Soft skills for newborn software engineers in agile teams

This article discusses the problem of preparing student programmers for the process of software testing in real production conditions. It reveals the relevance of the field of software development in general and the testing process in particular, gives a characteristic of the latter. An analysis of the requirements put forward by employers to young specialists-testers is carried out, the main ones are highlighted: knowledge of specific theoretical aspects of activities, the availability of project experience, a high level of development of soft skills. The paper examines the international experience of training software engineers, which highlights special attention of foreign programs to the practices of non-formal education, in particular, to conducting industrial practice at the expense of the resources and programs of partner enterprises, as well as taking into account international certificates of training programs in the assessment of disciplines. In the final part of the work, a description of the concept of non-formal education is given, features of its legal status in Ukraine are highlighted, characteristics of its main features are given, such as the use of innovative teaching methods, flexibility and modifiability, implementation on the basis of specialized or independent institutions. The final part of the article examines the issue of the relevance of non-formal forms of education in the context of training future software engineers for software testing in a real project environment. An analysis of the existing commercial practices present in the educational space of Ukraine is carried out, conclusions are drawn regarding the possibility of using informal training practices within the formal programs of domestic universities.

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Principles of reforming an agile-compliant performance appraisal

Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science ◽

10.11591/ijeecs.v16.i2.pp1009-1017 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 1009

Author(s):

Mawarny Md. Rejab ◽

Mazni Omar ◽

Mazida Ahmad ◽

Syahida Hassan

Keyword(s):

Software Development ◽

Performance Appraisal ◽

Agile Software Development ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Development Environment ◽

Team Members ◽

Consistent Manner ◽

Software Engineers ◽

Agile Software ◽

Agile Teams

This paper presents principles of reforming an Agile-compliant performance appraisal. In this study, several semi-structured interviews have been carried out and discovered eight principles for reforming an Agile-compliant performance appraisal for Agile teams. Performance appraisal for software engineers in an Agile software development environment is complex and different from the traditional software development. Performance appraisal should be aligned to Agile values, principles, and practices, which advocate interactions, collaborations, teamwork, and knowledge transfer among Agile team members. Therefore, a transition to Agile Software Development requires the implementation of Agile-compliant performance appraisal. These principles embark the proper practices and guidance to support management and Agile teams in deriving and implementing an Agile-compliant performance appraisal. Therefore, the emerged principles can be a baseline in generating an Agile-compliant performance appraisal to assess Agile team members in a fair and consistent manner. This indirectly increases motivation amongst team members and tends to produce capable workforce to perform at a higher level.

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How (UN) Happiness Impacts on Software Engineers in Agile Teams?

International Journal of Software Engineering & Applications ◽

10.5121/ijsea.2020.11303 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 39-57

Author(s):

Luís Felipe Amorim ◽

Marcelo Marinho ◽

Suzana Sampaio

Keyword(s):

Software Engineers ◽

Agile Teams

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Analyzing Soft Skills of Software Engineers using Repertory Grid

2006 IEEE International Multitopic Conference ◽

10.1109/inmic.2006.358174 ◽

2006 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Vaqar A. Khamisani ◽

Muhammad Sibghatullah Siddiqui ◽

Muhammad Yousuf Bawany

Keyword(s):

Soft Skills ◽

Repertory Grid ◽

Software Engineers

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Towards data-driven software engineering skills assessment

International Journal of Crowd Science ◽

10.1108/ijcs-07-2018-0014 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 123-135

Author(s):

Jun Lin ◽

Han Yu ◽

Zhengxiang Pan ◽

Zhiqi Shen ◽

Lizhen Cui

Keyword(s):

Software Engineering ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Soft Skills ◽

Skill Development ◽

Data Driven ◽

Management Tool ◽

Trajectory Data ◽

Data Set ◽

Content Type ◽

Software Engineers

Purpose Today’s software engineers often work in teams to develop complex software systems. Therefore, successful software engineering in practice require team members to possess not only sound programming skills such as analysis, design, coding and testing but also soft skills such as communication, collaboration and self-management. However, existing examination-based assessments are often inadequate for quantifying students’ soft skill development. The purpose of this paper is to explore alternative ways for assessing software engineering students’ skills through a data-driven approach. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the exploratory data analysis approach is adopted. Leveraging the proposed online agile project management tool – Human-centred Agile Software Engineering (HASE), a study was conducted involving 21 Scrum teams consisting of over 100 undergraduate software engineering students in multi-week coursework projects in 2014. Findings During this study, students performed close to 170,000 software engineering activities logged by HASE. By analysing the collected activity trajectory data set, the authors demonstrate the potential for this new research direction to enable software engineering educators to have a quantifiable way of understanding their students’ skill development, and take a proactive approach in helping them improve their programming and soft skills. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there has yet to be published previous studies using software engineering activity data to assess software engineers’ skills.

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O Organizar de Práticas Cooperativas no Contexto de um Ambiente de Estágio em Desenvolvimento de Software

10.5753/washes.2020.11201 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ariádna Miranda ◽

Allysson Allex Araújo ◽

Emanuel Coutinho ◽

Jerffeson Souza

Keyword(s):

Conceptual Model ◽

Soft Skills ◽

Practice Theory ◽

Academic Experience ◽

Blind Review ◽

Software Engineers

Soft skills are not trivial to be taught, although they are preponderant to be improved during the academic experience of future software engineers. Understanding how such skills are perceived and practiced during the supervised internship poses to be relevant, given the opportunity for students to enhance their skills. Grounded on the Practice Theory, we investigate how the organization of soft skills occurs as a bundle of cooperative practices in the context of the (Ommited due Blind Review) internship environment. We highlight as contributions i) the proposition of a conceptual model for investigating cooperative practices; ii) the analytical contrast between doings and sayings and iii) the empirical reflection for students on the role of soft skills.

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