Keynote presentation at 2019 International Conference on Requirements Engineering, Jeju Island, Korea, September 2019 Argues that human values need to be taken into account when designing and building software. Presents work on how values can be incorporated into agile software development.

1. 1
Published work so far
 Harsha Perera, Waqar Hussain, Davoud Mougouei, Rifat Shams, Arif
Nurwidyantoro and Jon Whittle, Towards Integrating Human
Values into Software: Mapping Principles and Rights of GDPR to
Human Values, RE2019
 Jon Whittle, Is Your Software Valueless? IEEE Software, 36(3),
112-115 (2019)
 Harsha Perera, Arif Nurwidyantoro, Waqar Hussain, Davoud
Mougouei, Jon Whittle, Rifat Ara Shams, Gillian Oliver, A Study on
the Prevalence of Human Values in Software Engineering
Publications, 2015-2018. http://arxiv.org/abs/1907.07874 (2019)
 Davoud Mougouei, Harsha Perera, Waqar Hussain, Rifat Ara Shams,
Jon Whittle: Operationalizing human values in software: a
research roadmap. ESEC/SIGSOFT FSE 2018: 780-784
 Waqar Hussain, Davoud Mougouei, Jon Whittle: Integrating social
values into software design patterns. FairWare@ICSE 2018: 8-14

2. Human Values in Software:
A New Paradigm for Requirements
Engineering?
Jon Whittle
Faculty of IT, Monash University
MONASH
INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
@Jon_Whittle_

3. A (vastly oversimplified) history of
software engineering…
http://stg-tud.github.io/sedc/Lecture/ws13-14/1-Introduction-
General.html#mode=document

4. What’s missing?
Inclusion & Diversity?
Transparency?
Integrity?
Compassion?
Self-respect?
Power?
Tradition?
Family?

5. SE Now
Values-
driven SE
functionality, cost, safety,
security, privacy
inclusion, diversity,
responsibility, transparency,
well-being

6. Does it matter?

7. AI in Law
Courts
http://theconversation.com/why-using-ai-to-sentence-criminals-is-a-dangerous-
idea-77734

8. facial analysis & skin tone
https://www.ted.com/talks/joy_buolamwini_how_i_m_fighting_bias_in_algorithms

9. Hangzhou No.11 High School
https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-china-face-surveillance-2018-story.html

10. Airline
pricing
systems
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/hurricane-irma-
updates/?utm_term=.58ab7bfa8b4e

11. Molly
Russell
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/mar/18/molly-russell-death-police-
likely-to-access-teenagers-phone-data

12. HR Recruitment Systems
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/03/13/one-month-paternity-leave-
granted-for-civil-servants.html

13. Well, OK
but it’s not my problem

14. Design decisions are
NOT values agnostic

15. Values-sensitive designValues in design
GenderMag
(Burnett et al.)
FATML
Berry et al.
Sutcliffe et al.
Causal bias testing
(Brun et al.)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3743492/Frozen-30-
years-Spectacular-images-capture-world-s-oldest-icebergs-s-yourself.html

16. there is as yet no
systematic end-to-
end software
engineering process
for human values

17. OK…
but what are these
values things anyway?

19. 21
Maitland Corporate Values
The Values Most Valued by FTSE 100 Companies
http://www.maitland.co.uk/wp-
content/uploads/2015/10/20151001-
Maitland-Values-Report.pdf

20. Does SE research address
this?

21. Abstracts from ICSE, FSE, TSE, TOSEM (From 2015 to 2018)
Venue 2018 2017 2016 2015 Total
ICSE - Main 153 68 101 83 405
ICSE - SEIP 35 30 28 25 118
ICSE - SEIS 11 9 7 9 36
FSE 122 124 143 123 512
TSE 31 61 61 62 215
TOSEM 14 12 16 22 64
Total 366 304 356 324 1350

22. Human Values
in SE Research

23. Which values?

24. OK,
you’ve convinced me
now what do we do about it?

25. Tapah and Danas
https://www.facebook.com/ShinYeeTradingCompany/photos/pcb.512439932224035/512439
868890708/?type=3&theater
https://theculturetrip.com/asia/south-korea/articles/10-animals-native-to-south-korea-and-
where-to-see-them/

