How Workspaces Influence Software Development ? (Appendix)

ABSTRACT

Background: Organizations are constantly looking for performance improvements, and workspace design has been widely studied because of its hypothetical influences on the social dynamics of software engineering projects. Aim: In this article, we investigate the perceived outcomes of different workspace characteristics, from the perspective of software engineering professionals. Methods: To achieve that, we conducted a systematic literature review in order to map relevant characteristics of workspaces, as well as aspects of performance of software development teams which are possibly influenced by the workspace design. Then, we collected survey data from 48 respondents, on their perceptions about their current workspaces and performance. Results: Seven dimensions of workspace factors were mapped: environment use practices, layout pattern, macro-environment, micro-environment, office design practices, support tools, and software engineering practices. In general, different workspace settings exhibited similar results in most of the investigated combinations. However, the workspace design can be responsible for significant differences in all four domains of performance outcome: communication, management, organization, and personnel. Conclusions: As a conclusion, our study demonstrates that there is not a generally accepted best model for software development workspace design, as all types of setting have positive and negative aspects. Organizations that are considering investing any budget in such things as radical workspace redesign should ponder the change very carefully. Also, there is still much room for investigation in this topic.