Rights statement: ESEM '18, October 11–12, 2018, Oulu, Finland © 2018 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-5823-1/18/10. https://doi.org/10.1145/3239235.3267427
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Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Conference contribution/Paper › peer-review
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Conference contribution/Paper › peer-review
}
TY - GEN
T1 - Measuring Human Values in Software Engineering
AU - Winter, Emily Rowan
AU - Forshaw, Stephen Wallace
AU - Ferrario, Maria Angela Felicita Cristina
PY - 2018/10/12
Y1 - 2018/10/12
N2 - Background: Human values, such as prestige, social justice, and financial success, influence software production decision-making processes. While their subjectivity makes some values difficult to measure, their impact on software motivates our research. Aim: To contribute to the scientific understanding and the empirical investigation of human values in Software Engineering (SE). Approach: Drawing from social psychology, we consider values as mental representations to be investigated on three levels: at a system (L1), personal (L2), and instantiation level (L3). Method: We design and develop a selection of tools for the investigation of values at each level, and focus on the design, development, and use of the Values Q-Sort. Results: From our study with 12 software practitioners, it is possible to extract three values ‘prototypes’ indicative of an emergent typology of values considerations in SE. Conclusions: The Values Q-Sort generates quantitative values prototypes indicating values relations (L1) as well as rich personal narratives (L2) that reflect specific software practices (L3). It thus offers a systematic, empirical approach to capturing values in SE.
AB - Background: Human values, such as prestige, social justice, and financial success, influence software production decision-making processes. While their subjectivity makes some values difficult to measure, their impact on software motivates our research. Aim: To contribute to the scientific understanding and the empirical investigation of human values in Software Engineering (SE). Approach: Drawing from social psychology, we consider values as mental representations to be investigated on three levels: at a system (L1), personal (L2), and instantiation level (L3). Method: We design and develop a selection of tools for the investigation of values at each level, and focus on the design, development, and use of the Values Q-Sort. Results: From our study with 12 software practitioners, it is possible to extract three values ‘prototypes’ indicative of an emergent typology of values considerations in SE. Conclusions: The Values Q-Sort generates quantitative values prototypes indicating values relations (L1) as well as rich personal narratives (L2) that reflect specific software practices (L3). It thus offers a systematic, empirical approach to capturing values in SE.
KW - Empirical studies
KW - Software engineering
KW - Values in Computing
U2 - 10.1145/3239235.3267427
DO - 10.1145/3239235.3267427
M3 - Conference contribution/Paper
BT - Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement
PB - ACM Press
ER -