Effects of Automated Competency Evaluation on Software Engineers’ Emotions and Motivation: A Case Study

Software development consulting companies must be able to select the best suited developers for their clients. A method of doing this is through competence evaluation. Sigma IT Consulting uses manual methods consisting of heavy documentation for employees to fill in their competence. Problems such as data inconsistencies in documentation of competency might cause difficulties for managers while making decisions to assign right developer to the right job. Such difficulties may lead to frustration in managers and negatively affect their decision-making process. Similarly, developers might feel themselves under pressure always having to fill in the competency documents whenever the manager makes requests among all the tasks the developers are busy with and feeling under pressure might have negative effects on developers' performance. Researchers have shown that negative emotions lead to poor software development performance, while positive emotions improve developers' performance. Competency evaluation is an integral part of the daily routine at Sigma IT Consulting. Therefore, negative effects of competency sheets on developers and managers cannot be tolerated. In this case study, having investigated how competency is evaluated at Sigma IT and what employees think about competency evaluation in general, we implemented a web-based competency evaluation platform. When supplemented with qualitative data, the results of the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) and Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) we conducted show that automation of competency evaluation as a web-based platform has positive effects on developers' and managers' emotions and motivations. Interviews we conducted with developers and managers also include their positive thoughts about automation of the competency evaluation.