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Zabardast, E., Gonzalez-Huerta, J., Gorschek, T., Šmite, D., Alégroth, E. & Fagerholm, F. (2023). A taxonomy of assets for the development of software-intensive products and services. Journal of Systems and Software, 202, Article ID 111701.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>A taxonomy of assets for the development of software-intensive products and services
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2023 (English)In: Journal of Systems and Software, ISSN 0164-1212, E-ISSN 1873-1228, Vol. 202, article id 111701Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Context:Developing software-intensive products or services usually involves a plethora of software artefacts. Assets are artefacts intended to be used more than once and have value for organisations; examples include test cases, code, requirements, and documentation. During the development process, assets might degrade, affecting the effectiveness and efficiency of the development process. Therefore, assets are an investment that requires continuous management.

Identifying assets is the first step for their effective management. However, there is a lack of awareness of what assets and types of assets are common in software-developing organisations. Most types of assets are understudied, and their state of quality and how they degrade over time have not been well-understood.

Methods:We performed an analysis of secondary literature and a field study at five companies to investigate and identify assets to fill the gap in research. The results were analysed qualitatively and summarised in a taxonomy.

Results:We present the first comprehensive, structured, yet extendable taxonomy of assets, containing 57 types of assets.

Conclusions:The taxonomy serves as a foundation for identifying assets that are relevant for an organisation and enables the study of asset management and asset degradation concepts.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2023
Keywords
Assets in software engineering, Asset management in software engineering, Assets for software-intensive products or services, Taxonomy
National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:bth-24426 (URN)10.1016/j.jss.2023.111701 (DOI)000984121100001 ()2-s2.0-85152899759 (Scopus ID)
Funder
Knowledge Foundation, 20170176Knowledge Foundation, 20180010
Available from: 2023-04-11 Created: 2023-04-11 Last updated: 2023-06-02Bibliographically approved
Ouriques, R., Fagerholm, F., Mendez, D. & Bern, B. G. (2023). An investigation of causes and effects of trust in Boundary Artefacts. Information and Software Technology, 158, Article ID 107170.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>An investigation of causes and effects of trust in Boundary Artefacts
2023 (English)In: Information and Software Technology, ISSN 0950-5849, E-ISSN 1873-6025, Vol. 158, article id 107170Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Context: Boundary Artefacts (BAs) support software development activities in many aspects because it carries lots of information in the same object that can be used and interpreted by several social groups within an organisation. When the BAs are inconsistent regarding their content, such as many meanings or lack of contextual information, their efficiency is reduced because stakeholders will not trust them. Objective: This study aimed to understand the implications of differences in the perception of trust on software projects and their influence on stakeholders' behaviour. Methods: We conducted an exploratory case study to observe the creation and utilisation of one specific BA and the implications of differences in trust and their influence on stakeholders' behaviour. Results : Our investigation has shown that practitioners adding and adjusting existing content do not entirely understand the stakeholders' needs. Together with the partial management of the content, trust is impacted. When the content of BAs does not meet the trust factors, specifically reliability and predictability, the stakeholders cannot execute their tasks appropriately, and several implications affect the software development project. Additionally, they create workarounds to supply their needs. Conclusion: The differences in trust in BAs affect software projects in different areas of the organisation and interfere with the task execution of various stakeholders. The decrease in trust results from inconsistencies in the content associated with the lack of management of the BA. A structured strategy for representing and managing a BA's content seems appropriate to increase trust levels and efficiency.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2023
Keywords
Software development, Boundary Artefact, Trust, Trusting beliefs
National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:bth-24414 (URN)10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107170 (DOI)000943641800001 ()
Funder
Knowledge Foundation, 20180010
Available from: 2023-04-05 Created: 2023-04-05 Last updated: 2023-08-18Bibliographically approved
Hoffmann, M., Mendez, D., Fagerholm, F. & Luckhardt, A. (2023). The human side of Software Engineering Teams: an investigation of contemporary challenges. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 49(1), 211-225
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The human side of Software Engineering Teams: an investigation of contemporary challenges
2023 (English)In: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, ISSN 0098-5589, E-ISSN 1939-3520, Vol. 49, no 1, p. 211-225Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

