skip to main content
10.1145/170791.170867acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagescscConference Proceedingsconference-collections
Article
Free Access

An exploration of the impact of individual and group factors on programmer productivity

Published:01 March 1993Publication History

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on an empirical study that explores the impact of individual and group factors on programmer productivity. Programmer productivity is modeled as a function of Individual Characteristics, Group Cohesiveness and Leader Behavior. Individual Characteristics are measured in terms of years of college education, training, and months of experience in a language at the site. Group Cohesiveness is measured in terms of person to group attraction, person to person attraction, and person to leader attraction. Leader Behavior is measured in terms of production emphasis which is the application of pressure for productive output. Programmer productivity is measured in terms of lines of code (LOC), executable lines of code (ELOC), and Halstead's effort. This study found that person to group attraction, person to person attraction, person to leader attraction, years of college education, training, and programmer's experience at the organization do not correlate to productivity measures in a statistically significant way. The implications of these finding are explored.

References

  1. 1.Arthur, LJ. Measuring Programmer Productivi~ and Software Oualitv. John Wiley & Sons, New York, (1985). Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  2. 2.Benbasat, L & Vessey, I. "Programmer and analyst time/cost estimation', MIS Quarterly (June 1980), 31-63.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  3. 3.Berkowitz, L. "Group standards, cohesiveness and productivity', Human Relations 7, 4, (1954), 509-519.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  4. 4.Chrysler, E. "Some basic determinants of computer programming productivity', Communications of the ACM 21, 6 (June,1978), 472-483. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  5. 5.Druffel, L.F_., Rodwine, S.T. Jr., & Riddle, W.E. "The STARS Program: Overview and Rationale', IEEE Computer 16, 11 (Nov. 1983), 21-29.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  6. 6.Fung, K.C., Debnath, N.C. & Zweben, S.H. "A Software Science Analyzer for COBOL', Tech. Rep. No.OSU-CISRC-TR-83-2, Ohio State University, Computer and Information Science Research Center, Columbus. (1983).Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  7. 7.Gowda, R. O. "Impact of Group Cohesiveness on Programmer Productivity', Ph.D. Dissertation, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia 30303, 1988.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  8. 8.Halstead, M.H. Elements. of Software Science, Elsevier North Holland, New York. (1977). Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  9. 9.lsserlis, J.A. "The construction and validation of a scale of measure group cohesiveness', Dissertation Abstracts international, 39, {10-B} 5139, University Microfilms No. 7908995. (1978).Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  10. 10.Jewell, L.N. & Reitz, J.H. Group Effectiveness in Or~nization, Scott, Foresman and Company, Glenview, lllinois (1981).Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  11. 11.Lott, AJ., &Lott, B.E. "Group cohesiveness as interpersonal attraction: A review of relationships with antecedent and consequent variables', Psychological Bulletin,64,4 (1965), 259-309.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  12. 12.Piper, W.E., Marrache, M., Lacroix, R., Richardson, A.M., & Jones, B.D. "Cohesion as a basic bond in groups', Human Relations 36, 2 (1983). 93-108.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  13. 13.Seashore, S.E. "Group Cohesiveness in the Industrial Work Group', Survey Research Center Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. (1954).Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  14. 14.Shen, V.Y., & Dunsmore, H.E. "Analyzing Cobol Programs via Software Science', Tech. Rep. No. CSD-TR-348. Purdue University, Department of Computer Sciences, West Lafayette. (1981).Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  15. 15.Software Technology for Adaptable Reliable Systems, STARS. Department of Defense. (March, 30, 1983).Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  16. 16.Stogdill, R.M. Manual for the .Lea d.er Ikhavior Description Questionnaire-Form XII Tech.Rep. Ohio State University, Bureau of Business Research, Columbus. (1963).Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  17. 17.Stogdill,R.M. "Group productivity, drive and cohesiveness', Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 8, (August, 1972), 26-42.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref

Index Terms

  1. An exploration of the impact of individual and group factors on programmer productivity

          Recommendations

          Comments

          Login options

          Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

          Sign in
          • Published in

            cover image ACM Conferences
            CSC '93: Proceedings of the 1993 ACM conference on Computer science
            March 1993
            543 pages
            ISBN:0897915585
            DOI:10.1145/170791

            Copyright © 1993 ACM

            Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

            Publisher

            Association for Computing Machinery

            New York, NY, United States

            Publication History

            • Published: 1 March 1993

            Permissions

            Request permissions about this article.

            Request Permissions

            Check for updates

            Qualifiers

            • Article

          PDF Format

          View or Download as a PDF file.

          PDF

          eReader

          View online with eReader.

          eReader