research-article

Analysis of the understanding of the concepts of task and skill variety by software engineering professionals

Authors:

Amirton B. Chagas,

Fábio A. Melo,

Walter F. dos Santos,

Adriana A. N. de Oliveira,

Sarita M. Bora,

Fabio Q. B. SilvaAuthors Info & Claims

ESEM '17: Proceedings of the 11th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement

Pages 217 - 222

https://doi.org/10.1109/ESEM.2017.33

Published: 09 November 2017 Publication History

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Abstract

Context: In organizational psychology literature, Task Variety and Skill Variety are considered different aspects of work design. Albeit related to different aspects of the work, it is common to find strong correlations between these constructs. After applying the Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ) on a sample of 102 software professional, we found the similar correlations and conjectured that they were partly due to a misunderstanding about what a task is, what a skill is, and what could be considered a variety of those concepts in the practice of software development. Goal: Our goal in this study was to investigate the actual existence and the possible sources of such misunderstanding. Method: We performed semi-structured interviews with software professionals that had previously participated in the application of the WDQ and analyzed the results using qualitative research techniques. We selected four software professionals among those with higher experience in software development. Results: Qualitative data revealed insights regarding the reasons why the correlation identified in the quantitative results could have arisen in our sample. Conclusions: Our findings pointed out that the misunderstanding of such concepts might affect the results of the application of quantitative questionnaires that measure these constructs.

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Winter EForshaw SFerrario MOivo MMéndez DMockus A(2018)Measuring human values in software engineeringProceedings of the 12th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement10.1145/3239235.3267427(1-4)Online publication date: 11-Oct-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3239235.3267427

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ESEM '17: Proceedings of the 11th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement

November 2017

481 pages

ISBN:9781509040391

General Chair:
Ayse Bener
Ryerson University, Canada
,
Program Chairs:
Burak Turhan
Brunel University, UK
,
Stefan Biffl
Technische Universität Wien, Austria

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IEEE Press

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Published: 09 November 2017

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ESEM '17: ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement

November 9 - 10, 2017

Ontario, Markham, Canada

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Winter EForshaw SFerrario MOivo MMéndez DMockus A(2018)Measuring human values in software engineeringProceedings of the 12th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement10.1145/3239235.3267427(1-4)Online publication date: 11-Oct-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3239235.3267427

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Preliminary Findings about the Nature of Work in Software Engineering: An Exploratory Survey

Autonomy in software engineering: a preliminary study on the influence of education level and professional experience

An initial understanding of task interdependence in software engineering: a case study

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