1. 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Agile Values, Innovation and
the Shortage of Women Software Developers
Ken H. Judy
Simon & Schuster
kjudy@computer.org
Abstract • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan
Agile practices are tools. Agile principles give us
The percentage of women software developers in the
practitioners the urgency, courage and insight to wield
U.S. has declined from 42% in 1987 to less than 25%
those tools toward a desired outcome. We will
today. This is in a software/internet marketplace where
therefore create a workplace more tolerant and inviting
women are online in equal numbers to men; directly or
to women if we recognize gender disparity as an
indirectly influence 61% of consumer electronics
impediment to our core Agile mission.
purchases; generate 58% of online dollars; and
In this paper, we will demonstrate that gender
represent 42% of active gamers.
disparity exists and that it is an impediment to product
Women avoid careers in software due to hostile
success. We will identify factors in the workplace that
environments, unsustainable pace, diminished sense of
discourage parity. Finally, we will explain why Agile
purpose, disadvantages in pay, and lack of
values of collaboration, craft, quality and delivery are a
advancement, peers or mentors.
framework for addressing these factors.
Agile Software Development is founded upon values
that challenge such dysfunction in order to build self-
organizing, collaborative and highly productive teams. 2. Women are underrepresented in CS
In a high functioning Agile practice, developers
engage each other, product owners and sponsors in a Women are less likely to aspire to a career in
shared concern for quality, predictability and meeting computing, less likely to pursue a degree in computer
the needs of end users. science (CS), and less likely to work as software
Can Agile values and practice drive changes in the developers. Those women who do make a career in
workplace to better attract and retain women software high tech are far less likely to attain a leadership role
developers? and much more likely to leave mid-career.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics
1. Introduction (BLS), women represent 46% of the workforce but
only 30% of Information Technology (IT) workers and
less than 25% of software developers. Over the last
Women are opting out of software jobs despite high
twenty years, the percentage of women developers has
demand for skilled developers. Women are also leaving
steadily declined. The disparity is worse in leadership.
mid-career in disproportionate numbers.
Women account for only 10% of executives in fortune
This is a lost opportunity. Research conducted over
500 computer companies[2].
twenty years on serially innovative companies shows
that product teams representing the diversity of their 50%
customers have an advantage in developing products
40%
that appeal to those customers.
Agile Software Development is greatly influenced 30%
by this research. Agile consists of many practices
united by a set of principles and an ambition to change 20%
the software industry’s approach to building products. 10%
While the Agile community dwells on methods and
tools, what fundamentally unites practitioners are a 0%
core set of principles reflected in the Agile Manifesto 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006
and distilled into the following values[1]: Software Developers System Analysts
• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Figure 1. Women in the workforce[3]
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
978-0-7695-4525-7/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE 5279
DOI 10.1109/HICSS.2012.92

2. 2.1. Women are leaving mid-career the least likely to aspire to hard IT or pursue a degree
in CS[9].
Women are leaving IT in larger numbers than men.
56% of women leave mid-career across all technology
occupations. 41% leave their careers in “high 70%
technology” compared to only 17% of men. Half of 60%
women leaving Science, Technology, Engineering and 50%
Math (STEM) careers leave the STEM sector 40%
completely[4]. 30%
20%
2.2. Women are not studying CS 10%
0%
Women are opting out of CS education in larger No IT Hard IT Major
proportions than men. While men earning CS
bachelor’s degrees between 1986 to 1995 dropped black male white male
35%, the number of women in the same period
black female white female
dropped by 55%[5].
Currently, the percentage of women studying CS in Figure 3. IT career aspirations by group
undergraduate and graduate schools is still falling[6].
This despite 1.3 times as many women attending and 3. At what cost to the software industry?
1.35 times as many women graduating from four year
colleges (2003)[7]. By 2004 women accounted for less
than 25% of CS bachelor degrees. This is not typical of The software world struggles with Diversity as it is.
STEM more generally where 49.2% of bachelor It's a problem for our profession, in that we lose access
degrees go to women[8]. to talent, and it's a problem for many women who don't
get the chance to develop a satisfying career in
40.0% programming. The open-source world in general has
even bigger issue, and the rails community perhaps
more so – Martin Fowler[10]
30.0%
3.1. The need to hire
20.0% In 2002, the U.S. software industry represented
$200B in sales and by 2006 employed 2.2M software
professionals[11].
10.0% The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) considers IT
to be “among the economy's largest and fastest sources
of employment growth” having adding 616K jobs
0% between 1994 and 2004 and projected to add, despite
1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 outsourcing, productivity gains and the recession,
453K jobs through 2014[12].
BS CS Grads Whether there is a shortage of skilled domestic IT
workers is a matter of debate entangled in arguments
Figure 2. Women obtaining CS degrees over quotas and off-shoring. J. Luftman of Stevens
Institute of Technology, argues there is citing as
2.3. Women are disinterested in programming evidence[13]:
• McKinsey & Co. predicts demand for experienced
Young women are not interested in hard IT careers IT professionals in the U.S. aged 35-45 will increase
like computer programming. The Maryland Adolescent by 25% while the available pool will decrease by 15%.
