2010 chase - designing motivation strategies for software engineering teams: an empirical study

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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]>

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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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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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SO

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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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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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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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Average Dissatisfaction

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Average Dissatisfaction

~20%

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Average Motivation

28

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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

2010 chase - designing motivation strategies for software engineering teams: an empirical study

Technology