Title: Soft skills for newborn software engineers in agile teams

Authors: Suzana C.B. Sampaio; Thiago Alves Bastos; Marcelo L.M. Marinho

Addresses: Computer Department, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, 52071-030, Brazil ' Computer Department, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, 52071-030, Brazil ' Computer Department, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, 52071-030, Brazil

Abstract: Agile methodologies have become an appealing option. The people-centered set of values and principles increases people's factors relevance. Furthermore, an agile environment must enable software engineers to work efficiently, to collaborate, and to share skills. However, these factors are often not fully understood by agile practitioners. This paper investigates the required soft skills for software engineers in an agile team. In order to do that, a comprehensive literature review helped to categorise the soft skills found in the literature. Also, we conducted a survey with 63 software engineers. Based on the respondents profile, the 8 most important skills were selected and they are discussed and included in a software instrument for self-evaluation that also presents some recommendations. The instrument was tested and recommended by a group of software engineers. This research can be used by young software engineers and academic communities to improve the software engineers' soft skills.

Keywords: soft skills; behavioural competence; people factors; agile methodologies; software engineers; agile teams.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASM.2021.114904

International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 2021 Vol.14 No.1, pp.27 - 52

Received: 20 Apr 2020
Accepted: 15 Sep 2020
Published online: 11 May 2021 *

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