Development in Context Study, a longitudinal study of • 51% of senior executives participating in a 2007
1,482 adolescents conducted between 1991 and 2000 SIM survey cited "attracting, developing, and retaining
shows women are less interested in CS careers than IT professionals" as their top concern.
men overall. White women are more disenchanted
compared to African Americans of both genders and 3.2. Aligning the domestic workforce
white men. 62.2% of white women in the study
indicated no interest in any IT-related career and were Regardless of whether we can address the demand
for IT with foreign labor, the U.S. has an excess of
5280

3. domestic workers in non-growth sectors. 71% of U.S. distinct user groups. In “Gender differences in Web
workers are in jobs with low demand or an oversupply Usability”, F. Spillars states, “Gender as an audience
of eligible candidates[14]. sensitive criteria (differentiation) is barely present in
“America needs a world-class STEM workforce”– North American technology product design (where it is
John Holdren, President Obama’s science advisor and much easier to do) let alone Web experiences[22].”
director of the White House Office of Science and But there a statistical differences in how women
Technology Policy perceive and use software. L. Xue, et.al. found
Government and industry leaders believe it is in our differences in the ways men and women perceive and
U.S. national interest to increase the pool of describe products. “The results of this research have
employable domestic IT workers. According to the revealed female-oriented themes that should motivate
DOL, the IT sector will grow to accommodate them. product semiologists, sociologists, and design
researchers to enlarge their views of pleasurable
3.3. The cost of attrition product design attributes and language for the
genders[23].”
In 2008, HR Management magazine calculated that This lack of consideration underserves women.
replacing a worker costs on average 100-125% of an Boston Consulting Group (BCG) highlights three ways
employee’s annual salary[15]. A mid-career software companies fail. Poor product design: failing to tailor
developer is highly compensated and, given the products to women’s unique needs and challenges.
complexity of legacy codebases, possesses valuable Clumsy sales and marketing: based on outdated images
institutional knowledge. Replacing her is expensive. and stereotypes. Inability to provide meaningful hooks
How expensive? According to the BLS, there were or differentiation: considering women
588K[16] women employed as computer engineers in indistinguishable from the general customer population
the United States (2006) with a median wage of $85K or thinking of them as one monolithic segment[24].
(2008)[17]. 56% of them leave. Retaining one-quarter In underserving women the industry perpetuates the
of those women would represent a ten year value of sense that software is male. Moss et.al. state: “...men
82K experienced software developers retained at a had a statistically significant tendency to prefer home
savings of $8B to their employers. pages produced by men, and women those produced by
women. This latter tendency was higher than the
3.4. Lost opportunity in the software industry former[25].”
This disadvantages women as both end users and
3.4.1. Our customer is a woman. Women directly or content creators: “We thoroughly analysed a number of
indirectly influence 61% of U.S. consumer electronics randomly selected web designer software... most of
purchases[18]. Men still spend more annually on them are typical masculine templates, which makes it
average, $969 compared to $631 for women, but they difficult [for] women to design a feminine looking
often do so in consultation with their significant others. website. It can be one of the reasons of the masculine
Women are 42% of active game players and 48% of website hegemony on the web[26].” Horvath et.al.
frequent game purchasers. Women 18 and over are 3.4.3. Potential for harm. Failure to adequately
37% of game players whereas boys 17 and under are understand and address the needs of women may harm
only 13%[19]. them in ways we cannot anticipate. Software systems
Half (50.4%) of the internet population are women are a fundamentally complex product that can produce
18 and over. They spend an average of 38 hours per unintended consequences.
month online in close parity with men. They spend 5% Women find the internet a more hostile space then
more time than men engaged in online social activities men do. More women experience information overload
and their time spent on social networks is growing on the internet (24% to 19%), are less confident in use
more rapidly. Women spend 20% more time on online of search engines (40% to 54%), and are more
shopping and account for 58% of internet buyers, 61% concerned about theft, fraud and privacy[27].
of internet transactions and 58% of internet dollars. “In the discreet world of computing, there is no
They account for the majority of dollars spent online meaningful metric in which small change and small
for apparel, media, home and living, toys, hobbies, effects go hand in hand.” - (Dijkstra 1989. p. 1400) ...
video games and consoles. They account for 49% of the normally predictable linkage between acts and
the dollars spent on computers and electronics[20]. their effects is severely skewed by the infusion of
In other sectors, companies as diverse as Home computing technology[28].”
Depot, Best Buy, Kodak and Nike created or grew In medicine, Doctors were slow to recognize how
significant markets by shaping products and services common heart disease is in women despite the
around classes of women consumers[21]. mortality rate because, “So much of our understanding
3.4.2. Women are underserved. Software products are of the underpinnings of heart disease and heart attack,
generally designed with no consideration for women as and the basis for our standard methods of diagnosis and
5281

4. treatment are the result of research conducted on 5. Agile Software Development
men[29].” In another recent example, research found
women require lower dosages of particular anti- Agile Software Development is a response to a
psychotic drugs. Not considering this subjected women perception of high failure rates in the software industry.
to wide-scale overdosing and more frequent and It is also a reaction against high formality, plan-driven
serious side effects[30]. approaches to software construction on the one hand,
and low formality, chaotic approaches on the other.
