research-article

Diversity and Teamwork in Student Software Teams

Authors:

Isabella Graßl,

Stephan Krusche,

Gordon FraserAuthors Info & Claims

ECSEE '23: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Software Engineering Education

Pages 110 - 119

https://doi.org/10.1145/3593663.3593687

Published: 19 June 2023 Publication History

Abstract

Diversity is becoming an increasingly relevant topic in software engineering. A higher diversity rate in professional software teams has been shown to positively influence communication, innovation, and performance. Understanding whether similar effects exist in software development teams at an educational level would be important to identify potential challenges and opportunities that might affect students at later professional stages. Therefore, in this paper we investigate the impact of diversity on key teamwork skills such as communication, collaboration, and productivity in student software development teams. In particular, we conducted several surveys on project work progress throughout an introductory software engineering course with students and their tutors regarding these teamwork metrics. We investigate how the self-assessments and the project outcomes relate to seven aspects of diversity, and find correlations between teamwork satisfaction and team diversity. We see deteriorations in certain teamwork metrics over the project timeline—independently of the team diversity. Our findings suggest that the impact of diversity on student teams may be more complex than on professional teams: diversity minorities in teams may feel frustrated more easily. Consequently, it is important to ensure that software development courses maintain motivation and decrease possible frustrations regarding teamwork.

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Cited By

Stoller G(2024)Mentorship Strategies for Winning Case Competition TeamsLeadership Action and Intervention in Health, Business, Education, and Technology10.4018/979-8-3693-4288-6.ch004(88-114)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-4288-6.ch004
Garcia RCsizmadia APearce JAlshaigy BGlebova OHarrington BLiaskos KLunn SMacKellar BNasir UPettit RPrickett TSchulz SStewart CZavaleta Bernuy AMonga MLonati VBarendsen ESheard JPaterson J(2024)All for One and One for All - Collaboration in Computing Education: Policy, Practice, and Professional DispositionsProceedings of the 2024 on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 210.1145/3649405.3659530(763-764)Online publication date: 8-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649405.3659530
Nasir NMonga MLonati VBarendsen ESheard JPaterson J(2024)Towards Better Design and Delivery of SE Team Project CoursesProceedings of the 2024 on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 210.1145/3649405.3659471(828-829)Online publication date: 8-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649405.3659471
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Index Terms

Diversity and Teamwork in Student Software Teams
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
  2. User characteristics
    1. Gender

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ECSEE '23: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Software Engineering Education

June 2023

264 pages

ISBN:9781450399562

DOI:10.1145/3593663

Editor:
Jürgen Mottok
OTH Regensburg

Copyright © 2023 ACM.

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Published: 19 June 2023

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primary::programming 01JA2021

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ECSEE 2023

ECSEE 2023: European Conference on Software Engineering Education

June 19 - 21, 2023

Seeon/Bavaria, Germany

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Overall Acceptance Rate 11 of 16 submissions, 69%

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Cited By

Stoller G(2024)Mentorship Strategies for Winning Case Competition TeamsLeadership Action and Intervention in Health, Business, Education, and Technology10.4018/979-8-3693-4288-6.ch004(88-114)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-4288-6.ch004
Garcia RCsizmadia APearce JAlshaigy BGlebova OHarrington BLiaskos KLunn SMacKellar BNasir UPettit RPrickett TSchulz SStewart CZavaleta Bernuy AMonga MLonati VBarendsen ESheard JPaterson J(2024)All for One and One for All - Collaboration in Computing Education: Policy, Practice, and Professional DispositionsProceedings of the 2024 on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 210.1145/3649405.3659530(763-764)Online publication date: 8-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649405.3659530
Nasir NMonga MLonati VBarendsen ESheard JPaterson J(2024)Towards Better Design and Delivery of SE Team Project CoursesProceedings of the 2024 on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 210.1145/3649405.3659471(828-829)Online publication date: 8-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649405.3659471
Graßl IFraser GRoychoudhury APaiva AAbreu RStorey MGama KSiegmund J(2024)Equitable Student Collaboration in Pair ProgrammingProceedings of the 46th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training10.1145/3639474.3640086(274-285)Online publication date: 14-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3639474.3640086
Orozco-Jiménez EMuñoz MMejía J(2024)Toward the Development of a Method for Identifying Problems and Providing Strategies to Reduce Them in Software Development TeamsSystems, Software and Services Process Improvement10.1007/978-3-031-71139-8_9(131-146)Online publication date: 7-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-71139-8_9
Sæter GStray VAlmås SLindsjørn Y(2024)The Role of Team Composition in Agile Software Development Education: A Gendered PerspectiveAgile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming10.1007/978-3-031-61154-4_12(179-195)Online publication date: 31-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-61154-4_12

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