Interrupts: Just a Minute Never Is

Feature Soft ware development is a highly abstract process that requires intense concentration. The authors show that interrupting this process can significantly reduce a developer's efficiency and can even contribute to project delays. oftware development consists of more than writing programming code. Developers also participate in discussions, meetings, phone calls, and activities undertaken to share knowledge and experience such as consulting on previously released products, explaining technical details , and reviewing documents. Surprisingly, software engineering research hardly addresses this issue, instead emphasizing software development methods and techniques. If we assume that software developers spend more than half their time communicating, we can legitimately question whether software engineering research has the right focus. Norman Fenton and Shari Pfleeger support this focus on human factors when they state that " For many years, sociologists have studied personnel attributes, both as individuals and teams, and their effect on productivity and products. These characteristics include age, level and type of education, intelligence, gender, marital status , type of remuneration, and more. Although we do not yet measure these aspects of software developers and their work habits, it is clear that when researchers find them relevant to other professions, they are likely to be relevant to ours. " 1