About this questionnaire
This questionnaire is part of a scientific research project on high-performing software design teams, carried out by researchers at the Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki. We are investigating factors that contribute to high performance in software development teams, and developing means for teams to monitor and improve their own performance.
The purpose of this questionnaire is to investigate the value structures of practitioners working with software development. We believe that software development is much more to practitioners than just the methods and procedures described in methodologies like Scrum, XP, Kanban, and others. This is well described by Jim Highsmith in his essay on the history of the Agile Manifesto:
"At the core, I believe Agile Methodologists are really about "mushy" stuff–about delivering good products to customers by operating in an environment that does more than talk about "people as our most important asset" but actually "acts" as if people were the most important, and lose the word "asset". So in the final analysis, the meteoric rise of interest in—and sometimes tremendous criticism of—Agile Methodologies is about the mushy stuff of values and culture."
(Jim Highsmith, 2001, http://agilemanifesto.org/history.html)
Many practitioners, perhaps including yourself, have a deep intuitive certainty about what it is that makes software development work (or not work). However, there is a lack of an equally deep scientific understanding of these human factors. We want to advance the scientific understanding by combining the expertise of practitioners with sound scientific methods.
More information
Please see our Frequently Asked Questions list.
If you have any questions regarding this questionnaire, please contact Fabian Fagerholm <fabian.fagerholm@helsinki.fi>.
How long does it take to fill in the survey?
The survey should take approximately 40 minutes to fill in. There are no right or wrong answers, and you do not need to be an "expert".
How will I benefit from the research?
You can benefit in at least three ways:
You are helping to advance both the science and practice of software development. Better understanding of human factors in software development can lead to more efficient development tools, methods, and processes, and can contribute to better communication and well-being in software development environments.
You can get the results. At the end of the survey, there is an option to indicate whether you want to receive a brief report on the initial survey results, as well as an option to indicate whether you want to receive more information as the research progresses. This information may be of use to you in your work with software development.
You enable others to learn. In addition to this, the scientific results of the research will be disseminated in scientific conferences and journals, where they will be available for researchers and practitioners to improve on.
Finally, participants who have properly completed the entire questionnaire will be entered into a draw for 10 x $25 gift certificates to Amazon.com. At the end of the questionnaire, you will have the option to enter your email address, which will be used to contact you in the case of winning a prize.
How is the data from this questionnaire used?
The data from this questionnaire will be analysed in anonymous form, and in no event will your identity be revealed. When results from the questionnaire are reported, you will remain anonymous and it will not be possible to identify your answers among the results.
The data collected will be used strictly for research purposes. Any commercial applications based on the research will require additional work to adapt the research results.