4. Why women are avoiding and, worse, Agile adherents associate both extremes with waste,
leaving software development low quality and burnout among software project
participants.
Agile actually encompasses many separate software
The Athena Study by the Center for Work-Life
management and execution methodologies formed
Policy identifies “antigens” in STEM cultures. Hostile
independently over twenty-five years. Its practices
macho cultures: 63% of women experience sexual
incorporate influences from pre-existing iterative and
harassment. Isolation: women are alone on teams with
evolutionary development methodologies, empirical
no mentors or sponsors. Mysterious career paths: 40%
process control, knowledge creation, games theory,
of women feel stalled or stuck. Systems of risk and
lean manufacturing, and learning gleaned from highly
reward: the “diving catch” culture disadvantages
productive teams.
women who would rather prevent emergencies than
Ten years ago, prominent advocates of these
save the day. Extreme work pressures: unsustainable
practices came together to declare a shared
hours and stress[31].
commitment to a set of principles they call, The Agile
The Why So Few study by the American Association
Manifesto. Since then, they and an increasing number
of University Women (AAUW)[32] adds that girls
of others have self-identified as Agile. Groups such as
from a young age are more likely to doubt they can
the Agile Alliance provide venues in which to discuss,
succeed in STEM careers. They believe certain STEM
debate teach and evangelize these principles and
careers like software engineering do not have meaning
practices.
or social purpose. They have conflicting family
responsibilities. Finally, they face gender biases such 5.1. Agile values
as those expressed by former Harvard University
President, Larry Summers. This despite evidence that “At the core, I believe Agile Methodologists are
what cognitive differences exist statistically between really about ‘mushy’ stuff about delivering good
genders can be negated with training or do not products to customers by operating in an environment
correlate to success in STEM. that does more than talk about ‘people as our most
The Catalyst Study sponsored by IBM adds women important asset’ but actually ‘acts’ as if people were
find themselves excluded from special job the most important, and lose the word ‘asset’. So in the
assignments, don’t understand unwritten norms shared final analysis, the meteoric rise of interest in and
by men, and don’t fit the corporate image of a s o m e t i m e s t re m e n d o u s c r i t i c i s m o f A g i l e
manager[33]. Methodologies is about the mushy stuff of values and
J. Hunt challenges the causal significance of social culture.” – Jim Highsmith[36]
factors highlighted in the studies above. She argues Agile principles form the basis for a normative
that disproportionate levels of attrition in STEM must standard of conduct informing how practitioners
be attributable to causes that are disproportionately should behave towards work, peers, employers,
reported by women in STEM careers. By analyzing a customers and end users. It urges us to inspect our
decade of national surveys of college graduates she actions, confront impediments, and drive towards
concludes the only differentiated causes are lack of pay beneficial change even as we deliver valuable, high
and advancement which she closely correlates to quality software.
workplaces dominated by men[34]. As Bob Martin describes it, “Most software
However, as stated earlier, representation in CS development teams execute, but they don’t take care.
declined even as it improved in other areas of STEM We value execution, but we value craftsmanship
with lower percentages of women in the field. In the more.” To emphasize his point he announced a desire
last ten years, the percentage of women in Engineering to add an additional high-level value to the manifesto,
has risen from 9.1% to 10.6% and women in Physics “We value craftsmanship over crap.” Or more
and Astronomy from 12.9% to 13.9%[35]. CS remains p r e c i s e l y, “ We v a l u e c r a f t s m a n s h i p o v e r
an outlier. execution[37].”
Alistair Cockburn believes a commitment to quality
and craft is embodied in the manifesto as written
suggesting that the problem is rather to remind
5282

5. practitioners to, “...value agile principles over the agile 6.2. Self-directed, performing teams - an
practices[38].” antidote to the Geek culture and un-
In championing different themes, contributors to the written norms.
manifesto emphasize primacy of values over practices
in different ways. Bob Martin demands craftsmanship. “Alpha male techies have minimal social skills and
Jim Highsmith extolls collaboration. Martin Fowler can be awkward around women, but this awkwardness
advocates diversity. Jeff Sutherland calls for hyper- coexists with enormous arrogance[45].”
productive, accountable teams. Ken Schwaber insists “The nub is that whatever the presenter may think,
on individual integrity. Mary Poppendieck descries people were offended... It doesn't matter whether or not
waste. Kent Beck argues for responsible development. you think the slides were pornographic. The question is
What these themes have in common is a challenge does the presenter, and the wider community, care that
to practitioners to commit to more than success women feel disturbed, uncomfortable, marginalized
narrowly defined on a project or a particular job but to and a little scared[46].”
build a career addressing the real needs of people. To At the heart of Agile principles is primacy of team,
have pride our accomplishments and be proud of who one of three roles in Scrum: “the skills that Team
we are as we attain them. Not simply to execute but to members share – that is, the skill of addressing a
take care. requirement and turning it into a usable product – tend
So, in asking how agile practice might help reverse to be more important than the ones that they do not.
the flight of women from software development, we’ll People who refuse to code because they are architects
follow Alistair Cockburn’s advice. Rather than ask, or designers are not good fits for Teams. Everyone
“What Agile practices address this problem?” We will chips in, even if that requires learning new skills or
ask, “What Agile principles demand we confront this remembering old ones. There are no titles on Teams,
problem?” and there are no exceptions to this rule. Teams do not
contain sub-Teams dedicated to particular domains
6.Agile values within the team context like testing or business analysis, either[47].”