There have been numerous recent calls for research on the human side of software engineering and its impact on project success. An analysis of which challenges in software engineering teams are most relevant and frequent is still missing. As teams are more international, it is more frequent that their members have different personal values as well as different communication habits. Additionally, virtual team setups (working geographically separated, remote communication using digital tools and frequently changing team members) are increasingly prevalent. We designed a survey instrument and asked respondents to assess the frequency and criticality of a set of challenges, both within teams as well as between teams and clients. For the team challenges, we asked if mitigation measures were already in place to tackle the challenge. Respondents were also asked to provide information about their team setup. The survey included an instrument to measure Schwartz human values. The survey was first piloted and then distributed to professionals working in software engineering teams. In this article, we report on the results obtained from 192 survey respondents. We present a set of challenges that takes the survey feedback into account and introduce two categories of challenges; inter-personal and intra-personal. We found no evidence for links between personality values and challenges. We found some significant links between the number of distinct nationalities in a team and certain challenges. We found evidence that a higher degree of virtualization leads to an increase of the frequency of some human challenges. We present a set of human challenges in software engineering that can be used for further research on causes and mitigation measures, which serves as our starting point for a theory about causes of contemporary human challenges in software engineering teams. Our findings warrants further research on human challenges in software engineering and gather more evidence and test countermeasures, such as whether the employment of virtual reality software incorporating facial expressions and movements can help establish a less detached way of communication. IEEE

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IEEE Computer Society, 2023
Keywords
Cultural differences, Diversity, Human Challenges, Human factors, Human Values, Productivity, Software, Software engineering, Survey Research, Virtual groups, Virtual Teams, Virtualization, Digital devices, Software testing, Surveys, Virtual reality, Cultural difference, Engineering teams, Human challenge, Virtual group, Virtual team, Virtualizations
National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:bth-22671 (URN)10.1109/TSE.2022.3148539 (DOI)001020827200011 ()2-s2.0-85124763511 (Scopus ID)
Note

open access

Available from: 2022-02-25 Created: 2022-02-25 Last updated: 2023-08-08Bibliographically approved
Zabardast, E., Gonzalez-Huerta, J., Gorschek, T., Šmite, D., Alégroth, E. & Fagerholm, F. (2021). Asset Management Taxonomy: A Roadmap.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Asset Management Taxonomy: A Roadmap
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2021 (English)Manuscript (preprint) (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Developing a software-intensive product or service can be a significant undertaking, associated with unique challenges in each project stage, from inception to development, delivery, maintenance, and evolution. Each step results in artefacts that are crucial for the project outcome, such as source-code and supporting deliverables, e.g., documentation.

Artefacts which have inherent value for the organisation are assets, and as assets, they are subject to degradation. This degradation occurs over time, as artefacts age, and can be more immediate or slowly over a period of time, similar to the concept of technical debt. One challenge with the concept of assets is that it seems not to be well-understood and generally delimited to a few types of assets (often code-based), overlooking other equally important assets. 

To bridge this gap, we have performed a study to formulate a structured taxonomy of assets. We use empirical data collected through industrial workshops and a literature review to ground the taxonomy. The taxonomy serves as foundations for concepts like asset degradation and asset management. The taxonomy can help contextualise, homogenise, extend the concept of technical debt, and serves as a conceptual framework for better identification, discussion, and utilisation of assets.

