On March 18, Dipl. Inf. (FH) Matthias Längrich and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kawalek (Communication Psychology course) gave a joint presentation as part of a computer science colloquium at the Department of Computer Science. Students as well as professors and representatives of Görlitz software companies were present. But what does software engineering have to do with psychology? This seemingly unusual combination of two very differently perceived disciplines quickly proved to be very accurate in analyzing typical challenges of software engineering and initiated a lively subsequent debate. Both speakers used their respective expertise to provide well-founded explanations and arguments.
Software engineering as a subfield of computer science deals with challenges in the context of the commercial development and further development of software, among other things. The client is a paying customer, the organizational form is a project whose IT project manager is the software engineer. Software engineering acts as an interface between customers and IT. This mediating position requires a triad of skills from computer science (modelling, implementation, testing, etc.), business administration (costs, time, planning, Controlling, etc.) and psychology (communication, conflicts, systems theory, empathy, organization, etc.). This means that software engineering is to a not inconsiderable extent at the edge of the sphere of influence of computer science and is supplemented by interdisciplinary concepts. The range of skills expected of a software engineer is correspondingly broad and therefore goes far beyond the profile of a pure software developer.
The CHAOS long-term study by the Standish Group shows that around 61% of software projects are still at least partially unsuccessful (as of 2012). At the same time, the study identifies several likely factors that are decisive for the success or failure of a software project: none of these factors are of a computer science nature! This could be seen as an indication that although computer science issues are dealt with satisfactorily in projects, too little attention is paid to the psychological dimension of software engineering. The aim of this colloquium was to actively discuss this issue.
Contact person
Dipl-Inf (FH) Matthias Längrich
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science'