Promoting social sustainability within software development through the lens of organizational readiness for change theory

IF 3.8 2区计算机科学 Q2 COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Information and Software Technology Pub Date : 2025-04-26 DOI:10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107755

Ana Carolina Moises de Souza, Daniela Soares Cruzes, Letizia Jaccheri, Tangni Cunningham Dahl-Jørgensen

{"title":"Promoting social sustainability within software development through the lens of organizational readiness for change theory","authors":"Ana Carolina Moises de Souza, Daniela Soares Cruzes, Letizia Jaccheri, Tangni Cunningham Dahl-Jørgensen","doi":"10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107755","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Context:</h3><div>Software’s negative impact on society underscores the need to integrate social sustainability into software development. However, effective implementation and practitioners’ readiness for this change remain unclear, requiring further investigation.</div></div><div><h3>Objective:</h3><div>This research aims to understand the conditions that promote organizational readiness for change in the integration of social sustainability into software development from the perspective of software practitioners.</div></div><div><h3>Methods:</h3><div>We conducted multiple case studies containing three cases: (A) an exploratory study with 11 practitioners from four organizations; (B) the proposal and validation of a Walkthrough intervention with 9 students (pilot) and 19 practitioners (questionnaire); and (C) a focus group with 6 practitioners in one organization providing feedback on the Walkthrough.</div></div><div><h3>Results:</h3><div>Four facilitators and barriers were identified as key preconditions for social sustainability integration. Statistical analysis showed that the perceived usefulness of the Walkthrough was significantly higher than intentional behavior indicating strong perceived value despite moderate intention to adopt the practices.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion:</h3><div>This study identified the key determinants that promote organizational readiness to integrate social sustainability into software development. By proposing a conceptual model, it contributes to helping organizations leverage facilitators, overcome barriers, and offer actionable recommendations for both practice and research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54983,"journal":{"name":"Information and Software Technology","volume":"184 ","pages":"Article 107755"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Information and Software Technology","FirstCategoryId":"94","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950584925000941","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Context:

Software’s negative impact on society underscores the need to integrate social sustainability into software development. However, effective implementation and practitioners’ readiness for this change remain unclear, requiring further investigation.

Objective:

This research aims to understand the conditions that promote organizational readiness for change in the integration of social sustainability into software development from the perspective of software practitioners.

Methods:

We conducted multiple case studies containing three cases: (A) an exploratory study with 11 practitioners from four organizations; (B) the proposal and validation of a Walkthrough intervention with 9 students (pilot) and 19 practitioners (questionnaire); and (C) a focus group with 6 practitioners in one organization providing feedback on the Walkthrough.

Results:

Four facilitators and barriers were identified as key preconditions for social sustainability integration. Statistical analysis showed that the perceived usefulness of the Walkthrough was significantly higher than intentional behavior indicating strong perceived value despite moderate intention to adopt the practices.

Conclusion:

This study identified the key determinants that promote organizational readiness to integrate social sustainability into software development. By proposing a conceptual model, it contributes to helping organizations leverage facilitators, overcome barriers, and offer actionable recommendations for both practice and research.

查看原文本刊更多论文

通过变更理论的组织准备来促进软件开发中的社会可持续性

背景：软件对社会的负面影响强调了将社会可持续性集成到软件开发中的必要性。然而，有效的实施和从业者对这种变化的准备仍然不清楚，需要进一步的调查。目的：本研究旨在从软件从业者的角度理解在将社会可持续性集成到软件开发中促进组织准备就绪的条件。方法：我们进行了包含三个案例的多个案例研究：(A)对来自四个组织的11名从业者进行了探索性研究；(B) 9名学生（试点）和19名从业者（问卷）提出并验证演练干预；(C)由一个组织的6名从业人员组成的焦点小组，对演练提供反馈。结果：四个促进因素和障碍被确定为社会可持续性整合的关键先决条件。统计分析表明，演练的感知有用性显著高于有意行为，这表明尽管采用实践的意愿不高，但仍有很强的感知价值。结论：本研究确定了促进组织准备将社会可持续性集成到软件开发中的关键决定因素。通过提出一个概念模型，它有助于帮助组织利用促进者，克服障碍，并为实践和研究提供可操作的建议。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Information and Software Technology 工程技术-计算机：软件工程

CiteScore

9.10

自引率

7.70%

发文量

164

审稿时长

9.6 weeks

期刊介绍： Information and Software Technology is the international archival journal focusing on research and experience that contributes to the improvement of software development practices. The journal''s scope includes methods and techniques to better engineer software and manage its development. Articles submitted for review should have a clear component of software engineering or address ways to improve the engineering and management of software development. Areas covered by the journal include: • Software management, quality and metrics, • Software processes, • Software architecture, modelling, specification, design and programming • Functional and non-functional software requirements • Software testing and verification & validation • Empirical studies of all aspects of engineering and managing software development Short Communications is a new section dedicated to short papers addressing new ideas, controversial opinions, "Negative" results and much more. Read the Guide for authors for more information. The journal encourages and welcomes submissions of systematic literature studies (reviews and maps) within the scope of the journal. Information and Software Technology is the premiere outlet for systematic literature studies in software engineering.