Boost performance of software engineers: case study
Veleslavova, Kristina (2023)
2023
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023052112447
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023052112447
Tiivistelmä
The present thesis aims to elaborate a theoretically grounded approach toward software engineering candidate selection and performance support, based on the analysis of the existing team’s motivation and tacit knowledge acquisition processes. Commissioner is a small software development and IT-consultancy company, building technologically advanced systems and products from scratch. The company employs 14 people; 2022 year’s revenue is 1,1 mln euros. The talent retention rate of the case company has been 100% since 2016 and performance, measured by project delivery on time, within budget and the technical scope is over 90%. The company is co-founded and co-owned by the author of the present research.
The research strategy is a case study with the case company as a unit of analysis. Qualitative data was collected with semi-structured interviews and triangulated with quantitative data collected with questionnaires. Since this research is a deductively based explanation building directed content analysis approach was utilized for qualitative data analysis and the codes emerged from the theoretical framework. Quanttative data was analyzed with descriptive statistics methods due to the sample size (n=9), not sufficient for statistical analysis. The development part was implemented with the process design method in a collaborative development workshop with the case company CTO and team leaders.
Research findings revealed that the case company employees are a homogenous group, having similar personality characteristics and set of needs, along with university degrees in mathematics or computer science and technical propensity. Individual tacit knowledge, conceptualized as “knowing how” is obtained in the workplace with explicit learning and once applied to practical solutions of work-related tasks, prompts a sense of technical competence and satisfaction, which in turn reinforces motivation. As a result of the development workshop, adjustments to candidate selection and onboarding procedures during the first year in the company were elaborated.
The research strategy is a case study with the case company as a unit of analysis. Qualitative data was collected with semi-structured interviews and triangulated with quantitative data collected with questionnaires. Since this research is a deductively based explanation building directed content analysis approach was utilized for qualitative data analysis and the codes emerged from the theoretical framework. Quanttative data was analyzed with descriptive statistics methods due to the sample size (n=9), not sufficient for statistical analysis. The development part was implemented with the process design method in a collaborative development workshop with the case company CTO and team leaders.
Research findings revealed that the case company employees are a homogenous group, having similar personality characteristics and set of needs, along with university degrees in mathematics or computer science and technical propensity. Individual tacit knowledge, conceptualized as “knowing how” is obtained in the workplace with explicit learning and once applied to practical solutions of work-related tasks, prompts a sense of technical competence and satisfaction, which in turn reinforces motivation. As a result of the development workshop, adjustments to candidate selection and onboarding procedures during the first year in the company were elaborated.