FW-HTF-RL: Improving the Mental Well-being and Productivity of the Software Development Workforce of Tomorrow

FW-HTF-RL：提高未来软件开发人员的心理健康和生产力

• 批准号: 2326489
• 负责人: Adriaan van der Hoek
• 金额: $ 164.45万
• 依托单位: University of California-Irvine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2027-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2326489&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: FW; HTF; RL; Improving; Mental

Today, software teams and organizations can create software of a complexity and scale that is unprecedented. Moreover, they can do so more effectively and more efficiently than ever before. While there are many contributing factors, the advances in the capabilities of the tools that software developers use have been a principal enabler, particularly in terms of collaborating in large teams across distances and time zones. On the one hand, this represents a major human-technology partnership success. However, these tools may have negative consequences for worker well-being when their design focuses on software engineering outcomes without considering how the tools affect developers' work practices and interactions with teammates. Badly designed tools can reduce learning, self-expression, and communication with others; this may in turn negatively impact developers' mental well-being and the long term success of the organization. This project creates the foundations for a new kind of human-technology partnership in highly collaborative, tool-intensive work environments; a partnership in which workers' mental well-being is considered in the design of tools and the practices they support. The goal is to demonstrate that, by making mental well-being a primary design concern next to productivity, it is possible to improve both worker mental well-being and work performance.The project consists of three parts. The first part combines observational studies of developers at work with interviews and surveys to assess the state of mental well-being among software developers in terms of the nature and prevalence of mental well-being issues, how these issues impact their own and their team's work, and the effectiveness of any existing coping strategies they may use. To address the issues identified in the first part, the second part involves theory development, industry panels, and research workshops to articulate principles for tool design and associated best practices that support productivity while promoting mental well-being. The third part builds on these principles and practices to design novel tools and assess those tools through laboratory experiments and field trials at organizational partners. Leveraging the lens of self-determination theory across all three thrusts, the results from the project can: (1) contribute to and effect discussions around mental well-being in software development, especially in terms of raising awareness, setting corporate policy, and workforce training, (2) shape further software development tools beyond the ones the project prototypes, and (3) empower instructors to use online resource the project develops to bring the lessons learned to students who will form the future software workforce and face challenges to their mental well-being.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

如今，软件团队和组织可以创建复杂性和规模前所未有的软件。此外，他们可以比以往更有效、更高效地做到这一点。虽然影响因素有很多，但软件开发人员使用的工具功能的进步是主要推动因素，特别是在跨距离和跨时区的大型团队协作方面。一方面，这代表了人类与技术合作的重大成功。然而，当这些工具的设计侧重于软件工程结果而不考虑这些工具如何影响开发人员的工作实践以及与团队成员的互动时，这些工具可能会对员工的福祉产生负面影响。设计不当的工具会减少学习、自我表达和与他人的沟通；这可能反过来会对开发人员的心理健康和组织的长期成功产生负面影响。该项目为高度协作、工具密集型工作环境中的新型人技术伙伴关系奠定了基础；在设计工具及其支持的实践时考虑工人的心理健康的伙伴关系。目标是证明，通过将心理健康作为除生产力之外的主要设计关注点，可以提高工人的心理健康和工作绩效。该项目由三个部分组成。第一部分结合了对工作中开发人员的观察性研究以及访谈和调查，以评估软件开发人员的心理健康状况，包括心理健康问题的性质和普遍性，以及这些问题如何影响他们自己和团队的工作，以及他们可能使用的任何现有应对策略的有效性。为了解决第一部分中确定的问题，第二部分涉及理论发展、行业小组和研究研讨会，以阐明工具设计原则和支持生产力同时促进心理健康的相关最佳实践。第三部分以这些原则和实践为基础，设计新颖的工具，并通过实验室实验和组织合作伙伴的现场试验来评估这些工具。利用自决理论的视角涵盖所有三个主旨，该项目的结果可以：（1）促进并影响软件开发中有关心理健康的讨论，特别是在提高意识、制定公司政策和劳动力方面培训，(2) 塑造除项目原型之外的进一步软件开发工具，(3) 授权讲师使用项目开发的在线资源，将学到的经验教训传授给学生，这些学生将构成未来的软件劳动力并面临心理挑战该奖项反映了通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，NSF 的法定使命被认为值得支持。