Developer’s time spent in a software project part using the SGD framework

Abstract: Resource management is important for software projects to be successful. Time is one of these resources that needs to be managed. To do this you need to know how time resources are spent. Currently the existence of published material on time resources spent in a software project is almost none. In this thesis a research was conducted on how time resources are spent by an individual developer in a software project. The Self-Governance Developer framework was the tool used to gather these resources. The purpose was to find out how much and where time resources are spent and improve the own way of working to become a better software engineer. However, the goal of the research was to provide a basis for relevant models like process models, measurement models and SPI models which include or are based on time management. The research method applied was action research where the author of this thesis was the subject of study. The research was of quantitative type and had an inductive reasoning. Data collection was conducted via action research and literature study. Data evaluation was conducted via an evaluation model. The evaluation model included the following evaluation criteria: (1) sum of time spenton each individual activity within the scope of the project, (2) distribution of the time across activity types on an iteration basis, (3) differences of time spent on various activities in various iterations, and (4) coverage of the developer activities in the SGD Framework. The results shows how much and where time resources were spent for the developer studied in the research during the part of the project. Still, further research has to be conducted to get more accurate results because there was only one developer studied and the results only show results from that developer. More studies of developers’ work have to be made to get a general overview of how time resources are spent by an individual developer. These studies should then include complete projects.