Prevalence of Self-Reported Work-related Musculoskeletal Symptoms among Software Employees in Hyderabad, India

Background: This study has been carried out to analyze the prevalence of self-reported work-related musculoskeletal symptoms among software professionals and to utilize the findings to design an effective preventive interventional program for WRMSDs. Subjects & Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive data analysis was done among 665 software employees both male and female from various companies in Q city Tech Park, Hyderabad. Data collected with “Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire” (CMDQ). Results: A total of 640 subjects were eligible for this study. Prevalence of WRMSDs to be 67%. The most common sites of reported symptoms are neck (65.0%), upper back (56.4%), lower back (62.6%), right shoulder (41.4%), left shoulder (35.4%) and right thigh (41.4%). Women were more likely to report symptoms in neck, lower back and both shoulder region than men (p<0.05). Discomforts in neck, lower back and right shoulder are greatly shown impact on work performance. Conclusion: WRMSDs are highly prevalent is software professionals and women at more risk than men. These findings indicate the need for more attention to WRMSDs and design of effective preventive strategies. Keywords: musculoskeletal pain, Prevalence, software professionals, work related musculoskeletal disorders.

COMPETENCE ASSESSMENT AND DEVELOPMENT FOR MANAGING HUMAN CAPITAL IN IT SECTOR

With ever-increasing demand for software professionals, time has come for the information technology (IT) industry to unearth competencies required for software professionals. The majority of IT companies have been employing outsourcing software projects to inexpensive hubs in developing nations. Therefore expectations from highly skilled software professionals are rising. The purpose of the study is to recognize the technical competence levels associated with software professionals in a range of profiles which are found in India's major IT organizations. There are three basic objectives of the present study. The first objective is to conduct a literature survey of description of the software engineers in IT domain. The second objective is to quantify the competency levels of the software engineers in IT sector. Finally, the third objective is to conduct a survey-based empirical study on software engineers. The professional occupation is set up through seven successive profiles.

Teaching Model-Driven Engineering in a Master's Program

Model-driven engineering (MDE) is an approach to software engineering that adopts models as the central artefact. Although the approach is promising in addressing major issues in software development, particularly in dealing with software complexity, and there are several success cases in the industry as well as growing interest in the research community, it seems that it has been hard to generalize its gains among software professionals. To address this issue, MDE must be taught at a higher-education level. This chapter presents a three-year experience in teaching MDE in a course of a master program in informatics engineering. The chapter provides details on how a project-based learning approach was adopted and evolved along three editions of the course. Results of a student survey are discussed and compared to those from another course. In addition, several other similar teaching experiences are analyzed.

An empirical investigation of command-line customization

The interactive command line, also known as the shell, is a prominent mechanism used extensively by a wide range of software professionals (engineers, system administrators, data scientists, etc.). Shell customizations can therefore provide insight into the tasks they repeatedly perform, how well the standard environment supports those tasks, and ways in which the environment could be productively extended or modified. To characterize the patterns and complexities of command-line customization, we mined the collective knowledge of command-line users by analyzing more than 2.2 million shell alias definitions found on GitHub. Shell aliases allow command-line users to customize their environment by defining arbitrarily complex command substitutions. Using inductive coding methods, we found three types of aliases that each enable a number of customization practices: Shortcuts (for nicknaming commands, abbreviating subcommands, and bookmarking locations), Modifications (for substituting commands, overriding defaults, colorizing output, and elevating privilege), and Scripts (for transforming data and chaining subcommands). We conjecture that identifying common customization practices can point to particular usability issues within command-line programs, and that a deeper understanding of these practices can support researchers and tool developers in designing better user experiences. In addition to our analysis, we provide an extensive reproducibility package in the form of a curated dataset together with well-documented computational notebooks enabling further knowledge discovery and a basis for learning approaches to improve command-line workflows.

The relation of workplace spirituality with employee creativity among Indian software professionals: mediating role of psychological empowerment

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee creativity and check the mediating role of psychological empowerment on this relationship.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey developed with SurveyMonkeyTM has been shared via LinkedIn to 750 software professionals working in Indian origin. For data analysis, partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) has been used, and for testing the mediation among the variables, Preacher and Hayes (2008) method is used.FindingsThe PLS-SEM results have revealed a significant positive relationship between workplace spirituality and employee creativity. There is also a positive relationship between workplace spirituality and psychological empowerment. Preacher and Hayes (2008) mediation results have revealed that psychological empowerment partially mediates between workplace spirituality and employee creativity.Originality/valueThe present study has filled the gap, which has been not addressed till this date and may be considered to be first-of-its kind study, which directly tried to understand the association between workplace spirituality and employee creativity among employees of Indian origin.

Psychological Empowerment Experiences of Software Professionals in Post Lockdown Information Technology Organisations

Organisations have the responsibility of not only empowering employees, but also, aiding them towards flourishing. Post lockdown (Covid-19) in Indian information technology organisations (ITOs), software professionals who experienced psychological empowerment are more likely to carry out their assignments better as well as having higher levels of trust, loyalty, employer branding and job satisfaction. Empowerment practices are expected to nurture heliotropic experiences among individuals, thus leading to their flourishing. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence in the Indian ITO context. A quantitative approach was adopted, with 200 software professionals participating in the study, aimed at investigating the correlation between psychological empowerment and flourishing. Two valid and reliable structured questionnaires were used to conduct the study using convenience sampling to identify the software professionals and stratified sampling to stratify the ITOs post lockdown (for COVID-19). Descriptive and regression analysis was performed to probe the experience of meaning, competence, self-determination and impact on flourishing. The results indicate that the software professional's experienced both psychological empowerment and flourishing. It also creates an emotional ability to enables intrinsically employees to have positive outcomes. Furthermore, the sub-dimensions self-determination and impact are found to be good predictors of flourishing even during the post-lockdown (Covid-19) period. Implications of how psychological empowerment of software professionals is important to ITO performance and accomplishment of objectives are discussed in detail.

Design Patterns Discovery in Source Code: Novel Technique Using Substring Match

The role of design pattern mining is a very significant strategy of re-engineering as with the help of detection one could easily understand complex systems. Of course, identifying a design pattern is not always a simple task. Additionally, pattern recovering methods often encounter problems dealing with space outburst for extensive systems. This paper introduces a new way to discover a design pattern based on an Impact Analysis matrix followed by substring match. UML diagrams corresponding to codes are created using Visual Paradigm Enterprise. Impact Analysis matrices of these UML diagrams are converted to string format. Considering system code string as main string and design pattern string as a substring, the main string is further decomposed. A substring match technique is developed here to discover design patterns in the source code. Overall, this procedure has the potential to convert the representation of system design and design pattern in ingenious shapes. In addition, this method has the advantage of moderation in the size. Therefore, this approach is beneficial for Software professionals and researchers due to its simplicity.