The Social Developer: Now, Then, and Tomorrow

The practice of software engineering needs both individual commitment as well as social interaction. It has long been widely recognized that communication problems are a major factor in the delay and failure of software projects. However, the patterns of communication that can be associated with the different development paradigms have gained less attention. In this paper, we present some views to the evolution of social dimensions in the light of software engineering methodologies and associated tools. To study this, we have surveyed a number of software developers working in industry to reflect our views into the state-of-practice in software development companies and shed light to the impact of distributed and agile development has had on developer communication. Towards the end of the paper, we provide some ideas for future research and draw some final conclusions.