2010 chase - designing motivation strategies for software engineering teams: an empirical study
DESCRIPTION
Designing Motivation Strategies for Software Engineering Teams: an Empirical Study A. César C. França, Fabio Q. B. da Silva Abstract-Background. Even though the amount of researches related to the behavior of software development teams has significantly increased in recent years, researches focusing on motivation as an alternative to lead software projects to success are still rare. Objective/Method: This article describes a survey conducted to identify the relative importance of some factors that affect the motivation of software engineers at work. The conceptual underpinnings of human motivation used in the research are the Expectancy Theory and the Motivation-Hygiene Theory. Results/Conclusion: In the study, a cross-sectional survey was conducted involving 176 software engineers employed at 20 software firms from the State of Pernambuco, Brazil. Data collected with the survey revealed not only the order in which the set of motivators influences the software engineers motivation and other peripheral findings, but also served as a basis to design three motivation strategies for software engineering teams. Paper presented at the Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering, Cape Town, 2010. http://www.haseresearch.comTRANSCRIPT
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Designing Motivation Strategies forSoftware Engineering Teams: an Empirical Study
A. César C. França; Fabio Q. B. da Silva;
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Research Project
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(empirical) research project on theinfluence of human factors on softwareengineering
Long Term Objective: to understandthe influence of personality, behavior,and cognition on individuals, teams,projects, processes, and organizationsin software engineering.
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Research Project
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(empirical) research project on theinfluence of human factors on softwareengineering
Centro de Informática – UFPE
Since 2003 ...
1 professor/researcher
2 PhD students
23 master students
14 master dissertations
...
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Research Project
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(empirical) research project on theinfluence of human factors on softwareengineering
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EI
Individual•Learning•Preferences•Motivation•Performance
Team•Structure•Roles•Relations•Management
•Conflicts•Negotiation•Leadership•Performance•Aim
Projects and Processes•Typology•Activities•Performance•Sucess
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Is influentiated
Human Factors•Personality•Behavior•Cognitive style• Mental Models
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ETeam•Structure•Roles•Relations•Management
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Individual•Learning•Preferences•Motivation•Performance
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Objective of this Article
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This article describes an inductive and quantitative field research whose aim is design a motivation strategy for software engineering teams.
•Conflicts•Negotiation•Leadership•Performance•Aim
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Research Motivation
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Developers are not happy!
IT - professionals
28% were not satisfied with the current work
75% would like to change their job
41% felt unmotivated in the job[SkillSoft - Jaggs, 2006]
Motivation = focus of interest in the productive sector
Organizational climate
People may better perform their tasks
Human resources constitute an average of 70% of the costs
in a software engineering project.[SEI]
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Our Questions
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(RQ1) What is the order of influence of a given set of motivators in the softwareengineers general motivation?
(RQ2) What is the order of influence of a given set of dissatisfaction factors in the software engineers general motivation?
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Motivational Theories
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• Expectancy Theory– Individual + Context
– Valency, Expectancy and Instrumentality
• Motivation-Hygiene Theory– Motivators: increase the motivation
– Hygienic factors: respulse some action
Motivation
Unsatisfaction
Satisfacted
I Want(Valency)Performance
I Will(Expectancy) Effort
I Can(Instrumentality) Satisfaction
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Sharp’s MOCC ModelMotivators, Outcomes, Characteristics, Context
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Software Engineer
Characteristics
Outcomes
Contextual
Result in
Mediate
Influence effectiveness of
Influence strength of
Orientate towards
Motivators
Inherent in Software
Engineering
Specific
organization/job
factors
Intrinsic Extrinsic
Personality
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Sharp’s MOCC ModelMotivators, Outcomes, Characteristics, Context
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Software Engineer
Characteristics
Outcomes
Contextual
Result in
Mediate
Influence effectiveness of
Influence strength of
Orientate towards
Motivators
Inherent in Software
Engineering
Specific
organization/job
factors
Intrinsic Extrinsic
Personality
Work with people Balance between professionalDevelopment processes and personal lifeProject Life cycle Technical developmentChange Exercise broadly personal skillsChallenging work FeedbackProblems resolution Rewards and Financial IncentivesExperimentation Career developmentCreativity EmpowermentMeaningful products Identification with taskDecision Making AutonomyPhysical Conditions Working in a Successful CompanyTechnological conditions Competitive SalariesBenefits Good ManagementEquity
People RetentionProject Delivery TimeProductivityBudgetsLow AbsenteeismProject Success
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Team Types
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Tactical Teams:
Focuses on technical tasks, clearly defined, standardized, and repeatable, whose results are easily measured. The performance of this type of team may be improved by challenging goals, though always reachable.
