[论文解读] Soft Skills and Software Development: A Reflection from the Software Industry

Faheem Ahmed, Luiz Fernando Capretz+2 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Jul 24, 2015

Information Systems Education and Curriculum Development参考文献 33被引用 42

一句话总结

本文通过分析北美、欧洲、亚洲和澳大利亚的650份软件开发职位广告，研究了软技能在软件开发中的作用。研究识别了软件开发生命周期中不同角色所需求的关键软技能，并揭示尽管行业在一定程度上承认软技能的重要性，但在招聘实践中仍需进一步提升对这些技能的认可。

ABSTRACT

We review the literature relating to soft skills and the software engineering and information systems domain before describing a study based on 650 job advertisements posted on well-known recruitment sites from a range of geographical locations including, North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The study makes use of nine defined soft skills to assess the level of demand for each of these skills related to individual job roles within the software industry. This work reports some of the vital statistics from industry about the requirements of soft skills in various roles of software development phases. The work also highlights the variation in the types of skills required for each of the roles. We found that currently although the software industry is paying attention to soft skills up to some extent while hiring but there is a need to further acknowledge the role of these skills in software development. The objective of this paper is to analyze the software industry soft skills requirements for various software development positions, such as system analyst, designer, programmer, and tester. We pose two research questions, namely, (1) What soft skills are appropriate to different software development lifecycle roles, and (2) Up to what extend does the software industry consider soft skills when hiring an employee. The study suggests that there is a further need of acknowledgment of the significance of soft skills from employers in software industry.

研究动机与目标

• 考察系统分析师、设计师、程序员和测试员等软件开发生命周期不同角色中软技能的相关性。
• 评估软件行业在招聘过程中考虑软技能的程度。
• 识别软技能要求在地理区域和职位角色之间的差异。
• 突出行业认知与软技能在招聘和开发实践中实际整合之间的脱节。

提出的方法

• 分析来自北美、欧洲、亚洲和澳大利亚主要招聘平台的650份软件开发职位广告。
• 应用预设的九类软技能框架，对不同职位角色中的需求进行分类和量化。
• 对不同地区之间的软技能要求进行对比，以识别地理和职位特定的差异。
• 对职位广告数据进行定性和定量综合分析，评估软技能在职位描述中的显著程度。
• 使用内容分析技术提取并分类职位广告中提及的软技能。

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 哪些软技能对软件开发生命周期中的不同角色最为相关？
• RQ2 软件行业在员工招聘过程中在多大程度上考虑了软技能？
• RQ3 软技能要求在地理区域和职位角色之间如何变化？
• RQ4 当前软件开发职位广告中对软技能的认可程度如何？

主要发现

• 软件行业在职位广告中对软技能表现出中等程度的认可，但其在招聘中的整合仍不一致。
• 沟通能力、团队合作和问题解决能力是在所有角色和区域中提及频率最高的软技能。
• 与程序员和测试员相比，系统分析师和设计师对沟通能力和人际交往能力的需求更高。
• 观察到地区差异，北美和欧洲的职位广告更强调领导力和适应能力。
• 程序员和测试员职位中软技能的提及较少，表明对技术角色中软技能重要性的认知存在差距。
• 本研究揭示了雇主在软件开发招聘和培训中正式承认并优先考虑软技能的迫切需求。