posted on 2012-10-19, 11:26authored byMurat Yilmaz, Rory V. O'Connor
Social capital is an important network based intangible asset with a potential for maximizing individual and
team productivity in a social setting like software development. It is important to investigate intervening factors
that challenge software development productivity. In this paper, the authors mixed method approach harnesses
a structural equation model (SEM) for its quantitative part to establish a paradigm for understanding the
effects of social factors for software development organizations. The proposed SEM model measures the correlations
between several potential factors associated with productivity, social productivity, and social capital
that are chosen as latent variables. For the qualitative phase, an industrial focus group is used to single out
these factors and their association with potential social aspects. Quantitative data is gathered from a survey
conducted at a university. The qualitative phase encompasses an industrial focus group, initially starting
with the factors from the literature and refined through participants’ field experience. Findings indicate that
a high correlation exists between several social factors that are reported by the focus group. Finally, initial
results suggest that understanding the factors that affect social capital in software development is essential
for building and sustaining highly productive development environments.
History
Publication
International Journal of Human Capital and Information Technology Professionals;3(2), pp. 40-62