In a performing team each member relates to the
6.1. Team diversity, requisite variety and other as equals. A principled Agile team will not
innovation. tolerate a hostile environment towards a teammate or
the business people upon which it depends for work.
The writings of Nonaka and Takeuchi are the roots Through the sometimes conflict ridden process of team
of the most widely adopted Agile process framework, building, each member will come to tacitly understand
Scrum[39]. Nonaka and Takeuchi emphasize that a and participate willingly in the un-written norms of
team made of members with different backgrounds, behavior that define the team’s identity. The team will
perspectives and motivations is critical for inspect its own behavior and continuously improve the
organizational knowledge creation to take place[40]. social skills required to communicate. This is a
Knowledge creation being the basis of repeatable requirement for trust and the kind of collaboration that
innovation in companies. leads to cohesion and self-direction.
“...[A]n organization’s internal diversity must match As Jeff Sutherland says, one of the secrets to a
the variety and complexity of the environment in order hyper productive team is: “Team members that share a
to deal with the challenges posed[41].” sense of purpose, vision, and passion for their work.
Successful software product teams test a product Teams that recognize that we are not simply individuals
continually, developing prototypes quickly[42] and rely working in close proximity, but a team where we must
on shared tacit knowledge that customers cannot all be engaged with one another’s work. I tell teams
exactly or explicitly express[43]. In the classic looking to achieve amazing results that each member
Matsushita case study, it was an engineer’s visceral of the team must care as much about their neighbor’s
experience of baking that led to breakthroughs in Bread work as they do their own[48].”
Maker design. Coincidentally, she was a woman[44]. Given the team and its management understands
This argues for diverse product teams with and champions this vision, they will find practices
individual contributors that share tacit knowledge with across the Agile methodologies to help them achieve
customers who can express that understanding in the the desired outcome. Chief among them: keeping team
product through nonverbal means. size between 5-9 people, communal workspace,
Specific to this paper, women have different retrospection, group planning and estimation, and a
perceptions of software than men. Women are shared iteration commitment.
significant customers and influencers in the buying In listing techniques, we make no claim that
decision. It is competitive advantage to have women as applying these techniques will predictably and reliably
individual contributors on the development team to build performing teams. Team performance requires
collaborate and share their tacit knowledge. shared vision, tough, honest conversations, sometimes
5283

6. tough management decisions and a functional mix of Without collective ownership, codebases slowly
people. It requires courage and a willingness to change accrete work-arounds until they become entirely
from all team members. So, the ultimate answer for the opaque and unmanageable. Changes that took days can
alpha male who breaks the cohesion of the team, is he take weeks and businesses become unable to deliver
either modifies his behavior or he is off the team. valuable enhancements to users.
“Why don’t we just build the system right in the first
6.3. Collective ownership - an antidote to place? Women are much better at preventive medicine.
heroics, exclusion from special job A Superman mentality is not necessarily productive;
assignments, and marginalization to it’s just an easy fit for the men in the sector.” Because
support roles. it is generally men who are making the promotion
decisions, they recognize this behavior and reward
“Many SET cultures place a high value on risky it[51].”
behaviors: They celebrate heroic diving catches made Collective ownership discourages the use of
at the eleventh hour to rescue a failing project. specialists which represent bottlenecks and opaque
However, men and women are rewarded differently for stores of tacit knowledge. The Scrum guide includes as
taking risks, and women—who lack strong “buddies” the basic definition of team, “There are no titles on
and a cheerleading group—cannot bounce back if they Teams, and there are no exceptions to this rule. Teams
dive and miss. In fact, even when they dive and catch, do not contain sub-Teams dedicated to particular
their lack of support means their effort often goes domains like testing or business analysis, either[52].”
unnoticed. Finally, women are often pushed into the So, a team that embraces Agile principles, should
less flashy and less valued executor-type roles[49].” dismantle the culture of the “diving catch”. There
Heroics are an anti-pattern to the principle of should be no plum special assignments and no support
quality both for what happens to code produced in an roles that become the career dead ends that drive
emergency and for what is implied by a codebase that women from the occupation.
generates urgent, unplanned failures in the first place. A team intent on shoring up collective ownership
Coding is an exercise in learning, creative problem should explore the engineering practices contained in
solving and a careful balance of what delivers the best Extreme Programming; pair programming, refactoring,
solution given the constraints of the moment and what frequent integration, unit testing and test-driven
will produce a versatile, maintainable solution for the development[53].
