Designing Motivation Strategies for Software Engineering Teams: an Empirical Study
A. César C. França, Fabio Q. B. da Silva
Abstract-Background. Even though the amount of researches related to the behavior of software development teams has significantly increased in recent years, researches focusing on motivation as an alternative to lead software projects to success are still rare. Objective/Method: This article describes a survey conducted to identify the relative importance of some factors that affect the motivation of software engineers at work. The conceptual underpinnings of human motivation used in the research are the Expectancy Theory and the Motivation-Hygiene Theory. Results/Conclusion: In the study, a cross-sectional survey was conducted involving 176 software engineers employed at 20 software firms from the State of Pernambuco, Brazil. Data collected with the survey revealed not only the order in which the set of motivators influences the software engineers motivation and other peripheral findings, but also served as a basis to design three motivation strategies for software engineering teams.
Paper presented at the Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering, Cape Town, 2010.
http://www.haseresearch.com
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Research Project
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(empirical) research project on the
influence of human factors on software
engineering
Long Term Objective: to understand
the influence of personality, behavior,
and cognition on individuals, teams,
projects, processes, and organizations
in software engineering.
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Research Project
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(empirical) research project on the
influence of human factors on software
engineering
Centro de Informática – UFPE
Since 2003 ...
1 professor/researcher
2 PhD students
23 master students
14 master dissertations
...
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Research Project
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(empirical) research project on the
influence of human factors on software
engineering
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Individual
•Learning
•Preferences
•Motivation
•Performance
Team
•Structure
•Roles
•Relations
•Managem
ent
•Conflicts
•Negotiation
•Leadership
•Performance
•Aim
Projects and Processes
•Typology
•Activities
•Performance
•Sucess
Influenciates
Is influentiated
Human Factors
•Personality
•Behavior
•Cognitive style
• Mental Models
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Research Motivation
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Developers are not happy!
IT - professionals
28% were not satisfied with the current work
75% would like to change their job
41% felt unmotivated in the job
[SkillSoft - Jaggs, 2006]
Motivation = focus of interest in the productive sector
Organizational climate
People may better perform their tasks
Human resources constitute an average of 70% of the costs
in a software engineering project.
[SEI]
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Our Questions
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(RQ1) What is the order of influence of a
given set of motivators in the software
engineers general motivation?
(RQ2) What is the order of influence of a
given set of dissatisfaction factors in the
software engineers general motivation?
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Motivational Theories
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• Expectancy Theory
– Individual + Context
– Valency, Expectancy and Instrumentality
• Motivation-Hygiene Theory
– Motivators: increase the motivation
– Hygienic factors: respulse some action
Motivation
Unsatisfaction
Satisfacted
I Want
(Valency)Performance
I Will
(Expectancy) Effort
I Can
(Instrumentality) Satisfaction
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Sharp’s MOCC Model
Motivators, Outcomes, Characteristics, Context
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Software Engineer
Characteristics
Outcomes
Contextual
Result in
Mediate
Influence effectiveness of
Influence
strength of
Orientate
towards
Motivators
Inherent in Software
Engineering
Specific
organization/job
factors
Intrinsic Extrinsic
Personality
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Sharp’s MOCC Model
Motivators, Outcomes, Characteristics, Context
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Software Engineer
Characteristics
Outcomes
Contextual
Result in
Mediate
Influence effectiveness of
Influence
strength of
Orientate
towards
Motivators
Inherent in Software
Engineering
Specific
organization/job
factors
Intrinsic Extrinsic
Personality
Work with people Balance between professional
Development processes and personal life
Project Life cycle Technical development
Change Exercise broadly personal skills
Challenging work Feedback
Problems resolution Rewards and Financial Incentives
Experimentation Career development
Creativity Empowerment
Meaningful products Identification with task
Decision Making Autonomy
Physical Conditions Working in a Successful Company
Technological conditions Competitive Salaries
Benefits Good Management
Equity
People Retention
Project Delivery Time
Productivity
Budgets
Low Absenteeism
Project Success
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Team Types
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Tactical Teams:
Focuses on technical tasks, clearly defined, standardized,
and repeatable, whose results are easily measured. The
performance of this type of team may be improved by
challenging goals, though always reachable.
Creative Teams:
Focuses on creation of novel products or services.
This type of team is usually composed by intelligent
people, independent and self-managed. Its
components usually match their personal interests
with the team objectives.
Problem Resolution Teams:
Focuses on critical problems resolution. This type of team
usually works under pressure, and its components are
sociable, analytical and highly concentrated.
[Larson, 1989]
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Experimental Steps
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Step I) Literature review:
The systematic literature review described in
Beecham et al. [10] is one of the key elements for
this research.
Step II) Survey:
• data collection: 12/01/2008 – 12/20/2008
• 176 professionals, located in Recife, PE (Brazil).
• Questionnaire
Step III - Data analysis:
• Statistical treatment
• Motivators were ordered according to the direct
perception of the subjects
• Subjectively organized according to their best
suitability to each pre-defined category.
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Motivators Set
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Appropriate Physical conditions
Appropriate technological
conditions
Competitive salary
Equity
Good management
Work with people
Development practices
Participation in the entire life cycle
of the project
Changing Routine
Challenging goals
Problems resolution
Experimentation
Creativity
Meaningful products
Decision making
Balance between personal and
professional life
Technical development
Exercise broad personal skills
Feedback
Rewards and financial incentives
Career development
Empowerement
Identification with task
Autonomy
Working in successfull company
Benefits
Hygienic Factors Motivators
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Population Characterization
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Gender
Male 81.4 %
Female 18.6 %
Role
P.M. 6.9 %
Analist 20.1 %
Designer 5.8 %
Implementer 42.9 %
Tester 15.3 %
Others 4.8 %
N.I. 4.2 %
Age
Under 21 1.6 %
21 to 25 41.5 %
26 to 30 27.8 %
31 to 35 9.0 %
36 to 40 3.7 %
Above 40 6.4 %
Education
High school 0.5%
Undergraduate 33.0 %
Graduated 35.1 %
Master / Specialist 28.7 %
Ph.D 0.5 %
N.I. 2.2 %
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Categories of Motivators
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Acceleration Factors Innovation Factors Tension Factors
Inherent to
Task
F1 Work with people F8 Creativity F6 Problems resolution
Operational F2 Development practices F4 Changing Routine
F7 Experimentation
F18 Identification with
task
F14 Feedback
Tactical F5 Challenging goals
F11 Balance between personal and
professional
life
F13 Exercise broad
personal skills
F19 Autonomy
F3 Participation in the
entire life cycle of the
project
Strategic F15 Rewards and financial
incentives
F12 Technical development
F10 Decision making
F16 Career development
F17 Empowerement
Global F9 Meaningful products
F20 Working in
successfull company
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Conclusions
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Contributions
• A questionnaire designed to
measure the software engineers
motivation
• An empirical classification
order of motivator factors and
hygiene factors
Motivation Strategies
Adaptable
Flexible
Pragmatic
Effective
(we suppose…)
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Threats to Validity
• Internal Validity
– Addressed by pre-testing the questionnaire in a smaller sample
– Causality relation between the factors
• Construct Validity
– addressed by using motivator factors developed by a thorough systematic
literature review.
• Conclusion Validity
– Suppositions must be tested
• External Validity
– population is restricted to individuals from the same geographic location and
similar type of software companies
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Designing Motivation Strategies for Software Engineering Teams: an Empirical Study by A.
César C. França, Fabio Q. B. da Silva is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at the Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering, Cape
Town, 2010.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available
at http://www.haseresearch.com