26. • IT Services Provider for
Large Public Organisation
• Agile methods
• Strong corporate values
framework

28. Values to
Behaviour
1. Cultivate teamwork. Be
compassionate, humble and
foster relationships
2. Make It Happen. Take
responsibility for delivering
outcomes
3. Lead innovation. Think creatively,
develop new solutions, disrupt
the status quo
4. Embrace continual learning.
Develop yourself and others
5. Value Health and Energy. Have a
positive influence on others and
environment

29. • Global technology
company
• Agile and OSS
• Strong corporate values
framework

30. Three Pillars
1. Sustainable Business
2. Software Excellence
3. Social Justice

31. Interviewee Role Experience Team Gender
1 Senior Java Developer 9 Years A Male
2 Senior C# .net & Java Developer 18 years A Male
3 Solutions Engineer 12 Years B Female
4 Developer 9 Months B Male
5 Manager, Innovation and Consultation 7.5 Years B Male
6 Senior UI Designer, DCX 6 Years C Male
7 Analyst Programmer 7.5 Years C Male
8 Senior Java Web Developer 17 Years E Female
9 Senior Software Developer 18 years D Male
10 Software Developer 1 Year C Male
11 Senior Application Developer 17 Years D Male
12 Senior Software Developer 18 Years E Male
13 Senior Software Analyst 10 Year E Male
14 Change Analyst 2 Years A Female
15 Software Developer 20 Years C Male
16 Software Developer 19 Years E Male
17 Strategic Business Analyst 15 Years E Female

32. Interviewee Role Experience Gender
18
Chief Technology Officer 40 Years Female
19
Senior Consultant Developer 18 Years Female
20
Design Consultant 14 Years Female
21
Experience Design Consultant 9 Years Male
22
Principal Consultant 24 Years Female
23
Lead Service Designer / Product Manager 14 Years Female
24
Chief People Officer 18 Years Female
25
Lead Developer 12 Years Female
26
Lead Technologist 16 Years Male
27
Delivery Lead & Agile Project Manager 10 Years Female
28
Lead Developer Security and Privacy 9 Years Male
29
Principal Consultant Continuous Delivery 15 Years Male
30
Software delivery consultant 21 Years Male
31
Group Managing Director 12 Years Female

33. what did we find?

34. Developer values
• “I like solving complex problems”
• Fun/enjoyment/excitement
• “going out to the people and
actually working with them”
• Accessibility
• Usability
• Security by design
• “Don’t lie”
• “self-confessed geek”
• “meaningful for me”
• “pushing back the boundaries”
• Creativity
• Pay the bills
Corporate values
• “quite big on being inclusive”
• “ok to fail, but fail fast”
• “anything that goes into
production needs to be
accessible”
• “not an environment where
people one-up each other”
• Open and honest
• Teamwork

35. • Diverse workforce
• Ethics
• Being a teacher
• Positive impact on the world
• “I am not prepared to do that”
• “enjoying life and pleasure”
• Problem solving
• Equality/usability/accessibility
• Conflicted
• Product excellence
• Avoid waste
• Autonomy and flexibility
• Technological innovation
• Inclusion
• Internal training
• Make an impact
• Financial sustainability
Developer values Corporate values

36. 38
Key findings
 Values are explicitly considered
– But it is a limited set (privacy, accessibility, gender diversity)
– They appear in early stages but rarely later
– There are no mechanisms for monitoring after deployment or
customer feedback
 Schwartz values an eye-opener for most developers
 Agile/UCD/UX is NOT enough
– But could be usefully adapted

37. 39
Key findings (contd)
 Values alignment relies on organisational mechanisms
– More formal processes would be useful
 Relationship between SE values and human values
– Automation as a key driver
 “Tool” support is critical: those with tool support will get
addressed; those without won’t
 Common misconceptions
– Be diverse, the rest will fall into place…
– Just try to be helpful…

38. Human
values
SE
Values
Productivity
Automation
Usability
SW sustainability
Quality
privacy
accessibility
etc.
UCD/UX/VSD