long-term. The best adjective for quality code is We should note that the challenge of marginal roles
elegant, the best solution tailored to the immediate is not entirely addressed by Agile practice. Roles tend
needs executed in the simplest most expressive to proliferate in support of the team and product owner
language. Elegant code is best produced by a developer such as “Agile business analyst” and “product owner
motivated and focused but also alert, rational and proxy”. Whenever principled organizations place staff
rested. in such roles, they should look upon it as an expedient
When developers work past endurance or under to deal with dysfunctions in the organization. People in
duress, they make mistakes -- they make expedient, these roles should have a meaningful path to
flawed choices that vary from the established patterns empowered product owner or member of the team. The
of the larger codebase. They produce blocks of code support roles should eventually go away or be shared
which only one person understands or makes no among product owners or the team. This may take
coherent sense to anyone after the fact. They introduce years.
bugs. A “hero” doesn’t have time to refactor or
comment their code, care whether their solution 6.4. Sustainable pace - an antidote for extreme
performs, addresses unusual conditions, or how much work schedules.
time or effort it takes two months or two years later to
change. Traditional and startup software cultures celebrate
All of this defeats a principle of self-directed teams long, hard hours crashing for a deadline. The modern
called, collective ownership. “Collective Ownership global distribution of business requires communication
encourages everyone to contribute new ideas to all and coordination with teams in vastly different time
segments of the project. Any developer can change any zones. While women can feel fulfilled and challenged
line of code to add functionality, fix bugs, improve by extreme work schedules, they lead to attrition from
designs or refactor. No one person becomes a bottle the industry[54] though not necessarily any more than
neck for changes[50].” for their male counterparts.
Collective ownership is key to quality and Steve McConnell wrote that teams crashing for a
delivering value. With it, team members are deadline tend to “make it up” by extended recharge
empowered to improve code as they go, allowing for times afterwards. Long exhausting hours are another
pride in craft and a maintainable, adaptable code base. form of heroics and result in the same code quality and
5284

7. craft issues[55]. From a principled Agile perspective, 7. Agile values in an enterprise context
this is an anti-pattern that undermines the goals of the
practice. It leads to diminished quality, breaks team As a development team matures into high-
cohesion, removes transparency and interrupts performance, impediments become consistently rooted
predictable, regular delivery. in the surrounding organization. Continuous
Agile teams strive for a sustainable pace; delivering improvement becomes an effort to instill values of
quality, complete work at a committed but humane accountability, transparency, craft, and delivery in the
level of effort that they can maintain indefinitely. groups that feed the team work and address their
Sustainable pace enables an organization to plan by logistical needs.
trending to completion on the iteration and the release An organization that embraces Agile values strives
level[56]. to manage the flow of all aspects of the business as
predictably and responsively as the development
6.5. Craftsmanship - an antidote for lack of organization. This aligns with the Nonaka and
meaning and social purpose. Takeuchi model of a serially innovative, knowledge
creating company. A company can adopt the Scrum
Women, more than their male counterparts, enter framework to manage core business functions. Scrum
STEM out of passion for the work and a desire to can even be applied to businesses that don’t produce
contribute. “63% of female scientists working in the software[62].
private sector have chosen to do what they do because Such an organization needs to examine its pay and
of a desire to contribute to society’s health and well- incentives so they support collective performance.
being; this compares with 51% of their male Traditional review and reward processes can be
colleagues... 74% of women in technology love their “teamicidal”. They encourage heroism,
jobs[57].” competitiveness and collaborative anti-patterns. More
One of the main reasons young women are appropriate are incentives that reward team
disinterested in computer science is belief that it offers performance, and span of influence over span of
no social benefit[58]. Agile principles elevate the status control. The organization should move towards flatter,
of individual contributors by connecting them to the fairer org structures, rewarding workers without
vision of the product through collaboration with the proliferating managers or creating side doors to
product owner. In addition, the user experience advancement[63].
advocacy of Jeff Patton is refining the value system to Finally, a team-focused organization has a different
demand more respect and understanding of the end definition management than a traditional hierarchical
user. All this in the belief that loving your job and one. Rather than command and control, a manager
caring about the people who use the product should not becomes a facilitator and impediment remover. Nonaka
be so unusual in software development. and Takeuchi describe the “middle up down manager”
who actively facilitates knowledge flow from senior
6.6. Collaboration - an antidote for isolation. executives to individual contributors. This is also the
“servant leader” approach where a manager’s goal is to
The relative absence of peers, mentors and role optimize the work environment so that individual
models isolates women. Research indicates that the contributors can perform at their best.
social aspect of Agile practice, particularly routine face Done well, this addresses some of the remaining
to face meetings and pair programming reduces women factors that drive women from software development:
developer’s sense of isolation and raises their unfair pay, unclear path to advancement and not fitting
satisfaction and confidence[59]. It also reduces feelings the corporate image of a manager.
of internal competition and builds trust[60]. But to really address isolation, the industry needs to
Agile practice also brings developers into more make a specific commitment to be more supportive of
routine contact with people from the business. This women workers:
provides potential peer connection and mentorship i. Recruit a workforce that reflects the diversity of
from women in other roles such as product owners, their customer base.
stakeholders, and sponsors. As an example, at Oxygen ii. Train and develop their employees so that they
Media in 2007-8, an initially all male Agile team, continue to learn and advance in their craft
collaborated with their female CEO and Product iii. Connect their mission to a larger meaning and
Owner to develop an innovative product. As the team social purpose by anchoring strategic projects to a
sought to add members, the work, the team and the vision and the needs of customers.
product owner relationship contributed to recruiting iv. Support their employees’ full range of interests
and retaining talented and experienced women and better balance work and family life.
developers[61].
