., 2008MCHUGH et al., 2011

YU; MING, 2009

BEECHAM et al., 2006, 2007, 2008; HALL et al., 2008, 2009; SACH; PETRE, 2012;

SACH et al., 2010; SACH; SHARP; PETRE, 2011a; SHARP; HALL, 2009; SHARP et al., 2009;

SHARP, 2007; SHARP et al., 2007

KHALIL, O. E. M. et al., 1997

IFINEDO, 2005WALLGREN 2008, 2011WALLGREN; HANSE 2007, 2010, 2011


What is known about the

Software Engineer Motivation?

Has achieved important results

on clarifying some factors that

may affect software engineer’s motivation

10

Rewards and incentives

Development needs addressed

Variety of work

Career path

Empowerment/responsibility

Good management

Sense of belonging

Work/life balance

Working in successful company

Employee participation Feedback

Recognition

Equity

Technically challenging work

Job security

Identify with the task

Autonomy

Appropriate working conditions

Task significance

Team quality

Creativity/Innovation

Fun (playing)

Professionalism

Good relationship with users/customers

Risk

Stress

Poor communication Lack of promotion

Unrealistic goals

Problem solving

Team working

Development practices

Change

Challenge

Science

But there still may be a complex interplay among motivational factors at

the task, organization, and individual levels

Beecham, S., Baddoo, N., Hall, T., Robinson, H., & Sharp, H. (2008). Motivation in Software Engineering: A systematic literature review. Information and Software Technology,

50(9-10), 860–878. doi:10.1016/j.infsof.2007.09.004

França, A. C. C., Gouveia, T. B., Santos, P. C. F., Santana, C., & da Silva, F. Q. B. (2011). Motivation in software engineering: a systematic review update. International

Conference on Evaluation & Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE) (pp. 154–163). IET. doi:10.1049/ic.2011.0019


Research Gaps

• Motivation is context-dependent

• Limited practical applicability

• Disconnected and conflicting body ofknowledge

• The “job” is the main motivator

11

Sharp et. al, 2009

Sach, Sharp, Petre 2011a


Part II – Research DesignResearch Methods

12


Qualitative Research

13

“the principal advantage of using qualitative methods is that they force the researcher to delve into the complexity of the problem rather than abstract it

away”

Seaman, 2008, p. 36


Case Study(ies)

“an empirical inquiry that investigates a

contemporary phenomenon in depth

and within its real life context”

Yin, 2008

14


Case Study Strategy

15

Motivation is context dependent

“qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense

of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.”

(Merriam, 2009)

Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation (2nd Editio., p. 304). Jossey-Bass.

(Yin, 2009)


Case Study Strategy

16

Motivation is context dependent

“qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense

of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.”

(Merriam, 2009)

Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation (2nd Editio., p. 304). Jossey-Bass.

(Yin, 2009)

GovernmentOrganization Private

Not-for-profitSoftware R&D

Institute

IT Departmentof a PublicUniversity

Small Private Software Company

“Maximum Variation Sampling” method

(Strauss and Corbin, 2007) Open Source Community


Software Engineer

Unit of Analysis

Maximum variation sampling:• Age• Background and education• Years of experience• Years of employment• Etc.

Data collection strategy

17

Project Managers

Software Engineers

Directors

Semi-structuredInterview



DiaryStudies

Documental Analysis



Semi-Structured Interviews

Question Types:

• Background

• Opinion

• Sensory

• Experience

Diary data

18



Semi-Structured Interviews

Question Types:

• Background

• Opinion

• Sensory

• Experience

Diary data

19

Valid evidence

(Opinion | Sensory) supported by (Experience, Diary

or Documents)

(Hypothetical) (Factual)


Part III – Results

20


Context Description

Small & Young software company• 5 years old

• 5 entrepreneurs / Flat structure

• 27 [young] people

• Agile-like software development

Products & Technology• .NET, Java, LUA, …

• 1 main Product

• Software on-demand

Collected Data• 14 people (interviews) / 6 people (diary studies)

• 1 month

• 8h 57min of interviews

• 10 relevant events

Core Mission

“support the development of people and

organizations with software tools, by means

of technical excellence and innovation”

21


What factors affect software engineers’ motivation?

22

Task

Team

Organization



23

Task

Team

Organization

over half of the participants (08/14) were

undergraduate students.

Employment time seemed to be a mediator for the

relevance of learning experiences



24

Task

Team

Organization

Accounted to the unexpected requirements changes!

Short timeslots provided effective performance feedback.



25

Task

Team

Organization



26

Task

Team

Organization

Learning again!



27

Task

Team

Organization


Signs of motivated behavior

June 28, 2013 EASE 201228

How they feel / behave

How they contribute tothe project success


Part IV – Conclusions

29


The Central Story of

Motivation

“the goal commitment of engineers create the conditions for higher

Job Performance”

30



Motivation

An effective learning job environmentbenefits the goal commitment of the

software engineers.

But employment time acted as a barrier for learning experiences, given the

low variety of work in latter phases of the projects

31



Motivation

“A learning environment protects the engineers’ self-efficacy through self-esteem

and self-confidence mechanisms of overcoming individual failures.”

32



Motivation

Team cohesion creates a very reciprocal work environment, filled with mutual help, shared experiences, and self-responsibility.

Responsibility is enhanced by the high employee participation, conditioned by the

small teams and the direct participation of the high management in the productive teams

33



Motivation

34

A motivational environment is notenough to prevent the intention to leave, if the growth needs of the software engineers

have not been fulfilled

(because of external opportunities for career progression.)


Discussion

General observations Main contributions

35

• We present a theory that explains the complex interplay among motivational factors at the task, organization, and individual levels

• Complement previous descriptive models, such as the MOCC

• Multi-case replicable design

• While some factors seem to be manageable, others are stronglyinherent to the context.

• How to apply our findings to improve the motivational aspects of the organization?

• Generalization to other contexts should not be carried out directly. However, our findings can be reinterpreted in other contexts, provided factors are carefully translated.

Future Work• Cross-case analysis of the 5 case studies

• Compare and integrate with other case studies (using meta-ethnography)


THANK YOU!

Towards an Explanatory Theory of

Motivation in Software Engineering: A Qualitative Case Study of a

Small Software Company

BY

CÉSAR FRANÇA, DAVID CARNEIRO, FABIO Q. B. DA SILVA

SBES’2012


Towards an Explanatory Theory of Motivation in Software Engineering: A Qualitative Case Study of a Small Software Company by A. César C. França, David E. S. Carneiro, Fabio Q. B. da Silva is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at XXVI Simpósio Brasileiro de Engenharia de Software, Natal, 2012.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.haseresearch.com

2012 SBES - Towards an Explanatory Theory of Motivation in Software Engineering: A Qualitative Case...

Technology

Transcript of 2012 SBES - Towards an Explanatory Theory of Motivation in Software Engineering: A Qualitative Case...