National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:bth-21268 (URN)
Available from: 2021-03-19 Created: 2021-03-19 Last updated: 2024-01-31Bibliographically approved
Kettunen, P., Laanti, M., Fagerholm, F. & Mikkonen, T. (2019). Agile in the Era of Digitalization: A Finnish Survey Study. In: Franch X.,Mannisto T.,Martinez-Fernandez S. (Ed.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics): . Paper presented at 20th International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement, PROFES 2019; Barcelona; Spain; 27 November 2019 through 29 November 2019 (pp. 383-398). Springer, 11915
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Agile in the Era of Digitalization: A Finnish Survey Study
2019 (English)In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) / [ed] Franch X.,Mannisto T.,Martinez-Fernandez S., Springer , 2019, Vol. 11915, p. 383-398Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Agile software development has been applied since the early 2000s. It is now mainstream industrial practice in information and communication technology (ICT) companies and IT organizations. However, recently increasing and even disruptive digitalization has brought new drivers and needs for agility both in software organizations as well as in traditional companies, which are becoming more and more software-intensive. Following that line of developments, based on our recent survey conducted in Finland in 2018, in this paper we explore the current state of the affairs with respect to how different organizations currently address agility and agile development in both IT and non-software industrial sectors. The results show that operative goals (productivity, quality) are considered the most important ones to achieve by agile means. Scrum, Kanban and DevOps are the most frequently reported methods, and SAFe is the dominant scaling model. Lead time metrics are the most typically followed measurements. The operative goals as well as responsiveness are also the most highly ranked future aims. The impacts of digitalization are considered substantial but agile developments are seen to address them well. As a conclusion of this survey study, there is no “one agile way” for all. Different organizations seem to emphasize multiple aspects of agility when they develop, adapt and even transform themselves. Yet, also many commonalities were indicated. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2019
Series
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS), E-ISSN 1611-3349
Keywords
Agile software development, Digitalization, Enterprise agility, Survey, Transformation, Outsourcing, Process engineering, Surveying, Surveys, Industrial practices, Information and Communication Technologies, Line of development, Software organization, Software design
National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:bth-19064 (URN)10.1007/978-3-030-35333-9_28 (DOI)000611527400028 ()2-s2.0-85076530278 (Scopus ID)9783030353322 (ISBN)
Conference
20th International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement, PROFES 2019; Barcelona; Spain; 27 November 2019 through 29 November 2019
Available from: 2019-12-27 Created: 2019-12-27 Last updated: 2024-01-01Bibliographically approved
Kettunen, P., Laanti, M., Fagerholm, F., Mikkonen, T. & Mannisto, T. (2019). Finnish Enterprise Agile Transformations: A Survey Study. In: Hoda, R (Ed.), AGILE PROCESSES IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND EXTREME PROGRAMMING - WORKSHOPS: . Paper presented at 20th International Conference on Agile Software Development (XP), MAY 21-25, 2019, cole Technologie Superieure, Montreal, CANADA (pp. 97-104). SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Finnish Enterprise Agile Transformations: A Survey Study
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2019 (English)In: AGILE PROCESSES IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND EXTREME PROGRAMMING - WORKSHOPS / [ed] Hoda, R, SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG , 2019, p. 97-104Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Modern large software-intensive development organizations are nowadays more and more often believed to transform their structures and operations towards large-scale agility in search for higher performances. Based on a survey conducted in Finland in 2018, in this paper we explore the current state of the affairs with respect to how extensively organizations are actually transforming themselves, in what ways this takes place in practice and for what goals. Most of the respondents were in large organizations. The results show that the majority of the surveyed respondents indicated that their organizations have conducted agile transformations or are currently doing so. Different strategies and tactics have been used in the transformations, but markedly the respondents reported most that the company has had external consultants (subcontracting) to assist in the change. The most important goals aimed to be achieved with agile means were productivity and quality (operative) and responsiveness to customer/market changes (new features). Notably only very few respondents reported their organizations to be currently non-agile (do not use at all agile methods in software development).

