Motivating software developers

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Motivating software developers

• Dr Tracy Hall
• Adjunct Professor, University of Oslo
• Reader, Brunel University, UK

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Something about me

• Reader in Software Engineering
• Based in Information Systems Department
• Brunel University, London, UK
• Large, highly rated research department
• BSc in Social Science MSc in IT PhD in Software
  Metrics
• Main research topics
• The motivation of software engineers
• The quality of software
• Published
• many international journal and conference papers.
• Lead and have led several large research council
  funded research projects
• Taught many software engineering topics to BSc
  and MSc students

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Objectives of today

• To be able to
• Appreciate the importance that developer
  motivation plays in project management
• Understand the historical context of current
  thinking on developer motivation
• Evaluate the impact of modern software
  engineering approaches on contemporary
  understanding of developer motivation
• Accommodate developer motivation in a project
  plan

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Schedule

• Section 1 Introduction and background
• Defining motivation
• Why is motivating developers important?
• Classic motivation theories
• Section 2 Historical understanding of software
  developer motivation
• Are software developers different from other
  professionals?
• Software developer characteristics
• Software developer motivators
• A model of software developer motivation
• Section 3 Towards a contemporary understanding
  of software developer motivation
• A recent survey
• Developing a motivating project plan

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S1 Defining motivation

• Difficult to define as fairly intangible.
• Includes notions of
• Initiation, direction, intensity and persistence
  of behaviour
• How do you know when you are motivated?
• How do you know when others are?
• How can this be measured?

Section 1 Introduction and background
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S1 Why is motivating developers important?

• Human rather than technical problems known to
  impact most on project outcomes
• What human factors are important?
• Motivation reported as a key human factor in
  developer performance
• Human factors and motivation in software projects
  difficult to manage
• Why?

Section 1 Introduction and background
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S1 What studies report

• McConnell (1998) points out,
• Motivation is a soft factor It is difficult to
  quantify, and it often takes a back seat to other
  factors that might be less important but are
  easier to measure. Every organisation knows that
  motivation is important, but only a few
  organizations do anything about it. Many common
  management practices are pennywise and
  pound-foolish, trading huge losses in motivation
  and morale for minor methodology improvements or
  dubious budget savings.

Section 1 Introduction and background
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• DeMarco and Listers (1999) survey
• motivation was found to be one of the most
  frequently cited causes of software development
  project failure.
• The Standish report (1995)
• having access to competent, hard working and
  focused staff is one of ten success criteria for
  software projects.

Section 1 Introduction and background
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S1 What does developer motivation impact on?

• What do you think??

Section 1 Introduction and background
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S1 Motivation impacts on
Figure 2. Signs of poor motivation reported in
previous studies
Section 1 Introduction and background
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S1 Classic motivation theories
Section 1 Introduction and background
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The process theories

• Equity theory (Adams 1963)
• Stimulus Response Theory (Skinner 1976)
• Job Characteristics Theory (Hackman and Oldman
  1976)
• Goal setting theory (Locke 1968)
• Expectancy Theory (Vroom 1964)

Section 1 Introduction and background
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Job Characteristics Theory
JCT model of motivation (Couger and Zawacki 1980)
Section 1 Introduction and background
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The content theories

• Needs theory (Maslow 1954)
• McClellands Needs Theory (1961)
• Motivation-Hygiene Theory (Herzberg et al. 1959)

Section 1 Introduction and background
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Needs theory (Maslow 1954)
Section 1 Introduction and background
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Motivation-Hygiene Theory (Herzberg et al. 1959)
Section 1 Introduction and background
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S2 Current understanding of software developer
motivation

• 92 studies of motivating software developers
  published from 1980-2006
• Some of these have basis in classic theory
• Increasing interest in motivating software
  developers

• Section 2 Historical understanding of software
  developer motivation

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Number of papers published on developer
motivation by five year intervals

• Section 2 Historical understanding of software
  developer motivation

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Geographical distribution of studies on developer
motivation

• Section 2 Historical understanding of software
  developer motivation

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S2 Are software developers different to other
professionals?
What do you think?
Figure 1. Results from 92 published studies
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S2 How are developers characterised?
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S2 Software developer characteristics
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S2 Software developer motivators

• Motivators come from three different sources
• the organisational context,
• the specific job being undertaken (intrinsic
  motivators),
• a sub-set of intrinsic motivators which are
  inherent to software engineering as a profession.

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S2 Software developer de-motivators
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S2 A model of software developer motivation
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S2 How does this fit with you?

• Use this model and score your partner according
  to each of these criteria on a scale of 1-10

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S3 Towards a contemporary understanding of
software developer motivation

• The job of software development has moved on
• Globally distributed teams
• Agile approaches
• More demanding users
• etc
• The role of the developer has evolved
• The stereotypical introverted solitary
  programmer is no longer viable
• Old paradigms of motivation increasingly outdated

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Question 1 what aspects of your job do you get
most satisfaction from?
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Question 2 what are the features of a project
that make you stay in your job?
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Question 3 what factors keep you in software
engineering?
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Question 4 what makes developing software
worthwhile to you?
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S3 Developing a motivating project plan

• What are the key elements of a project that you
  need to understand before you can assign
  appropriate developers to tasks?
• - How can you find out this information?
• What do you need to know about developers before
  you can assign them to the most appropriate tasks
  for them?
• - How can you find out this information?
• What are the benefits of accounting for
  motivation in a project plan?

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References

• 1 Hall T, Baddoo, N., Beecham, S, Robinson H,
  Sharp H (in press) A Systematic Review of
  Theory Use in Studies Investigating the
  Motivations of Software Engineers, ACM
  Transactions on Software Engineering and
  Methodology (TOSEM), to appear
• 2 Hall T, Sharp H, Beecham S, Baddoo N.,
  Robinson H (in press) What do we know about
  software developer motivation?, IEEE Software,
  July/Aug 2008, to appear
• 3 Sharp H, Baddoo, N, Beecham, S, Hall T,
  Robinson H (in press) Models of motivation in
  software engineering, Information and Software
  Technology Journal, to appear
• 4 Beecham, S, Baddoo, N., Hall T, Robinson H,
  Sharp H (in press) Motivation in Software
  Engineering A Systematic Literature Review,
  Information and Software Technology Journal, to
  appear
• 5 Sharp H, Hall T, Baddoo, N., Beecham, S
  (2007). Exploring Motivational Differences
  between Software Developers and Project Managers,
  ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of
  Software Engineering, Sept 2007, Croatia, ACM
  Press

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Contact details

• Dr Tracy Hall
• Department of Information Systems Computing
• Brunel University
• London, UK
• tracy.hall_at_brunel.ac.uk