How to make impact with journal publications on Software Process Improvement

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How to make impact with journal

publications on Software Process

Improvement

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Profes Doctoral Consortium, 10 December 2014 !

Torgeir Dingsøyr

Senior scientist, SINTEF

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Agenda

1. About myself and my background 2. What is impact

3. Why publish in journals and the journal publication process

4. Addressing important questions

5. The challenge of relevance: Arguments for action research 6. What could you learn from this?

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1. Scientific biography

n Topics:

n Knowledge management in software engineering

n _{Project retrospectives (postmortem reviews)}

n Software engineering education

n _{Agile software development}

n Teamwork in software development

n PhD 2002: Knowledge management in software engineering

n SINTEF 2002-

n 6 action research projects with over 30 companies involved

n _{4 strategic research projects; agile development}

n NTNU 2006-

n _{Introductory course: New PhD candidates at Department of Computer}

and information Science

n 6 PhD students as co-supervisor and main supervisor

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ICT

Software Process Improvement & Knowledge

Management

Research areas:

■Evidence-Based Software Engineering

■Large-Scale Agile Software Development

■Distributed Agile Development

■Agile Project Management

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SINTEF leading institution on Agile

Development

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Chuang, S.-W., Luor, T., and Lu, H.-P., "Assessment of institutions, scholars, and contributions on agile software development (2001–2012),"

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2. What is impact?

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Impact factor

■ A measure of the frequency with which the "average

article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year or period.

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■ 2013 impact factor for a journal would be calculated as

follows:

■ A = the number of times articles published in 2011-12 were cited in

indexed journals during 2013

■ B = the number of articles, reviews, proceedings or notes published

in 2011-12

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Impact factor

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3. Why publish in journals?

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IKT

Figure 3.1 in: B. J. Oates, Researching Information Systems and Computing. London: Sage Publications, 2006.

The research process

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The process behind journal

publications

■ The research ■ Initial submission ■ Cover letter ■ Suggested reviewers ■ Review ■ Reject ■ Minor revision ■ Major revision ■ Revised article ■ Cover letter ■ Review ■ Reject ■ Minor revision ■ Major revision ■ Accept as is ■ Final article 15

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16

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A research gap

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Research Agenda

Dingsøyr, T. and Moe, N. B., "Towards Principles of Large-Scale Agile Development: A Summary of the workshop at XP2014 and a revised research agenda," in

Agile Methods: Large-Scale Development, Refactoring, Testing, and Estimation. vol. 199, T. Dingsøyr, N. B. Moe, R. Tonelli, S. Counsell, C. Gencel, and K.

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Challenging assumptions

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5. The challenge of relevance

“Here’s a message from software

practitioners to software researchers: We

need your help. What help do practitioners

need? We need some better advice on how

and when to use methodologies”

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- Robert Glass, Communications of the ACM

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What is relevance?

n“‘focus on concerns of practice, provide real value to ... professionals”*

n“‘not only surface findings relevant to practice but also reveals both how the findings would be implemented in practice and the validity-in-practice of those findings”*

nInteresting, applicable, current and accessible*

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What is then not relevant?

n“arcane explanations, advanced statistical analysis,

extensive mathematical notation, excessive references to other published work, and shortage of practical advice”*

21 *I. Benbasat and R. W. Zmud, "Empirical research in information systems: The practice of relevance," MIS Quarterly, vol. 23, pp. 3-16, 1999.

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Action research

“is unique in the way it associates research

and practice, so research informs practice

and practice informs research

synergistically”  

- Avison et al,Communications of the ACM

22 D. Avison, F. Lau, M. Myers, and P. A. Nielsen, "Action Research," Communications of the ACM, vol. 42, pp. 94-97, 1999.

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Action research cycle

23 G. Susman and R. Evered, "An assessment of the scientific merits of action research," Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 23, pp. 582-603, 1978.

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Action research in use

24 R. L. Glass, V. Ramesh, and I. Vessey, "An analysis of research in computing disciplines," Communications of the ACM, vol. 47, pp. 89 - 94, 2004.

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Action research in software engineering

25 0" 50" 100" 150" 200" 250" 300" 350"

Information systems Software engineering

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Action research and relevance

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nResearch should be a premise provider for the software industry

nTherefore, we need more relevant studies

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nSoftware engineering researchers should make far more use of action research

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Software companies needs to improve

nHard competition, pressure to improve

nAgile development: Challenges in achieving the central elements of agile development, such as:

n self-management

n _{knowledge redundancy}

27 N. B. Moe, T. Dingsøyr, and T. Dybå, "A teamwork model for understanding an agile team: A case study of a Scrum project," Information and Software

Technology, vol. 52, pp. 480–491, 2010.

N. B. Moe, T. Dingsøyr, and T. Dybå, "Overcoming Barriers to Self-Management in Software Teams," IEEE Software, vol. 26, pp. 20-26, 2009.

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Shared  mental  models Mutual  trust Closed-loop  communication Team leadership Team orientation Mutual  performance monitoring Adaptability Back-up  behaviour Scrum

Salas, E. 2005. Is there a “Big Five” in Teamwork? Small Group Research 36, no. 5: 555-599.

Case

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Action research ensures relevance

29 T. Dingsøyr and E. Røyrvik, "An Empirical Study of an Informal Knowledge Repository in a Medium-Sized Software Consulting Company," in International

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But what about rigour?

1. The Principle of the Researcher–Client Agreement (RCA) 2. The Principle of the Cyclical Process Model (CPM)

3. The Principle of Theory

4. The Principle of Change through Action

5. The Principle of Learning through Reflection

30 R. M. Davison, M. G. Martinsons, and N. Kock, "Principles of canonical action research," Information Systems Journal, vol. 14, pp. 65 - 86, 2004.

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Recommendations

nUse arenas where practitioners describe challenges

n Agile development: Agile, XP

n _{Software process improvement: EuroSPI, Profes}

nRead action research studies to determine research questions for systematic reviews and scoping studies

nThe industry is usually motivated to participate in action research projects

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nTalk more to industry people about your future research!

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6. What can you learn from this?

■ Focus your own reading

■ Inspire and prepare for last phase of the PhD

■ Devote your time to the most important topic

■ Strive to publish in channels with impact

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How to make impact with journal publications on Software Process Improvement