Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 107698 |
| Journal | Information and Software Technology |
| Volume | 181 |
| Early online date | 19 Feb 2025 |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 19 Feb 2025 |
Abstract
Context: Software development is a collaborative task involving different persons. Development team members are often diverse in regard to several aspects, including experience, (soft) skills, and communication habits. Different preferences in what adequate communication looks like influence how communication is perceived and interpreted by team members. Objective: In this paper, we investigate differences and similarities in how software developers with varying levels of experience and skills perceive statements from exemplary software project communication. Methods: By applying hierarchical cluster analysis on the perception data of 94 software developers, we aim to find groups of developers sharing similar perceptions towards statements from software project communication, and to identify factors that influence this perception. Results: We contribute the following key findings: (1) We statistically identify two groups of software developers whose perceptions differ significantly for about 65% of statements from software project communication; (2) For a logistic regression model, five polarizing statements suffice to assign each participant to their group; (3) Although there is a significant difference in the communication perception, there are no demographic characteristics that differ notably across the two groups. Conclusion: From our results, we conclude that different perceptions of software project communication during collaboration within development teams are a potential risk for the teams’ mood and the project success. We outline how our results can serve use cases like the application of sentiment analysis in software engineering and mindful communication in software teams in general.
Keywords
- Cluster analysis, Development team, Exploratory data analysis, Human values, Perception, Personality, Social aspects, Software developer, Software project
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Computer Science(all)
- Software
- Computer Science(all)
- Information Systems
- Computer Science(all)
- Computer Science Applications
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In: Information and Software Technology, Vol. 181, 107698, 05.2025.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Different and similar perceptions of communication among software developers
AU - Herrmann, Marc
AU - Obaidi, Martin
AU - Klünder, Jil
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Authors
PY - 2025/2/19
Y1 - 2025/2/19
N2 - Context: Software development is a collaborative task involving different persons. Development team members are often diverse in regard to several aspects, including experience, (soft) skills, and communication habits. Different preferences in what adequate communication looks like influence how communication is perceived and interpreted by team members. Objective: In this paper, we investigate differences and similarities in how software developers with varying levels of experience and skills perceive statements from exemplary software project communication. Methods: By applying hierarchical cluster analysis on the perception data of 94 software developers, we aim to find groups of developers sharing similar perceptions towards statements from software project communication, and to identify factors that influence this perception. Results: We contribute the following key findings: (1) We statistically identify two groups of software developers whose perceptions differ significantly for about 65% of statements from software project communication; (2) For a logistic regression model, five polarizing statements suffice to assign each participant to their group; (3) Although there is a significant difference in the communication perception, there are no demographic characteristics that differ notably across the two groups. Conclusion: From our results, we conclude that different perceptions of software project communication during collaboration within development teams are a potential risk for the teams’ mood and the project success. We outline how our results can serve use cases like the application of sentiment analysis in software engineering and mindful communication in software teams in general.
AB - Context: Software development is a collaborative task involving different persons. Development team members are often diverse in regard to several aspects, including experience, (soft) skills, and communication habits. Different preferences in what adequate communication looks like influence how communication is perceived and interpreted by team members. Objective: In this paper, we investigate differences and similarities in how software developers with varying levels of experience and skills perceive statements from exemplary software project communication. Methods: By applying hierarchical cluster analysis on the perception data of 94 software developers, we aim to find groups of developers sharing similar perceptions towards statements from software project communication, and to identify factors that influence this perception. Results: We contribute the following key findings: (1) We statistically identify two groups of software developers whose perceptions differ significantly for about 65% of statements from software project communication; (2) For a logistic regression model, five polarizing statements suffice to assign each participant to their group; (3) Although there is a significant difference in the communication perception, there are no demographic characteristics that differ notably across the two groups. Conclusion: From our results, we conclude that different perceptions of software project communication during collaboration within development teams are a potential risk for the teams’ mood and the project success. We outline how our results can serve use cases like the application of sentiment analysis in software engineering and mindful communication in software teams in general.
KW - Cluster analysis
KW - Development team
KW - Exploratory data analysis
KW - Human values
KW - Perception
KW - Personality
KW - Social aspects
KW - Software developer
KW - Software project
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85218163078&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107698
DO - 10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107698
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85218163078
VL - 181
JO - Information and Software Technology
JF - Information and Software Technology
SN - 0950-5849
M1 - 107698
ER -