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Motivated software engineers are engaged and focused, while satisfied ones are happy

Authors:

César França,

Fabio Q. B. da SilvaAuthors Info & Claims

ESEM '14: Proceedings of the 8th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement

Article No.: 32, Pages 1 - 8

https://doi.org/10.1145/2652524.2652545

Published: 18 September 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Context -- Motivation and job satisfaction are not the same thing, and although business organization research recognized this a long time ago, in Software Engineering research, we have not. As a result, thirty years of research on motivation in software engineering has produced knowledge on what makes software engineers generally happier, but not about how to increase their motivation. Goal -- In this article, we aim to identify visible signs of a software engineer who is motivated to work. Method -- We describe a field study in which 62 practitioners in Brazil reported their view of "motivation" in the context of their practical work. Data was collected by means of audio-recorded semi-structured interviews, and a thematic analysis was applied to identify the most relevant descriptors of motivation. Results -- Our data reveal that (1) motivated Software Engineers are engaged, focused, and collaborative; and (2) the term "motivation" is used as an umbrella term to cover several distinct organizational behaviours that are not necessarily related to the individual's desire to work. Conclusions -- Without a clear picture of the difference between these two concepts, work-based motivation programs may not be designed effectively to address either turnover or performance issues. Overall, this work indicates the need for a more effective conceptual system to investigate and encourage both job satisfaction and work motivation in software engineering research and practice.

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3639474.3640054
Straubinger PFraser GRoychoudhury APaiva AAbreu RStorey M(2024)Improving Testing Behavior by Gamifying IntelliJProceedings of the IEEE/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/3597503.3623339(1-13)Online publication date: 20-May-2024
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Hicks CLee CRamsey M(2024)Developer Thriving: Four Sociocognitive Factors That Create Resilient Productivity on Software TeamsIEEE Software10.1109/MS.2024.338295741:4(68-77)Online publication date: 3-Apr-2024
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Index Terms

Motivated software engineers are engaged and focused, while satisfied ones are happy
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Collaboration in software development
      1. Programming teams

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ESEM '14: Proceedings of the 8th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement

September 2014

461 pages

ISBN:9781450327749

DOI:10.1145/2652524

General Chair:
Maurizio Morisio
Politecnico di Torino, Italy
,
Program Chairs:
Tore Dybå
Sintef, Norway
,
Marco Torchiano
Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 18 September 2014

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Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico

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ESEM '14

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SIGSOFT

ESEM '14: 2014 ACM-IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement

September 18 - 19, 2014

Torino, Italy

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ESEM '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 23 of 123 submissions, 19%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 130 of 594 submissions, 22%

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Cited By

Straubinger PFraser GRoychoudhury APaiva AAbreu RStorey MGama KSiegmund J(2024)Gamifying a Software Testing Course with Continuous IntegrationProceedings of the 46th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training10.1145/3639474.3640054(34-45)Online publication date: 14-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3639474.3640054
Straubinger PFraser GRoychoudhury APaiva AAbreu RStorey M(2024)Improving Testing Behavior by Gamifying IntelliJProceedings of the IEEE/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/3597503.3623339(1-13)Online publication date: 20-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3597503.3623339
Hicks CLee CRamsey M(2024)Developer Thriving: Four Sociocognitive Factors That Create Resilient Productivity on Software TeamsIEEE Software10.1109/MS.2024.338295741:4(68-77)Online publication date: 3-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/MS.2024.3382957
Shameem MKumar CChandra BAli Khan ANadeem Ahmed MVerner JNadeem MAzeem Akbar M(2024)The impact of personality traits and cultural values on coordination effectiveness: A study of software development teams effectivenessJournal of Software: Evolution and Process10.1002/smr.2652Online publication date: 4-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1002/smr.2652
Ribeiro DLima RFrança CSouza ASilva IPinto G(2023)Understanding Self-Efficacy in Software Engineering Industry: An Interview studyProceedings of the 27th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering10.1145/3593434.3593467(101-110)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2023
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Souza HWiese ISteinmacher IRé R(2022)A characterization study of testing contributors and their contributions in open source projects.Proceedings of the XXXVI Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering10.1145/3555228.3555244(95-105)Online publication date: 5-Oct-2022
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Hidellaarachchi DGrundy JHoda RMueller I(2022)The Influence of Human Aspects on Requirements Engineering-related Activities: Software Practitioners’ PerspectiveACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/354694332:5(1-37)Online publication date: 6-Jul-2022
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Paxton AVaroquaux NHoldgraf CGeiger R(2022)Community, Time, and (Con)text: A Dynamical Systems Analysis of Online Communication and Community Health among Open‐Source Software CommunitiesCognitive Science10.1111/cogs.1313446:5Online publication date: 17-May-2022
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Hidellaarachchi DGrundy JHoda RMadampe K(2022)The Effects of Human Aspects on the Requirements Engineering Process: A Systematic Literature ReviewIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2021.305189848:6(2105-2127)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2022
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Restrepo-Tamayo LGasca-Hurtado G(2022)Human Aspects in Software Development: A Systematic Mapping StudyCollaboration Technologies and Social Computing10.1007/978-3-031-20218-6_1(1-22)Online publication date: 23-Oct-2022
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