The Dynamics of Creativity in Software Development
It addresses the problem of understanding human creativity in software engineering for improving software construction and innovation, but it is incremental as it only proposes a plan.
This study tackles the lack of knowledge about creativity in software development by proposing a research plan to develop a theory, including a literature review and novel methods.
Software is primarily developed for people by people and human factors must be studied in all software engineering phases. Creativity is the source to improvise solutions to problems for dominating complex systems such as software development. However, there is a lack of knowledge in what creativity is in software development and what its dynamics are. This study describes the current state of the research plan towards a theory on creativity in software development. More specifically, it (1) states the motivation for studying creativity in software development under a multidisciplinary view; it (2) provides a first review of the literature identifying the shortcomings in the field; it (3) proposes a research design, which includes rarely employed methods in software engineering. To understand creativity in software development will provide a better knowledge of the software construction process and how individuals intellectually contribute to the creation of better, innovative products.