Would You Like to Motivate Software Testers? Ask Them How

📝 Abstract

Context. Considering the importance of software testing to the development of high quality and reliable software systems, this paper aims to investigate how can work-related factors influence the motivation of software testers. Method. We applied a questionnaire that was developed using a previous theory of motivation and satisfaction of software engineers to conduct a survey-based study to explore and understand how professional software testers perceive and value work-related factors that could influence their motivation at work. Results. With a sample of 80 software testers we observed that software testers are strongly motivated by variety of work, creative tasks, recognition for their work, and activities that allow them to acquire new knowledge, but in general the social impact of this activity has low influence on their motivation. Conclusion. This study discusses the difference of opinions among software testers, regarding work-related factors that could impact their motivation, which can be relevant for managers and leaders in software engineering practice.

💡 Analysis

Context. Considering the importance of software testing to the development of high quality and reliable software systems, this paper aims to investigate how can work-related factors influence the motivation of software testers. Method. We applied a questionnaire that was developed using a previous theory of motivation and satisfaction of software engineers to conduct a survey-based study to explore and understand how professional software testers perceive and value work-related factors that could influence their motivation at work. Results. With a sample of 80 software testers we observed that software testers are strongly motivated by variety of work, creative tasks, recognition for their work, and activities that allow them to acquire new knowledge, but in general the social impact of this activity has low influence on their motivation. Conclusion. This study discusses the difference of opinions among software testers, regarding work-related factors that could impact their motivation, which can be relevant for managers and leaders in software engineering practice.

📄 Content

ACM/IEEE 11th International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, DOI: 10.1109/ESEM.2017.16

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Would You Like to Motivate Software Testers? Ask Them How Ronnie E. S. Santos Centro de Informática – Universidade Federal de Pernambuco Brazil ress@cin.ufpe.br Fabio Q. B. da Silva Centro de Informática – Universidade Federal de Pernambuco Brazil fabio@cin.ufpe.br Cleyton V. C. Magalhães Centro de Informática – Universidade Federal de Pernambuco Brazil cvcm@cin.ufpe.br Luiz Fernando Capretz Electrical & Computer Eng. Dept. Western University Canada lcapretz@uwo.ca Jorge S. Correia-Neto Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco Brazil jorgecorreianeto@gmail.com
Rodrigo E. C. Souza Motorola Mobility Paternship (CIn/Morotorla) Brazil recs@cin.ufpe.br

Abstract—Context. Considering the importance of software testing to the development of high quality and reliable software systems, this paper aims to investigate how can work-related factors influence the motivation of software testers. Method. We applied a questionnaire that was developed using a previous theory of motivation and satisfaction of software engineers to conduct a survey-based study to explore and understand how professional software testers perceive and value work-related factors that could influence their motivation at work. Results. With a sample of 80 software testers we observed that software testers are strongly motivated by variety of work, creative tasks, recognition for their work, and activities that allow them to acquire new knowledge, but in general the social impact of this activity has low influence on their motivation. Conclusion. This study discusses the difference of opinions among software testers, regarding work-related factors that could impact their motivation, which can be relevant for managers and leaders in software engineering practice. Keywords—Software Testing, Motivation, Software Engineering I. INTRODUCTION
For decades, researchers have been interested in investigating practices to improve work performance of individuals in several different contexts [24]. During this period, many theories and discussions were developed aiming to enlarge the body of knowledge about this theme and contribute to the improvement of industrial practices. Researchers such as Viteles [31] and more recently Morgeson and Humphrey [22] emphasized the importance of understanding aspects of work design due to the increasing use of teams in the work place, while Hackman and Oldham [14] focused on the experience of workers and the individual work practices as one of the main elements to increase performance and the interest and attractiveness of the job. Recently, human factors have become of great interest in the software engineering field as well, due to the fact that software development process commonly depends on human- centered activities [25]. In this context, several aspects of individual and team work in software development have been studied, seeking to understand particularities of human aspects in software engineering practice, such as the work design in software engineering [7], motivation of professionals [10][12][13], personality of individuals [1][6], work behaviors [9] and many others aspects that can directly impact the success of software development.
Some of these studies were consolidated in theories, for instance, there is a theory regarding the motivation and satisfaction of software engineers, hereafter referred as TMS- SE, that was developed based on the analysis of years of published field studies and from specific traits of software engineering practice [10][11]. This theory was proposed to support academic and industrial practice regarding the understating of motivation of software engineers in general, considering all professionals working in the software development process as a whole, that is, analysts, developers, testers, managers, and others. However, when analyzing the particularities of the different roles involved on the software development process, some studies raise discussions on the existence of peculiarities regarding professional, individual and work characteristics, and therefore, observable differences among those participating in this process[1][2][8]. Recently da Silva et al. [7] have discussed differences related to how professionals working with software development can experience different levels of interaction with work-related factors, such as motivation, satisfaction and burnout, depending on the role and the tasks performed in this process. These evidence demonstrated the importance of investigations about human factors and work characteristics not just in software engineering as a whole, but also, in each role and phase of the software development process.

Regarding this need for studies considering each specific phase of the software development pr

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