| 1. |
- Graziotin, D., et al.
(författare)
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Psychometrics in Behavioral Software Engineering: A Methodological Introduction with Guidelines
- 2022
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Ingår i: Acm Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology. - : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). - 1049-331X .- 1557-7392. ; 31:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A meaningful and deep understanding of the human aspects of software engineering (SE) requires psychological constructs to be considered. Psychology theory can facilitate the systematic and sound development as well as the adoption of instruments (e.g., psychological tests, questionnaires) to assess these constructs. In particular, to ensure high quality, the psychometric properties of instruments need evaluation. In this article, we provide an introduction to psychometric theory for the evaluation of measurement instruments for SE researchers. We present guidelines that enable using existing instruments and developing new ones adequately. We conducted a comprehensive review of the psychology literature framed by the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. We detail activities used when operationalizing new psychological constructs, such as item pooling, item review, pilot testing, item analysis, factor analysis, statistical property of items, reliability, validity, and fairness in testing and test bias. We provide an openly available example of a psychometric evaluation based on our guideline. We hope to encourage a culture change in SE research towards the adoption of establishedmethods from psychology. To improve the quality of behavioral research in SE, studies focusing on introducing, validating, and then using psychometric instruments need to be more common.
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| 2. |
- Gren, Lucas, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Agility is responsiveness to change: An essential definition
- 2020
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Ingår i: 24th Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE2020). - New York, NY, USA : Association for Computing Machinery. - 2153-1633.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is some ambiguity of what agile means in both research and practice. Authors have suggested a diversity of different definitions, through which it is difficult to interpret what agile really is. The concept, however, exists in its implementation through agile practices. In this vision paper, we argue that adopting an agile approach boils down to being more responsive to change. To support this claim, we relate agile principles, practices, the agile manifesto, and our own experiences to this core definition. We envision that agile transformations would be, and are, much easier using this definition and contextualizing its implications.
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| 3. |
- Gren, Lucas, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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The importance of conflict resolution techniques in autonomous agile teams
- 2018
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Ingår i: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. - New York, NY, USA : ACM. ; Part F147763
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Today, software companies usually organize their work in teams. Social science research on team development has shown that for a team to reach a productive and autonomous stage, it has to be able to manage internal conflicts and disagreements efficiently. To better facilitate the team development process, we argue that software engineers needs additional training in negotiation skills and conflict resolution. In this position paper, we outline ideas for what aspects to consider in such training. As an example, we argue that a majority of the conflicts originate from team-level factors and that they, therefore, should be managed on the team-level instead of in relation to dyads.
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| 4. |
- Gren, Lucas, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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What software engineering can learn from research on affect in social psychology
- 2019
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Ingår i: Proceedings - 2019 IEEE/ACM 4th International Workshop on Emotion Awareness in Software Engineering, SEmotion 2019. - : IEEE/ACM. ; , s. 38-41
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Social psychology researchers have, traditionally, focused on the construct of thinking rather than on feeling. Since the beginning of the 21st century, social science researchers have, however, increasingly explored the effects of affect. Their work has repeatedly recognized that affects play a crucial role in determining people's behavior. In this short paper, we argue that software engineering studies on affect would benefit from using more of the knowledge that social science researchers have acquired. Without accounting for their findings, we risk re-inventing the wheel. Also, without a profound understanding of the complex interplay between social context and affect, we risk creating overly simplistic solutions that might have considerable long-term adverse effects for software engineers.
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| 5. |
- Lenberg, Per, 1976, et al.
(författare)
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An initial analysis of differences in software engineers’ attitudes towards organizational change
- 2016
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Ingår i: Proceedings - 9th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering, CHASE 2016. - New York, NY, USA : ACM Press. - 9781450341554 ; , s. 1-7
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The ability to manage change is important in software engineering organizations, where rapid progress in technologies and constantly evolving methodologies create a turbulent environment. Research has identified employees’ attitudes towards organizational change as a key factor in the change process. Nonetheless, few studies exist that explore such attitudes in a software engineering context. The nature of change efforts is such that they often do not equally affect the various roles in the organization, which indicates that the roles may hold different attitudes. This study aimed to verify the existence of these presumed differences in attitudes towards organizational change between roles in a software engineering organization and to identify factors that contribute to these differences. The result of a survey (N=51) confirmed that there were significant differences, and that the software developers had a more positive attitude towards change and had deeper knowledge about the intended outcome compared to the line managers. The result of in-depth interviews (N=11) revealed that the software engineers evaluate the planned change in relation to the norms, values and standards of their peer group, meaning that an employee will have a positive attitude towards a change if its result is likely to make, or has made, it easier for him/her to uphold the peer group’s norms and values.
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| 6. |
- Lenberg, Per, 1976, et al.
(författare)
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An initial analysis of software engineers’ attitudes towards organizational change
- 2017
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Ingår i: Empirical Software Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1382-3256 .- 1573-7616. ; 22, s. 2179-2205
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- © 2016, The Author(s). Employees’ attitudes towards organizational change are a critical determinant in the change process. Researchers have therefore tried to determine what underlying concepts that affect them. These extensive efforts have resulted in the identification of several antecedents. However, no studies have been conducted in a software engineering context and the research has provided little information on the relative impact and importance of the identified concepts. In this study, we have combined results from previous social science research with results from software engineering research, and thereby identified three underlying concepts with an expected significant impact on software engineers’ attitudes towards organizational change, i.e. their knowledge about the intended change outcome, their understanding of the need for change, and their feelings of participation in the change process. The result of two separate multiple regression analysis, where we used industrial questionnaire data (N=56), showed that the attitude concept openness to change is predicted by all three concepts, while the attitude concept readiness for change is predicted by need for change and participation. Our research provides an empirical baseline to an important area of software engineering and the result can be a starting-point for future organizational change research. In addition, the proposed model prescribes practical directions for software engineering organizations to adopt in improving employees’ responses to change and, thus, increase the probability of a successful change.
