Socio-technical resilience in software development (STRIDE)
Lead Research Organisation:
Lancaster University
Department Name: Psychology
Abstract
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People |
ORCID iD |
| Mark Levine (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
| Title | STRIDE CW 2022.pdf |
| Description | Preliminary results from the STRIDE project survey on RSE identity and resilience. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| URL | https://ssi-cw.figshare.com/articles/presentation/STRIDE_CW_2022_pdf/19447457 |
| Description | We focussed on understanding the emergence and development of a new professional social identity - namely the identity of Research Software Engineer. Although people had been doing software engineering work in research for awhile, the lack of recognition and status meant that a movement arose to create a professional identity that could serve the interests of the relevant community. The professional identity was 'officially' adopted at a conference in 2012. We studied this RSE community through surveys - and through natural language analysis The surveys showed that these who identified more strongly with an RSE identity had greater self-reported autonomy, resilience and more positive professional outcomes - including success, job satisfaction, meaningfulness and team communication. We also measured individual differences variables which showed that RSE.s who orientate toward (rather than away) from 'threat in their working lives had better self reported resilience and autonomy. In out natural language analysis we studied forums and blogposts contributed by people who were involved in the RSE community from before, during and after the adoption of the the official RSE identity. By looking at linguistic features in the the talk of people contributing to these forums over three time periods (before 2012 - 2012-2016 - 2016-2022) we study the linguistic features of the identity development over time. Our analysis reveals that markers of social identification increase over time, that markers of a struggle for identity decrease over time, and a consistent pattern of topics related to developing identity and advancing the interests of group members become established. Contrary to our hypotheses, we do not find support for the idea of linguistic style becoming increasing similar over time. This work is relevant to RSE identity in particular - but also reveals more general process in social identity development. |
| Exploitation Route | The work on RSE community can be taken up by those working on the development of research environments more generally, and the software engineering community more particularly. It is already been used by the Software Sustainability Institute, and organisations like UKRI and EPSRC. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| Description | Our research with the Research Software Engineering (RSE) community has had an impact of the policies and process which are being developed to help shape this career path. Through the offices of our collaborator Prof Caroline Jay (at Manchester University) and our links with the Software Sustainability Institute our work has featured in discussions in boards at both UKRI and EPSRC concerned with developing and supporting the Research Software Engineer role. We anticipate that our publications and reports (currently under review) will inform the policy documents currently being prepared by these bodies |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| Impact Types | Societal Policy & public services |
| Description | Exploration of RSE Autonomy |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Department | Department of Computer Science |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Quantitative findings from a survey of RSEs' on their self-reported level of autonomy. Expertise from the STRIDE team. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Qualitative research expanding on the STRIDE team's quantitative outcomes to better understand RSEs' perception of their level of professional autonomy. |
| Impact | Research in-progress. Outcomes will be relevant to the development of the RSE profession, e.g., within universities. This research is multi-disciplinary: Psychology (University of Lancaster) and Computer Science (University of Oxford). |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | RSE Community Survey Participation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Over 500 research software engineers were reached through various channels, including a blog post post on the Software Sustainability Institute's website and engagement through the RSE slack space among others, who participated in a survey on psychological as well as other components of RSE work, including levels of autonomy and resilience and attitudes towards automation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| URL | https://www.software.ac.uk/news/call-survey-participants-who-do-software-engineering-research |