Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: In software engineering, technical documentation is one of the activities that play\nan important role for the success of software projects. When developing software\nsystems a lot of time is spent not only implementing your own solutions into the\ncode but also understanding and maintaining the code solution produced by others.\nHowever with an emerging agile community the priority and engagement in documentation\nmay stagnate and effort invested into those activities may to some extent\nbe considered inherently wasteful. Therefore, the current perception for many software\nengineers may be that technical documentation is incomplete and not updated.\nAn important aspect of the issue of producing documentation is the motivation of\nthe developers who are responsible for its completion. A question that might be\nasked is if documentation overall is an activity that the software community would\nbe better off without, or if it is a neglected activity with room for improvement.\nFor that reason this exploratory multiple case study aims to identify some of the\nissues to shed some light on why technical documentation has got into such an unfavourable\nposition in the software industry. The study investigate the motivation\naffecting software engineers when producing software documentation, how this motivation\nevolves over time and why there is a difference compared to other activities\nin the software industry.\nThe study consider prospect theory as an explanatory theory for how improvements\nin outcomes are perceived in terms of value. In addition this study also analyses\nhow experiences are remembered and evaluated, as it relates to how excitement is\nconsidered for similar tasks in the future. The study can affirm that software engineers’\nmotivation seems to be affected by excitement and value dimensions when\nit comes to producing technical documentation. Additionally, in the long term, receiving\nconstructive feedback can improve the excitement and the perceived value\nof writing technical documentation.\nThe study finally observes that developers to a higher extent seem intrinsically\nmotivated by the coding activity than the documentation activity, which the study\npoints out as a primary enabler for the difference in behaviour between the coding\nand documentation activity.
Authors: Daniel Fontanet Losquiño, Tomas Urdell
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1705351007