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| 7. |
- Lenberg, Per, 1976, et al.
(författare)
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Behavioral Aspects of Safety-Critical Software Development
- 2020
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Ingår i: Proceedings - 2020 IEEE/ACM 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering Workshops, ICSEW 2020. - New York, NY, USA : ACM. ; , s. 173-176
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- We are becoming increasingly dependent on software systems also for highly critical tasks in society. To minimize the risk of failures, regulatory institutions define standards that software organizations must meet. However, the quality of the safety-critical software is, ultimately, determined by the software engineers' behavior. Even though previous studies have recognized the significance of such behavioral aspects, research that studies them is limited. The aim of this initial study was, therefore, to identify how and in what way, behavioral aspects affect the quality of safety-critical software. Thematic analysis of interviews with six software engineers identified four themes linking developer behavior to safety. Our analysis suggests that developing safety-critical systems imposes stress on software engineers and that to reduce such pressure it is critical to enhance organizational trust. It also indicates that the agile way-of-working has the potential to improve safety by facilitating the sharing of domain knowledge. Our findings provide directions for future studies into these important aspects and can be of wider relevance, in particular for the development of secure software, but potentially also for general software engineering.
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| 8. |
- Lenberg, Per, 1976, et al.
(författare)
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Behavioral software engineering: A definition and systematic literature review
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Systems and Software. - : Elsevier BV. - 0164-1212 .- 1873-1228. ; 107, s. 15-37
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Throughout the history of software engineering, the human aspects have repeatedly been recognized as important. Even though research that investigates them has been growing in the past decade, these aspects should be more generally considered. The main objective of this study is to clarify the research area concerned with human aspects of software engineering and to create a common platform for future research. In order to meet the objective, we propose a definition of the research area behavioral software engineering (BSE) and present results from a systematic literature review based on the definition. The result indicates that there are knowledge gaps in the research area of behavioral software engineering and that earlier research has been focused on a few concepts, which have been applied to a limited number of software engineering areas. The individual studies have typically had a narrow perspective focusing on few concepts from a single unit of analysis. Further, the research has rarely been conducted in collaboration by researchers from both software engineering and social science. Altogether, this review can help put a broader set of human aspects higher on the agenda for future software engineering research and practice. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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| 9. |
- Lenberg, Per, 1976, et al.
(författare)
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Behavioral software engineering - guidelines for qualitative studies
- 2017
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Researchers are increasingly recognizing the importance of human aspects in software development and since qualitative methods are used to, in-depth, explore human behavior, we believe that studies using such techniques will become more common. Existing qualitative software engineering guidelines do not cover the full breadth of qualitative methods and knowledge on using them found in the social sciences. The aim of this study was thus to extend the software engineering research community's current body of knowledge regarding available qualitative methods and provide recommendations and guidelines for their use. With the support of a literature review, we suggest that future research would benefit from (1) utilizing a broader set of research methods, (2) more strongly emphasizing reflexivity, and (3) employing qualitative guidelines and quality criteria. We present an overview of three qualitative methods commonly used in social sciences but rarely seen in software engineering research, namely interpretative phenomenological analysis, narrative analysis, and discourse analysis. Furthermore, we discuss the meaning of reflexivity in relation to the software engineering context and suggest means of fostering it. Our paper will help software engineering researchers better select and then guide the application of a broader set of qualitative research methods.
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| 10. |
- Lenberg, Per, 1976
(författare)
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Behavioral Software Engineering - Organizational Change Refocused
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background The development of software is not only a technical endeavor; it is significantly affected by the behaviors of the people involved. Since social scientists have been studying humans for over a century, it is likely that insights they have developed could be used to increase software development effectiveness. There are, nevertheless, indications that software engineering researchers seldom use theories developed and proven within the social sciences. Overall, software engineering research that emphasizes human aspects is still limited compared to studies with technology or process focus. Objective Given the importance of human aspects in software development, we argue that knowledge from the social sciences should be used more extensively to improve software engineering research. Therefore, the primary objective of our research was to advance software engineering by more profoundly considering humans and their behavior. For in-depth insights into such interdisciplinary research efforts, we chose to explore a specific phenomenon: organizational change. Our secondary objective was thus to create understanding to help improve software companies’ organizational change efforts. Method To address our research objectives, we used a variety of research designs and data collection methods, including literature reviews, surveys, interviews, focus groups, and quantitative analysis of project data. This diversity allowed us to examine phenomena from different perspectives. Results We provide directions for future research on behavioral aspects of software engineering by outlining the behavioral software engineering (BSE) research area, reviewing contemporary research, and identifying industrial needs. Moreover, our findings suggest that software engineers form their attitudes toward change collectively and according to their teams’ social norms, which are governed by their distinct professional identity. Our results also indicate that misalignment of organizational values between groups adversely affects change efforts and overall performance. Conclusions Our research concludes that in order to effectively manage organizational change efforts, software companies must strengthen their organizational identity and reduce misalignment of organizational values. By providing such concrete advice on how to improve organizational change, our research confirms the usefulness of and need for additional BSE research to create novel and in-depth insights into software engineering phenomena.
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