Exploring the Perspectives of Managers on Data Presentation in Software Analytics Tools
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Exploring the perspectives of managers on data presentation in software analytics tools Bachelor’s Thesis, 15 Credits Patrik Skuza Bachelor's degree, 180 Credits Field of Study: Computer Science Program: Computer Systems Developer Spring 2021 Final Seminar: 2021-06-01 Supervisor: Jesper Larsson Examiner: Hamza Ouhaichi Abstract There is a lack in research on the perspectives of different managerial roles on data about software projects in software analytics tools, such as the perspectives of chief financial officers (CFOs), chief executive officers (CEOs) and compliance officers. Today, software analytics tools are mainly developed to address the needs of technical stakeholders such as developers, but research shows that there exist potentials of expanding this technical users’ scope of focus to also include higher level stakeholders, such as managers. The goal of this study is to explore what managers working in software development organizations consider to be useful data to have about software projects in software analytics tools, as well as examining how they want data about software projects to be presented to them in such tools. This study was done in four steps. First, a literature review was conducted. Second, a questionnaire was conducted with four CFOs, one CEO and one compliance officer working in six different Swedish software development organizations. Third, semi- structured interviews were conducted with three CFOs, one CEO and one compliance officer working in five different Swedish software development organizations. Fourth, a visual prototype simulating a software analytics tool was constructed based on the data gathered from the interviews. The result of this study shows that abstraction, limitation, and visualization of data about software projects, as well as presentation of useful data in software analytics tools that support the work tasks of managers, is helpful in addressing the perspectives and views of the target group. Keywords: Software analytics, tools, stakeholders, managers, useful data, software projects, data presentation Table of contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 2. Purpose ....................................................................................................... 2 3. Research Questions .................................................................................... 2 4. Delimitations .............................................................................................. 3 5. Literature Review ........................................................................................ 3 5.1. The potential of Software Analytics for managerial roles ....................... 4 5.2. The needs of Software Analytics for managerial roles ............................ 5 5.3. Software Analytics tools ........................................................................ 7 5.3.1. CodeScene ...................................................................................... 7 5.3.2. SonarQube ..................................................................................... 9 6. Method...................................................................................................... 11 6.1. Method theory ..................................................................................... 11 6.2. Method description ............................................................................. 12 6.2.1. Literature review ........................................................................... 12 6.2.2. Questionnaire ............................................................................... 12 6.2.3. Interviews ..................................................................................... 13 6.2.4. Prototype ...................................................................................... 13 6.2.5. Exploratory data analysis ............................................................. 14 6.2.6. Theme analysis ............................................................................. 14 6.3. Method discussion .............................................................................. 15 6.4. Design of data generation methods ..................................................... 17 6.4.1. Design of questionnaire ................................................................ 17 6.4.2. Design of semi-structured interviews ............................................ 19 7. Results ...................................................................................................... 20 7.1. Questionnaire ..................................................................................... 20 7.1.1. Background information about the respondents ........................... 20 7.1.2. The respondents’ understanding of CodeScene ............................. 21 7.1.3. User-friendliness of CodeScene ..................................................... 21 7.1.4. Prioritization of problems .............................................................. 24 7.1.5. Types of useful information ........................................................... 25 7.1.6. Customization in CodeScene ......................................................... 29 7.1.7. Functionalities in software analytics tools ..................................... 30 7.2. Semi-structured interviews ................................................................. 32 7.2.1. Background information about the interviewees ........................... 32 7.2.2. Data about software projects considered to be useful to have access to ............................................................................................................ 33 7.2.3. Needs for abstraction of data about software projects ................... 34 7.2.4. Aspects of design and data presentation ....................................... 34 7.3. Prototype ............................................................................................ 36 7.3.1. Projects ......................................................................................... 37 7.3.2. Views ............................................................................................ 38 7.3.3. CEO Dashboard ............................................................................ 39 7.3.4. CEO Level 2 .................................................................................. 40 7.3.5. CFO Dashboard ............................................................................ 41 7.3.6. CFO Level 2 .................................................................................. 42 7.3.7. Compliance Officer Dashboard ..................................................... 43 7.3.8. Compliance Officer Level 2 ............................................................ 44 8. Analysis .................................................................................................... 45 8.1. Questionnaire results analysis ............................................................ 45 8.2. Analysis of qualitative data ................................................................. 46 8.2.1. Perspectives on data considered to be useful ................................ 46 8.2.2. Perspectives on presenting data about software projects ............... 48 9. Discussion ................................................................................................ 50 9.1. Limitations and Challenges ................................................................. 53 9.2. Future Work ....................................................................................... 54 10. Conclusions ............................................................................................ 55 11. References .............................................................................................. 56 12. Appendix ................................................................................................. 59 12.1. Appendix A – CodeScene Off-boarding simulation ............................. 59 12.2. Appendix B – CodeScene Dashboard ................................................. 60 12.3. Appendix C - Interview Dashboard Picture ........................................ 61 12.4. The design of the questionnaire ........................................................ 62 12.5. Interview Questions .......................................................................... 76 12.6. Interview Protocols ............................................................................ 77 12.6.1. Protocol 1 ................................................................................... 77 12.6.2. Protocol 2 ................................................................................... 84 12.6.3. Protocol 3 ................................................................................... 91 12.6.4. Protocol 4 ................................................................................. 110 12.6.5. Protocol 5 ................................................................................. 119 List of Tables Table 1 - The questionnaire translated into English. ..................................... 17 Table 2 – Questionnaire - Section 1 / Question 1: What is your job title? ..... 20 Table 3 - Questionnaire - Section 1 / Question 3: How old are you? ............. 20 Table 4 – Questionnaire - Section 2 / Question 1: I understand what CodeScene is for a tool. ................................................................................. 21 Table 5 - Questionnaire