Dev8D Presentation Pascal Belouin

Social science for software developers Using tools from social science to inform software design: should software developers also be social scientists? Pascal Belouin - University of Manchester - www.belouin.com

A short and biased history of software development methods
Late 60s : Emergence of a professionalised software engineering field: ‘software developer’ becomes a job
68 : The software crisis: the failure of numerous large software projects led to a realisation of the pitfalls inherent to software development
80s to 00s: Looking for new directions, growing importance of Human-Computer Interaction principles, apparition of the ‘Interaction Designer’; further professional specialisation.
Now: Increase in the use and elaboration of user-centred and agile development methods; increasing role of usability principles in design. Focus towards the social possibilities offered by technology: Web 2.0 and ‘social media’, pervasive and ubiquitous computing. Apparition of Behaviour-driven development (BDD). Semantic web…

Agile development methods
Agile Manifesto (2001):
“ We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value :
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.”

What does this mean?
Reaction against ‘heavy’ development methods, such as waterfall or ISO-inspired development models
Acknowledgment of the dynamic aspect and ever-changing nature of software requirements: issues of meaning ?
Acknowledgment of the crucial importance of communication in software design
Shift from a focus on technology to a focus on users
Acknowledgement of the importance of values
AHA! But isn’t all this stuff the bread and butter of social scientists?

Acknowledging the usefulness of social science for informing software design
Reflection about:
The use and application of tools borrowed from social science to system design and evaluation…
The history and evolution of the ‘software development’ field (apparition of various development methods, academic disciplines, the division of labour within the field…) and of the role of the software developer
The impact of various groups or individuals involved in the software development process, and the relationships of power between these groups or individuals
The application of various sociological and psychological theoretical frameworks and data analysis methods to the creation of novel software development methodologies

A few possible areas of investigation
Get to know yer user: using ethnography for requirement elicitation
Discourse analysis : defining the system’s domain by analysing potential users’ input
Grounded Theory for domain definition: analysing data for making categories ‘emerge’ from it
Social dynamics , Notions of role and identity are widely investigated by social theory : could this inform software design?
The importance of reflexivity in software design: acknowledgment of the impact of values and culture on the software design process

www.belouin.com [email_address]

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Dev8D Presentation Pascal Belouin

by Pascal Belouin on Feb 25, 2010

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