Do feelings matter? On the correlation of affects and the self‐assessed productivity in software engineering. Issue 7 (6th August 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Graziotin, Daniel; Wang, Xiaofeng; Abrahamsson, Pekka; Heidrich, Jens; Oivo, Markku; Jedlitschka, Andreas
• Is Part Of: Journal of software. Volume 27:Issue 7(2015:Jul.)
• Page Start: 467
• Page End: 487
• Publication Date: 2014-08-06
• Subjects: Software engineering -- Periodicals; Computer software -- Development -- Periodicals; Software maintenance -- Periodicals; 005.1
• DOI: 10.1002/smr.1673
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2047-7473

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Abstract</title> <sec id="smr1673-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <p>Software engineering (SE) research lacks theory and methodologies for addressing human aspects in software development. Development tasks are undertaken through cognitive processing activities. Affects (emotions, moods, and feelings) have a linkage to cognitive processing activities and the productivity of individuals. SE research needs to incorporate affect measurements to valorize human factors and to enhance management styles.</p> <p>The objective of this study is to analyze the affects dimensions of valence, arousal, and dominance of software developers and their real‐time correlation with their self‐assessed productivity (sPR).</p> <p>A repeated measurements design was conducted with eight participants (four students and four professionals), conveniently sampled and studied individually over 90 min of programming. The analysis was performed by fitting a linear mixed‐effects (LME) model.</p> <p>The results showed that valence and dominance are positively correlated with the sPR. The model was able to express about 38% of deviance from the sPR. Many lessons were learned when employing psychological measurements in SE and for fitting LME.</p> <p>This article demonstrates the value of applying psychological tests in SE and echoes a call to valorize the human individualized aspects of software developers. It reports a body of knowledge about affects, their classification, their measurement, and the best practices to perform psychological measurements in SE with LME models. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.</p> </sec> </abstract>