5285

8. Fortunately, these changes benefit male employees
as well and facilitate the requisite variety required to
make the company more responsive to its customers.
8. Academics and society
The shortage of women studying IT is the best
researched aspect of the problem (Margolis). Industry
focused studies (Athena) also cover issues within
education.
That said, the software industry must influence
expectations and outcomes in education. School Figure 4. Ba in the Software Industry
environments that discourage girls from pursuing
computing are a significant factor in the low numbers Knowledge workers in an industry locale interact
of women entering the IT workforce. within their local communities, universities, interest
Here, two factors we haven’t covered come into groups, their individual businesses and work groups.
play: extrinsic gender bias and intrinsic doubt. Industry They graduate from school and change jobs.
can help remedy this situation by recruiting qualified Companies are distributed across locales. Consultants
women undergraduates. This demonstrates to travel among companies and conferences bring
institutions the value in producing these applicants. individuals together from across the industry.
Industry can also fund initiatives at all levels of In sharing, creating and synthesizing knowledge one
education from girls math and science schools to Ba influences the other, fostering change on the small
scholarships, mentorship, special projects, after school scale to the large and back. The broad adoption of
programs and achievement prizes. Agile practices is itself an example of change
The industry can also publicly recognize successful occurring first within individuals and teams and then
and innovative women and convey a fascination with spreading across an industry.
their work. As an example, the World Science Festival The challenge is whether mainstream Agile
features events with prominent engineers, scientists an adoption is creating and sharing a tacit understanding
technologists such as Sandra Magnus, Beth Shapiro, of Agile principles or simply an explicit understanding
and Heather Knight[64]. Such role models increase of its practices. If the principles do not permeate this
girls confidence in their abilities in STEM. adoption curve, Agile will become just another toolkit
and will not significantly change individual or
9. How values create change from small organizational behavior.
If, however, Agile principles are embraced by the
networks to large and back: Ba industry it will change the perception of the work
culture and what it is to be a software developer. It will
As described, impediments that discourage women create a market for developers suited to that more
pervade the software ecosystem: within development collaborative, social way of working. Universities will
organizations, enterprises, in education, and society. adjust to provide that talent. Media focus on that
The approach Agile takes to removing impediments is success will celebrate new role models and the change
incremental - inspect and adapt. Given that, how can will influence the larger culture.
Agile produce large order changes across and industry As discussed earlier, the primacy of values is on the
and society? minds of prominent Agile thought leaders. It is infused
To model this, we will utilize I. Nonaka’s concept of in the Snowbird celebration “four things the
Ba, or “a shared context in motion, in which community needs to do in the next 10 years”: demand
knowledge is shared, created and utilized[65].” technical excellence, promote individual change and
Sectors that thrive off innovation do so by sharing lead organizational change, organize knowledge and
knowledge across direct and extended-relationships improve education, and maximize value across the
among people. Each set of relationships exists within a entire process[66].
physical or virtual space. Each of these spaces is Ba.
Ba can be visualized as sets of overlapping circles each 10. Conclusion
circle representing a network of people. Tacit and
explicit knowledge is created and shared across Ba as
people cycle transiently or move permanently from one The shortage of women entering software
set of relationships to another. development and disproportionate share of them
leaving mid-career is real, measurable and well
documented. While this has been true across STEM
5286

9. disciplines, the disparity has gotten worse in software [6] C. Hayes. “The Incredible Shrinking Woman” in Gender
development over the last 20 years. Codes : Why Women Are Leaving Computing. T. Misa, Ed.
The resulting gender gap is a material burden to the Hoboken, N.J. IEEE Computer Society, 2010, pg. 33.
software industry and a lost opportunity for a domestic [7] D. Francis. “Why Do Women Outnumber Men in
workforce with a high percentage of workers stuck in College?”: http://khj.me/lkzjNW, [Jun. 12, 2011].
low demand occupations.
[8] “Four Decades of STEM Degrees, 1966-2004: ‘The Devil
The relative absence of women in product teams
is in the Details.’” CPST, Sep. 2006, pg. 1.
contributes to software that under-serves women.
While women are the equals of men in influencing [9] N. Zarrett and O. Malanchuk. “Examining the Gender
consumer technology spend and in online activity they Gap in IT by Race” in Women and IT. J. Chohoon and W.
find male designed software user experiences less Aspray Ed. Cambridge, MA. The MIT Press, 2006, pp.55-88.
intuitive, the internet less safe, and more [10] A. Arora and A. Gambardella. “The Globalization of the
overwhelming. Software Industry.” NBER, 2004, pg. 14-36.
