2022/03/17 by Ronnie Edson de Souza Santos, Santos, Ronnie E. de Souza, Paul Ralph +1
Computer Science · Decision Sciences · Psychology · #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Personal Information Management and User Behavior #Software Engineering (cs.SE) #Software Engineering Techniques and Practices #Software System Performance and Reliability #Team Dynamics and Performance
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2203.09626
openalex publication_date 2022/03/17 · openalex created_date 2022/04/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Context. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, software professionals had to abruptly shift to ostensibly temporary home offices, which affected teamwork in several ways. Goal. This study aims to explore how these professionals coped with remote work during the pandemic and to identify practices that supported the team activities. Method. Ethnographic methods, including participant observation and qualitative data analysis, were used. Results. Three practices were created by the observed team to improve their engagement: costume meeting, second-language day, and project happy hour. These practices appear to increase individual involvement, improve team cohesion, reduce monotony, and create opportunities for knowledge acquisition. Conclusions. The three observed practices may help remote software teams cope with adversity. More research is needed to determine if these practices work in other settings, including remote-first and hybrid remote / on-site teams, post-pandemic.