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG, 2019
Series
Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, ISSN 1865-1348 ; 364
Keywords
Agile transformation, Enterprise agile, Scaled agile, Large-scale agile software development, Survey
National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:bth-19406 (URN)10.1007/978-3-030-30126-2_12 (DOI)000525356100012 ()978-3-030-30126-2 (ISBN)
Conference
20th International Conference on Agile Software Development (XP), MAY 21-25, 2019, cole Technologie Superieure, Montreal, CANADA
Available from: 2020-04-30 Created: 2020-04-30 Last updated: 2020-04-30Bibliographically approved
Graziotin, D. & Fagerholm, F. (2019). Happiness and the Productivity of Software Engineers. In: Caitlin Sadowski, Thomas Zimmermann (Ed.), Rethinking Productivity in Software Engineering: (pp. 109-124). Springer
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Happiness and the Productivity of Software Engineers
2019 (English)In: Rethinking Productivity in Software Engineering / [ed] Caitlin Sadowski, Thomas Zimmermann, Springer, 2019, p. 109-124Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Software companies and startups often follow the idea of flourishing happiness among developers. Perks, playground rooms, free breakfast, remote office options, sports facilities near the companies, company retreats, you name it. The rationale is that happy developers should be more productive and also retained.

But is it the case that happy software engineers are more productive? Moreover, are perks the way to go to make developers happy? Are developers happy at all? What are the consequences of unhappiness among software engineers?

These questions are important to ask both from the perspective of productivity and from the perspective of sustainable software development and well-being in the workplace. Managers, team leaders, as well as team members should be interested in these concerns.

