When someone talks about human aspects in software, or Software Quality, it always ends up as Usability Testing! It’s important that the product satisfies the users who are going to use it, but it is even more important to look at the software development process, and how to nourish the human aspects involved in it!
The human-machine interfaces have been streamlined, and have been made very easy and user-friendly in the past two decades. Added to that, the sparkling minds of the current generation of software engineers, and their need for results ‘Right Now!’ are making the field very interesting. At the same time, these factors have caused extreme stress among the engineers, as organisations are looking for faster releases and enhanced productivity, unfortunately at the cost of the engineers well-being.
Several factors like empathy, emotional intelligence, and mindfulness can play a positive role in enhancing the well-being of humans involved in software development. It’s not just the engineers and the managers who can play a role in this. HR should also play a significant role in making this happen.
Towards this, I have started a few thought initiatives. I hope to start off these discussions in Software Testing and Software Quality conferences, and hope to propose some systems which can provide the foundations on which further work can be done.
I look forward to working on these in the year 2021! Feel free to contact me to discuss Software Quality!