Therefore, the software industry needs to make a
[11] U.S. Department of Labor, “Employed persons by
concerted effort to educate, recruit and retain women
detailed occupation and sex, 2006 annual averages.” Internet:
developers. Both for the additional resource they http://khj.me/lVJOj7 , [Jun. 12, 2011]
provide but also for the diversity of experience they
bring to product development teams. [12] U.S. Department of Labor, “High Growth Industry
This effort finds support in the principles underlying Profile Information Technology.” Internet: http://khj.me/
Agile Software Development, a movement built on m9m9Tm, Mar. 8, 2010 [Jun. 12, 2011]
values of collaboration, delivery, quality and craft. The [13] J. Luftman, “Yes, The Tech Skills Shortage Is Real.”
challenge for the Agile movement is that the increasing Internet: http://khj.me/m3OoTU, Jan. 12, 2008 [Jun. 12,
popularity of its practices does not necessarily bring 2011]
with it widespread embrace of its values. [14] McKinsey Global Institute. Changing the Fortunes of
Agile values steel practitioners for the hard work of America’s Workforce: A Human Capital Challenge. Jun.
confronting impediments, incrementally nudging an 2009, pg. 4.
organization towards a more collegial, sustainable,
creative and productive workplace so that the [15] J. Taylor, Jr. and G. Stern, “Becoming an Employee-
Centered Organization.” Internet: http://khj.me/mmH0zn,
organization can repeatedly create software of value to
Apr. 1, 2010 [Jun. 12, 2011]
stakeholders and of real use to people.
Success within teams has potential to shift the larger [16] ibid.
culture through iterative cycles of knowledge creation [17] Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau. “Women in
and sharing within companies, across enterprises, into High Tech Jobs” in Facts on Working Women. Internet: http://
academic institutions and the media. khj.me/ipzUPN. Jul. 2002 [Jun. 12, 2011]
In this way principled Agile practice can instill a
more social and engaged view of the software [18] J. Booth and T. Herbert. “CE Retailing More or Less
Different” in 5 Technology Trends to Watch - 2008. Dec
developer that will encourage girls to pursue computer
2007, pg. 21.
science and help the industry recruit and retain larger
numbers of talented women. [19] Entertainment Software Association (ESA). "Essential
Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry."
Internet: http://www.theesa.com/facts/, 2011 [Jun. 12 2011]
11. References
[20] L. Abraham and M. Mörn. “Women on the Web.”
[1] K. Beck, K. and M. Beedle. Principles Behind the Agile comScore, Inc., Jun. 2010, pp.2-17.
Manifesto. Internet: http://agilemanifesto.org. [Jun. 12, 2007] [21] F. Warner. The Power of the Purse. New York, NY.
[2] N. Zarrett and O. Malanchuk. “Examining the Gender Prentice Hall, Sep. 18, 2005.
Gap in IT by Race” in Women and IT. J. Chohoon and W. [22] F. Spillars. “Gender differences in Web Usability.”
Aspray Ed. Cambridge, MA. The MIT Press, 2006, pp.55-88. Internet: http://khj.me/lyukuw, Jul. 31 2010 [Jun. 12, 2011]
[3] C. Hayes. “The Incredible Shrinking Woman” in Gender [23] L. Xue and C. Yen. “Towards Female Preferences in
Codes : Why Women Are Leaving Computing. T. Misa, Ed. Design.” Int’l Journal of Design, vol.1 no. 3, pp.11-36, 2007
Hoboken, N.J. IEEE Computer Society, 2010, pg. 33.
[24] M. Silverstein and K. Sayre. Women Want More. New
[4] S. Hewlett and C. Luce,. “The Athena Factor.” Harvard York, NY. Harper Business, Sep. 8, 2009. pp. 81-100.
Business Review, pp. 51, Jun. 2008.
[25] G. Moss and R. Gunn. “Gender Differences in Website
[5] “Four Decades of STEM Degrees, 1966-2004: ‘The Devil Design: Implications for Education.” Journal of Systemics,
is in the Details.’” CPST, Sep. 2006, pg. 3. Cybernetics and Informatics, vol. 5. no. 6, pp. 38-43, 2007
5287

10. [26] G. Horvath, G. Moss, R. Gunn and E. Vass. “Gender and [46] M. Fowler. "SmutOnRails." Internet: http://
Web Design Software.” Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics martinfowler.com/bliki/SmutOnRails.html, April 30, 2009
and Informatics, vol. 5. no. 6, pp. 22-27, 2007 [Nov. 15, 2009]
[27] D. Fallows. "How Women and Men Use the Internet." [47] K. Schwaber and J. Sutherland. “The Scrum Guide.”
Pew Internet & American Life Project, Dec. 2005, pg. 42. Internet: http://scrum.org, Feb. 2010 [Jun. 12, 2011]
[28] Maner, W., “Unique Ethical Problems in Information [48] J. Sutherland. “The Secret Sauce to a Hyper-Productive
Technology”, Science and Engineering Ethics, 2:2, April Team” Internet: http://khj.me/lc78z0, Apr. 4, 2010 [Jun. 12
1996, pp. 137-54. 2011]
[29] “WISE Study of Women and Heart Disease Yields [49] S. Hewlett and C. Luce. “The Athena Factor.” Harvard
Important Findings.” Internet: http://khj.me/mlVdQA, Jan. Business Review, pp. 38-49, Jun. 2008. pg. 30.
