PhD Trial lecture delivered at University of Oslo, Faculty of Education 10.09-2010.

1. Analysing the practice of distributed software engineers: combining social network analysis and interaction analysis Prøveforelesning/trial lecture 10.09-2010

2. Lecture overview

3. Software engineering Addresses all aspects of the software development process (Daintith & Wright, 2008). Increasingly a team-based activity (Elleithy, 2010). Technical aspects, but also a social process (Dittrich, Randall, & Singer, 2009). Requires co-ordination and communication.

4. Time and place matrix adapted from Johansen (1988)

5. Examples of geographically distributed software development projects Microsoft Windows operative system (Bird et al., 2009). Open source projects (seee.g. Lanzara, 2005).

6. SocialNetwork Analysis (SNA) A theoretical perspective and research tools examining social structures. The study of social relations among a set of actors. The unit of analysis is an entity consisting of a collection of individuals and the linkages among them. Tabular form referred to as Adjacency matrix. Contain as many rows and columns as there are actors in the data set. (Wasserman & Faust, 1994)

7. Basic network data (n=4) A1: Bill, A2: Steve, A3:Linus, A4: Edith

8. Population boundaries Full network analysis Ego-centric network

9. Network ties Defining what ties or relations to be measured. Online Interactions/communication patterns.

11. Recommended measures:

12. Density

13. Centrality

15. Degree centrality The number of other points that have a direct relation to that node. This is the sum of each row in the adjacency matrix representing the network(Freeman, 1979).

16. Cliques and sub-groups A clique is a maximal complete sub-graph of three or more nodes (Wasserman & Faust, 1994). Sub-sets of actors who are more closely tied to each other (Hanneman, 2005).

17. Example overlapping clique sets

18. Example research study Communication networks in geographically distributed software development (Cataldo & Herbsleb, 2008). RQ1: Does a highly interconnected group of people take on a disproportionate share of overall communication?

19. Communication patterns evolving over time

20. Limitations of the study ”It is also worth pointing out that we did not have the opportunity to observe all communication, for example face-to face, telephone, and video conference.” (Cataldo & Herbsleb, 2008:587)

21. Interaction analysis (IA) IA is an interdisciplinary method for empirical investigation of the interaction of human beings with each other and with objects of their environment. It investigates human activities, such as talk, nonverbal interaction, and the use of artefacts and technologies, identifying routine practices and problems and the resources for their solution. (Jordan and Henderson, 1995)

22. Underlying assumptions Expert knowledge and practices are situated in the interactions between members of a particular community that are engaged with object and artefacts in their environment. Finds the empirical data in the details of social interactions extended in time and space.

23. The use of video “Video technology has been vital in establishing Interaction Analysis” (Jordan & Henderson, 1995:1). Creates relatively permanent primary records. Group work analysis; Collaborative viewing of selected sequences of interaction. In-situ video recordings to reconstruct events.

24. Framed by ethnographic fieldwork Video-based Interaction Analysis in conjunction with ethnographic fieldwork is quite common. “In the course of this ethnographic work, we attempt to identify interactional ‘hot spots’ -- sites of activity for which videotaping promises to be productive” (Jordan and Henderson, 1995:3).

25. Distributed teams of software engineers Work environments spanning multiple physical locations.

26. Observing distributed teams Capture interactions between team members, artifacts and objects at the different physical locations. Observing distributed team meetings such as video conferencing, screen logging and activity logs generated by CSCW-platform. Retrospective analysis; merging data from distributed sites in order to reconstruct complex interactions (Ruhleder, 2000).

27. A combined approach? As analysts, to move from social interactions to their sum we need an instrument (Latour, 1996). Social network incorporated with video-based IA. Top down: Descriptive level, organize data to prepare for video-based IA. Providing an overview of the sum of interacting dyads in a communication network.

30. Multisite video data. Micro level studies of moment-to-moment social interaction at the different physical sites.

31. Combined in a retrospective analysis; sync or merge the activities across multiple locations.

32. Complex, resource intensive design?