Creative Teams: Focuses on creation of novel products or services. This type of team is usually composed by intelligent people, independent and self-managed. Its components usually match their personal interests with the team objectives.
Problem Resolution Teams: Focuses on critical problems resolution. This type of team usually works under pressure, and its components are sociable, analytical and highly concentrated.
[Larson, 1989]
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Experimental Design
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Software engineers on software firms located in Recife, Pernambuco (Brazil)
the choice of software organizations was done by convenience and theselection of subjects in each company was random
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Experimental Steps
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Step I) Literature review: The systematic literature review described in Beecham et al. [10] is one of the key elements for this research.
Step II) Survey: • data collection: 12/01/2008 – 12/20/2008• 176 professionals, located in Recife, PE (Brazil). • Questionnaire
Step III - Data analysis: • Statistical treatment • Motivators were ordered according to the direct perception of the subjects • Subjectively organized according to their best suitability to each pre-defined category.
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Motivators Set
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Appropriate Physical conditions
Appropriate technologicalconditions
Competitive salary
Equity
Good management
Work with people
Development practices
Participation in the entire life cycle of the project
Changing Routine
Challenging goals
Problems resolution
Experimentation
Creativity
Meaningful products
Decision making
Balance between personal and professional life
Technical development
Exercise broad personal skills
Feedback
Rewards and financial incentives
Career development
Empowerement
Identification with task
Autonomy
Working in successfull company
Benefits
Hygienic Factors Motivators
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Variables & Measures
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Variables & Measures
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Variables & Measures
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Variables & Measures
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AverageMotivation
Motivational Force
xVxIxExFm
Dissatisfaction Force
yHyFh 1
n
n
iFm
Ma
1
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Population Characterization
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Gender
Male 81.4 %
Female 18.6 %
Role
P.M. 6.9 %
Analist 20.1 %
Designer 5.8 %
Implementer 42.9 %
Tester 15.3 %
Others 4.8 %
N.I. 4.2 %
Age
Under 21 1.6 %
21 to 25 41.5 %
26 to 30 27.8 %
31 to 35 9.0 %
36 to 40 3.7 %
Above 40 6.4 %
Education
High school 0.5%
Undergraduate 33.0 %
Graduated 35.1 %
Master / Specialist 28.7 %
Ph.D 0.5 %
N.I. 2.2 %
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Categories of Motivators
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Acceleration Factors Innovation Factors Tension Factors
Inherent to Task
F1 Work with people F8 Creativity F6 Problems resolution
Operational F2 Development practices F4 Changing RoutineF7 ExperimentationF18 Identification with task
F14 Feedback
Tactical F5 Challenging goalsF11 Balance between personal and professionallife
F13 Exercise broad personal skillsF19 Autonomy
F3 Participation in the entire life cycle of theproject
Strategic F15 Rewards and financial incentivesF12 Technical development
F10 Decision makingF16 Career developmentF17 Empowerement
Global F9 Meaningful productsF20 Working in successfull company
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Dissatisfaction Force
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Average Dissatisfaction
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Dissatisfaction Force
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Average Dissatisfaction
~20%
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Average Motivation
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Design of Motivation Strategies
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Design of Motivation Strategies
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Conclusions
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Contributions
• A questionnaire designed to measure the software engineers motivation
• An empirical classification order of motivator factors and hygiene factors
Motivation Strategies
Adaptable
Flexible
Pragmatic
Effective (we suppose…)
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Threats to Validity
• Internal Validity– Addressed by pre-testing the questionnaire in a smaller sample– Causality relation between the factors
• Construct Validity– addressed by using motivator factors developed by a thorough systematic
literature review.
• Conclusion Validity– Suppositions must be tested
• External Validity– population is restricted to individuals from the same geographic location and
similar type of software companies
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Future Work
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Motivation x success in software engineering projects
Motivation x Project Characteristics
Principal Component Analysis
Replication and Validation
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Designing Motivation Strategies forSoftware Engineering Teams: an Empirical Study
A. César C. França; Fabio Q. B. da Silva;
<[email protected]; [email protected]>
Thanks!
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Designing Motivation Strategies for Software Engineering Teams: an Empirical Study by A. César C. França, Fabio Q. B. da Silva is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at the Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering, Cape Town, 2010.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.haseresearch.com