39. Agile not enough

40. but can it be easily
adapted?
evolution not revolution

41. 52
Scaled Agile Framework - SAFe®

42. 53
SAFe® @ Tapah

43. Can we identify intervention points
to make SAFe human values
conscious?
aka. can we give SAFe a soul?

44. observations
artefacts
interviews
https://live.staticflickr.com/4584/26958833209_c27a912bbf_b.jpg

46. Delivery Lead #1
Role Modelling
Values consciousness*
Values Calls-
Discussion*
Collective
Responsibility
Feedback Loop
Emotions Elicitation*
Values-based
Testing*
Personas*
Strategic
Document
Values
Translator*
Values
Champion*
* this should be added to SAFe

47. Release Train
Engineer
Values Calls-Discussion*
Induction, Onboarding, Training
Values Alignment (Dept. to Team)
Team Charters & Team Contract
Strategy Docs
Values Statement Artefacts*
Objectives & Key Results
Personas*
Metrics
Empathy Maps*
Values Proposition
Design*
Double Loop Learning
Human-Centered Design
Human-Centered
Tools
* this should be added to SAFe

48. Culture
Value calls/Discussion (*) [73%]
Value consciousness (*) [67%]
Induction, onboarding, training (#)
[67%]
Inspect and adapt (#) [33%]
Cultural Need (~) [33%]
Values Alignment (Dept. to Team)
(~) [27%]
Collective Responsibility (#) [27%]
Artefacts
User Stories (~) [73%]
Features / Epic (~) [53%]
Product Backlog (~) [40%]
Vision Doc (~) [40%]
Metrics (~) [33%]
Strategy Doc (#) [33%]
Objective and Key Results (#) [33%]
Personas (*) [27%]
Values statement as artefacts (*) [27%]
Roles
Product/ business owner (#) [66%]
Team/ group incharge (#) [46%]
Developer (#) [40%]
Translator of values (*) [40%]
Value champion (*) [33%]
Propagator (*) [26%]
Ceremonies
PI planning (#) [60%]
Retrospective (#) [46.7%]
Workshop/ group discussion (#)
[33.3%]
Inspect and adapt (#) [33.3%]
Practices
Feedback loop (#) [53.3%]
Elicitation techniques (~) [46%]
Values based testing (*) [26%]
Tools
Human Centered Design
Tools (~) [13%]
~ Modify # Valuefy * New
Valuefying SAFe

49. As a < >
I want to < >
So that I can < Lorem ipsum …. feelings/values/emotions> OR
To feel < in control and empowered >
h2. Overview: _One paragraph description of the work._
h2. Value: Business Values + Human Values
h2. Acceptance Criteria: _In addition to functionality, remember to include any additional requirements to gain acceptance, extraordinary
testing, NFR compliance, change, privacy, documentation and other work needed to get this live!_
h2. Assumptions: _List assumptions and agreed dependencies here._
h2. Impacted Areas: _List here any other applications, systems or teams that may be affected by this change/addition. These areas will need to
be involved in regression testing and PVT for the item as it goes through the release process._
Example - Valuefication of Artefacts
User Story Template

50. 69
Published work so far
 Harsha Perera, Waqar Hussain, Davoud Mougouei, Rifat Shams, Arif
Nurwidyantoro and Jon Whittle, Towards Integrating Human
Values into Software: Mapping Principles and Rights of GDPR to
Human Values, RE2019
 Jon Whittle, Is Your Software Valueless? IEEE Software, 36(3),
112-115 (2019)
 Harsha Perera, Arif Nurwidyantoro, Waqar Hussain, Davoud
Mougouei, Jon Whittle, Rifat Ara Shams, Gillian Oliver, A Study on
the Prevalence of Human Values in Software Engineering
Publications, 2015-2018. http://arxiv.org/abs/1907.07874 (2019)
 Davoud Mougouei, Harsha Perera, Waqar Hussain, Rifat Ara Shams,
Jon Whittle: Operationalizing human values in software: a
research roadmap. ESEC/SIGSOFT FSE 2018: 780-784
 Waqar Hussain, Davoud Mougouei, Jon Whittle: Integrating social
values into software design patterns. FairWare@ICSE 2018: 8-14
https://www.saga.co.uk/magazine/food/recipes/vegetables/mushy-peas
The Mushy Stuff

51. https://ovislab.net