This chapter provides an overview of our studies on the happiness of software developers. You will learn why it is important to make software developers happy, how happy they really are, what makes them unhappy, and what is expected regarding happiness and productivity while developing software.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2019
National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:bth-24436 (URN)10.1007/978-1-4842-4221-6_10 (DOI)9781484242216 (ISBN)
Available from: 2023-04-12 Created: 2023-04-12 Last updated: 2023-04-12Bibliographically approved
Fagerholm, F., Becker, C., Chatzigeorgiou, A., Betz, S., Duboc, L., Penzenstadler, B., . . . Venters, C. C. (2019). Temporal Discounting in Software Engineering: A Replication Study. In: International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement: . Paper presented at 13th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, ESEM, Porto de Galinhas, Pernambuco; Brazil, 19 September through 20 September. IEEE Computer Society
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Temporal Discounting in Software Engineering: A Replication Study
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2019 (English)In: International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, IEEE Computer Society, 2019Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Background: Many decisions made in Software Engineering practices are intertemporal choices: trade-offs in time between closer options with potential short-term benefit and future options with potential long-term benefit. However, how software professionals make intertemporal decisions is not well understood. Aim: This paper investigates how shifting time frames influence preferences in software projects in relation to purposefully selected background factors. Method: We investigate temporal discounting by replicating a questionnaire-based observational study. The replication uses a changed-population and -experimenter design to increase the internal and external validity of the original results. Results: The results of this study confirm the occurrence of temporal discounting in samples of both professional and student participants from different countries and demonstrate strong variance in discounting between study participants. We found that professional experience influenced discounting. Participants with broader professional experience exhibited less discounting than those with narrower experience. Conclusions: The results provide strong empirical support for the relevance and importance of temporal discounting in SE and the urgency of targeted interdisciplinary research to explore the underlying mechanisms and their theoretical and practical implications. The results suggest that technical debt management could be improved by increasing the breadth of experience available for critical decisions with long-term impact. In addition, the present study provides a methodological basis for replicating temporal discounting studies in software engineering. © 2019 IEEE.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IEEE Computer Society, 2019
Keywords
behavioral software engineering, decision making, intertemporal choice, judgment, psychology, questionnaire, technical debt, technical debt management, temporal discounting, Economic and social effects, Professional aspects, Software engineering, Surveys, Inter-temporal choices, Technical debts
National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:bth-18921 (URN)10.1109/ESEM.2019.8870161 (DOI)000648806200020 ()2-s2.0-85074281382 (Scopus ID)9781728129686 (ISBN)
Conference
13th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, ESEM, Porto de Galinhas, Pernambuco; Brazil, 19 September through 20 September
Funder
Knowledge Foundation, 20180010
Available from: 2019-11-18 Created: 2019-11-18 Last updated: 2024-01-01Bibliographically approved
Becker, C., Fagerholm, F., Mohanani, R. & Chatzigeorgiou, A. (2019). Temporal discounting in technical debt: How do software practitioners discount the future?. In: Proceedings - 2019 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Technical Debt, TechDebt 2019: . Paper presented at 2nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Technical Debt, TechDebt, Montreal, 26 May 2019 through 27 May 2019 (pp. 23-32). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Temporal discounting in technical debt: How do software practitioners discount the future?
2019 (English)In: Proceedings - 2019 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Technical Debt, TechDebt 2019, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. , 2019, p. 23-32Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Technical Debt management decisions always imply a trade-off among outcomes at different points in time. In such intertemporal choices, distant outcomes are often valued lower than close ones, a phenomenon known as temporal discounting. Technical Debt research largely develops prescriptive approaches for how software engineers should make such decisions. Few have studied how they actually make them. This leaves open central questions about how software practitioners make decisions. This paper investigates how software practitioners discount uncertain future outcomes and whether they exhibit temporal discounting. We adopt experimental methods from intertemporal choice, an active area of research. We administered an online questionnaire to 33 developers from two companies in which we presented choices between developing a feature and making a longer-term investment in architecture. The results show wide-spread temporal discounting with notable differences in individual behavior. The results are consistent with similar studies in consumer behavior and raise a number of questions about the causal factors that influence temporal discounting in software engineering. As the first empirical study on intertemporal choice in SE, the paper establishes an empirical basis for understanding how software developers approach intertemporal choice and provides a blueprint for future studies. © 2019 IEEE.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2019
Keywords
Behavioral software engineering, Decision making, Intertemporal choice, Psychology, Questionnaire, Technical debt, Technical debt management, Temporal discounting, Consumer behavior, Economic and social effects, Software engineering, Surveys, Inter-temporal choices, Technical debts
National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:bth-18644 (URN)10.1109/TechDebt.2019.00011 (DOI)000502789500004 ()2-s2.0-85071154064 (Scopus ID)9781728133713 (ISBN)
Conference
2nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Technical Debt, TechDebt, Montreal, 26 May 2019 through 27 May 2019
Available from: 2019-09-11 Created: 2019-09-11 Last updated: 2020-01-09Bibliographically approved
Graziotin, D., Fagerholm, F., Wang, X. & Abrahamsson, P. (2018). What happens when software developers are (un)happy. Journal of Systems and Software, 140, 32-47
Open this publication in new window or tab >>What happens when software developers are (un)happy
2018 (English)In: Journal of Systems and Software, ISSN 0164-1212, E-ISSN 1873-1228, Vol. 140, p. 32-47Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The growing literature on affect among software developers mostly reports on the linkage between happiness, software quality, and developer productivity. Understanding happiness and unhappiness in all its components – positive and negative emotions and moods – is an attractive and important endeavor. Scholars in industrial and organizational psychology have suggested that understanding happiness and 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, being mainly expressed in terms of development productivity and software quality. In this paper, we study what happens when developers are happy and unhappy while developing software. Qualitative data analysis of responses given by 317 questionnaire participants identified 42 consequences of unhappiness and 32 of happiness. We found consequences of happiness and unhappiness that are beneficial and detrimental for developers’ mental well-being, the software development process, and the produced artifacts. Our classification scheme, available as open data enables 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. © 2018

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier Inc., 2018
Keywords
Affect, Behavioral software engineering, Developer experience, Emotion, Happiness, Human aspects, Computer software selection and evaluation, Cost effectiveness, Productivity, Software engineering, Software design
National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:bth-16024 (URN)10.1016/j.jss.2018.02.041 (DOI)000430904500004 ()2-s2.0-85043363144 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2018-03-26 Created: 2018-03-26 Last updated: 2018-05-11Bibliographically approved
Organisations
Identifiers
ORCID iD: ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0002-7298-3021

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