31, 2006 [Jun. 12, 2011]
[50] D. Wells. “Extreme Programming: A Gentle
[30] M. Seeman, M.D. “Gender Differences in the Introduction.” Internet: http://extremeprogramming.org, Sep.
Prescribing of Antipsychotic Drugs”, American Psychiatric 28 2009 [Jun. 12 2011]
Association. Aug. 2004.
[51] S. Hewlett and C. Luce. “The Athena Factor.” Harvard
[31] S. Hewlett and C. Luce,. “The Athena Factor.” Harvard Business Review, pp. 38-49, Jun. 2008. pg. 27.
Business Review, pp. 38-49, Jun. 2008.
[52] K. Schwaber and J. Sutherland. “The Scrum Guide.”
[32] C. Hill, C. Corbett, and A. Rose. “Why So Few: Women Internet: http://scrum.org, Feb. 2010 [Jun. 12, 2011]
in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.”
Washington D.C. AAUW, Feb. 2010, pp.19-26. [53] D. Wells. “Extreme Programming: A Gentle
Introduction.” Internet: http://extremeprogramming.org, Sep.
[33] S. Dorward. “The Fight or Flight Moment: 28 2009 [Jun. 12 2011]
Understanding Why We Leave or Stay in Industry,”
presented at IEEE WIE 2009. [54] S. Hewlett and C. Luce. “The Athena Factor.” Harvard
Business Review, pp. 38-49, Jun. 2008. pg. 40.
[34] J. Hunt. “Why Do Women Leave Science and
Engineering?” NBER Working Paper Series, vol. w15853, [55] S. McConnell. Rapid Development. Seattle. Microsoft
Mar. 2010. Press. 1996.
[35] C. Hill, C. Corbett, and A. Rose. “Why So Few: Women [56] D. Wells. “Extreme Programming: A Gentle
in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.” Introduction.” Internet: http://extremeprogramming.org, Sep.
Washington D.C. AAUW, Feb. 2010, pg. 15. 28 2009 [Jun. 12 2011]
[36] J. Highsmith, “History: The Agile Manifesto.” Internet: [57] S. Hewlett and C. Luce. “The Athena Factor.” Harvard
http://agilemanifesto.org/history.html. [Jun. 6, 2007] Business Review, pp. 38-49, Jun. 2008. pg. 4.
[37] B. Martin. “Quintessence: The fifth element for the [58] “Four Decades of STEM Degrees, 1966-2004: ‘The
Agile Manifesto.” Internet: http://khj.me/iQdKJE, Aug. 14, Devil is in the Details.’” CPST, Sep. 2006.
2008 [Jun. 12, 2011]. [59] S. Berenson and K. Slaten. “Voices of women in a
[38] A. Cockburn. “The fifth element for the Agile Manifesto software engineering course” in JERIC, vol. 4.1, Mar. 2004.
[Comment].” Internet: http://khj.me/kt3j6p, Aug. 8, 2008 [60] O. Hazzan and Y. Dubinsky. “Empower Gender
[Jun. 12, 2011]. Diversity with Agile Software Development” in
[39] J. Sutherland. “Roots of Scrum: Takeuchi and Self- Encyclopedia of Gender and Information Technology. E.
Organizing Teams.” Internet: http://jeffsutherland.com, Mar. Taugh, Ed. Hershey, PA: IGI-Global, 2006, pp 249-256.
7, 2010 [Jun. 12, 2011] [61] K. Judy and Ilio Krumins-Beens. “Great Scrums Need
[40] I. Nonaka and H Takeuchi. The Knowledge Creating Great Product Owners. ” Proceedings of 41st HICSS, 2008.
Company. New York, NY. Oxford University, 1995, pg. 85. [62] J. Sutherland. “Scrum: It’s Not Just for Software
[41] I. Nonaka and H Takeuchi. Hitotsubashi on Knowledge Engineers!” Internet: http://khj.me/iZ4nla. [Jun. 12, 2011]
Management. Asia. John Wiley and Sons, 2004, pg. 79. [63] M. Poppendieck. “Unjust Deserts.” in Better Software,
[42] I. Nonaka and H Takeuchi. The Knowledge Creating Jul. 2004, pp. 33-47.
Company. New York, NY. Oxford University, 1995, pg. 232. [64] “Cool Jobs.” Internet: http://worldsciencefestival.com/
[43] ibid. pg. 234 events/cool_jobs_2011, Jun. 4, 2011. [Jun. 12, 2011]
[44] ibid. pg. 106 [65] I. Nonaka and H Takeuchi. Hitotsubashi on Knowledge
Management. Asia. John Wiley and Sons, 2004, pg. 108.
[45] S. Hewlett and C. Luce,. “The Athena Factor.” Harvard
Business Review, pp. 38-49, Jun. 2008. pg. 8. [66] R. Martens. “#10yearsAgile and Snowbird 2011.”
Internet: http://khj.me/jKntfl, Feb. 16, 2011 [Jun. 12, 2011]
5288