workshop: professional development of software engineers hazzan orit department of education in...

Workshop:Professional Development of Software Engineers

Hazzan Orit

Department of Education in Technology and Scinece

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Homepage: http://edu.technion.ac.il/Faculty/OritH/HomePage

What can be done? Workshop plan Personal stories

Tell your story (past and future)

Role models Tell the story of a role model

Case studies Construct a case study that illustrates one aspect of the

topic

Development environments Analyze a team meeting Describe a preferred development environment

Personal development plans

Analysis of a team meeting

Observe one of your team meetings in the Cave. If you

do not have a meeting during the workshop, based the

following analysis on your memory. Identify the main

characteristics of the meeting: atmosphere, leadership,

topics discussed, etc. Analyze your description:

• Do you like the environment you have described?

• If yes, what do you find attractive in that development

environment?

• If not, which of its elements would you change?

Analysis of a team meeting (cont)

Based on the above analysis and other impressions:

•Describe characteristics of a software

development environment in which you would like

to participate.

•Explain each of the components you mention.

•How will you establish such an environment

when you become a software project leader?

Class discussion:

eXtreme Programming fitness to women’s style

of management.

Can Extreme Programming Help in Recruiting Women into the Software Industry ?

Connection between XP and the recruitment of

women into the community of software

developers.

The suitability of XP to women’s styles of

working, managing and living.

XP may help in partially closing some of those

gender gaps that exist in the software industry.


Extreme Programming (XP) is accepted as the

most commonly used agile software

development method.

XP is based on four values that are expressed

by twelve practices which support each other.

Kent Beck, Chrysler, 1996.


The four XP values: communication, simplicity, feedback, and courage.

The twelve XP practices: planning game, pair programming, refactoring, simple design, continuous integration, test driven development, collective ownership, coding standards, short releases, a metaphor, sustainable pace, and an on-site customer.


XP aims at increasing software quality and reducing the

inherent risks of software development processes.

XP is based on the wisdom derived from accumulative

experience in the software industry and the

acknowledgement that perhaps the development of

quality software systems should be conducted on the

basis of following very specific procedures.

The attraction of XP over the other agile SDMs is partially

explained by the latter fact.


Argument: XP values and practices fit very well

women's style of management.

First, some observations about women’s

management style are outlined.

Second, it is illustrated how women's management

style is suited to XP development environments.


Software development is a management activity.

Both in management and software development one

has to make decisions, to consider alternatives, to

communicate ideas, to gain both a global understanding

of what one does and familiarity with the details, and to

be sensitive to customers' requirements.


Women's management style (emphasis is added):

“Women's management style is more equal and

collaborative, often described as 'transformational',

in contrast to the traditional 'transactional' style

preferred by men who rely on power position and

formal authority.” (Vinnicombe and Singh, 2002).



"Recent research indicates women's

management style, which is centered on

communication and building positive

relationships, is well suited to the

leadership paradigm of the 90's." (Peters, 2003).



"The women's management style builds very

much on participation by the employees

and mutual trust, and they become very

disappointed if the employees do not live up

to that trust." (Kjeldsen and Nielsen, 2000).


XP suits to women's management style XP supports communication, information sharing and

sustainable pace, in addition to heavy testing, short

releases and customer satisfaction.

The main characteristics of women's management

style that emerge from the above quotes are

collaboration, communication, trust and positive

working relationships.


Discussion: What XP values and practices

support each pf the following characteristics of

women’s management style?

Collaboration

Communication

Trust and positive working relationships


XP suits to women's management style Collaboration: pair programming, the planning game, continuous

integration, collective ownership.

Communication: one of the four XP values + the planning game,

pair programming, refactoring, a metaphor, on-site customer, short

releases, coding standards.

Trust and positive working relationships: XP lays out 12 very

specific practices.

This attribute of XP enhances trust and may contribute to

positive working relationships.


It seems that XP suits women's management style

very well.

The long hours required in the hi-tech industry:

This barrier has been eliminated for women in XP

development environments.

The XP practice of sustainable pace.


The XP practice of sustainable pace.

Rationale: overworked programmers are unable to

produce qualified code.

As other XP practices (such as pair programming) ensure

productivity during the 40-hour week, XP argues that XP

programmers can work at a sustainable pace, be

productive and produce qualified code.


Illustrative data: (Reifer, 2002)

31 XP/Agile-methods early adopter projects

reduction of 25-50% in time to market


XP delivers the message that qualified

productivity can be achieved at a

sustainable pace as long as the number of

work hours that one puts in are managed

efficiently.


Hughes and Cotterell, Software Project

Management book: "[t]here is a good evidence that productivity and the quality

of output goes down when more than about 40 hours a

week are worked. [...] Clearly, it is sometimes necessary to

put in extra effort to overcome some temporary obstacle or

to deal with emergence, but if overtime working becomes a

way of life then there will be longer term problems." (p. 226).


In your opinion, why are women not

(yet) part of the XP community? Look at the XP conferences.


Why are women not (yet) part of the XP community?

The historical development of the software industry.

The term 'extreme' that appears in Extreme

Programming.

Why Extreme Programming is called “extreme”?

The adjective 'extreme' may be interpreted as it is

used in extreme sports.


We saw many associations that aim at promoting

women in the hi-tech industry.

In most cases these organizations look for ways

to help women adjust to the current working

framework that characterizes the software

industry.


The presentation of XP as a software

development environment in which women

may feel comfortable without necessitating any

adjustment, is another way to recruit women to

the software industry.

Short Activity (10 Minutes)

Describe a typical day in the life

of a software engineer.

Future personal professional development plans

Mapping possible opportunities in the field

of software engineering

Towards the next meeting: Formulate

personal targets and ways to achieve them.


Students’ presentations of their personal

professional development plans.


Instructions for follow up

Follow-up on the accomplishment of the

personal professional development plan +

reflections on the process.

On-line continuation: Orit Hazzan

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