Competence gaps in software personnel: A multi-organizational study

  • Authors:

  • Ricardo Colomo-Palacios;Cristina Casado-Lumbreras;Pedro Soto-Acosta;Francisco J. GarcíA-PeñAlvo;Edmundo Tovar-Caro

  • Affiliations:

  • Computer Science Department, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Av. Universidad, 30, 28911 Leganés, Madrid, Spain;Department of Development Psychology and Education, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Rector Royo Villanova s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain;Department of Management & Finance, Universidad de Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, 30100 Espinardo, Murcia, Spain;Computer Science Department, GRIAL Research Group, Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de los caídos s/n, 37008 Salamanca, Spain;Department of Software Engineering, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, 28660 Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, Spain

  • Venue:
  • Computers in Human Behavior
  • Year:
  • 2013

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Today, the innovation and quality of the software industry's products and services depend to a great extent on the knowledge, ability and talent applied by software engineers. At the same time, human aspects are recognized as one of the main problems associated with software development projects. More specifically, inefficiencies usually come from inadequate verification of software engineers' competences. Another issue is the lack of an established career for software engineers, which adds difficulties to evaluate competences. With these challenges in mind, this paper presents a study conducted in the software industry to test competence gaps among software practitioners, comparing the 360-degree feedback results and self-evaluations with that of standard competence levels. The results of this research may be very valuable to organizations immersed in software development projects.