Abstract The Agile Manifesto emphasizes individuals and interactions over processes and tools. However, after the COVID-19 pandemic, interaction in software development changed, and companies are trying to find new practices in the hybrid environment. Hybrid work research points to the benefits for the individual, whereas companies have begun to form new rules and policies to get employees back to the office. To find a balance benefiting all, companies need to find new ways to connect and communicate. This paper explores how hybrid work impacts the sense of belonging in agile software development. We conducted interviews (N = 38) and a workshop (N = 15) with professionals from three case organizations. Our thematic analysis identifies key factors influencing belonging at the individual, team, and organizational levels. Our findings underline that continuous, conscious, and visible actions are needed at all levels to foster a sense of belonging. As hybrid work reduces spontaneous and random encounters, maintaining a sense of belonging requires planned efforts to recreate the informal interactions that once happened naturally.

Considerable efforts have been made at the high school level to encourage girls to pursue software engineering careers and raise awareness about diversity within the field. Similarly, software companies have become more active in diversity and inclusion (D&I) topics, aiming to create more inclusive work environments. However, the way diversity and inclusion are approached inside software engineering university education remains less clear. This study investigates the current state of D&I in software engineering education and faculties in Finland. An online survey (N = 30) was conducted among Finnish software engineering university teachers to investigate which approaches and case examples of D&I are most commonly used by software engineering teachers in Finland. In addition, it was researched how software engineering teachers perceive the importance of D&I in their courses. As a result of the quantitative and thematic analysis, a framework to identify attitudes, approaches, challenges and pedagogical strategies when implementing D&I themes in software engineering education is presented. This framework also offers a process for integrating D&I themes for the curriculum or at the faculty level. The findings of this study emphasize that there is a continuing need for diverse-aware education and training. The results underline the responsibility of universities to ensure that future professionals are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to promote D&I in the field of software engineering. • Diversity and inclusion (D&I) are growing in importance in the software industry. • A study (n = 30) of Finnish software engineering (SE) university-level educators is conducted. • Some educators are hesitated to add D&I topics; yet, the view is neutral or positive. • A framework summarizing attitudes, approaches, challenges, pedagogical strategies and the D&I integration process for SE is formulated.

Introduction : Digital products increasingly reshape industries, influencing human behavior and decision-making. However, the software development teams developing these systems often lack diversity, which may lead to designs that overlook the needs, equal treatment or safety of diverse user groups. These risks highlight the need for fostering diversity and inclusion in software development to create safer, more equitable technology. Method : This research is based on insights from an academic meeting in June 2023 involving 23 software engineering researchers and practitioners. We used the collaborative discussion method 1-2-4-ALL as a systematic research approach and identified six themes around the theme “challenges and opportunities to improve Software Developer Diversity and Inclusion (SDDI).” We identified benefits, harms, and future research directions for the four main themes. Then, we discuss the remaining two themes, AI & SDDI and AI & Computer Science education, which have a cross-cutting effect on the other themes. Results : This research explores the key challenges and research opportunities for promoting SDDI, providing a roadmap to guide both researchers and practitioners. We underline that research around SDDI requires a constant focus on maximizing benefits while minimizing harms, especially to vulnerable groups. As a research community, we must strike this balance in a responsible way.

As industries continue to digitize at a rapid pace, the number of integrations, the connections between different digital systems, is increasing. As a consequence, integration management is becoming increasingly difficult, leading to scalability, stability, and system outage problems that directly affect company performance. For that reason the modern integration management platforms have emerged to offer efficient management of the growing number of integrations, as well as a new way to handle, enrich, and utilize data both inside and outside organizations.This research involved interviews with 20 software vendor professionals and 20 clients who had recently undergone an integration platform project. The study identified key drivers behind integration management projects and recognized different maturity levels in integration management. The results revealed that more mature companies are utilizing modern integration platforms to support their digital transformation. The study also highlighted the growing importance of data management and utilization in integration solutions.To address these findings, a maturity model was developed to help companies evaluate their current integration management status and find ways to progress in their integration management.

The gender imbalance in technology, sciences, and engineering is a global problem and according to the statistics, this really has not changed much in the last thirty years. Moreover, there is also a lack of women in tech entrepreneurship; most success stories are about male entrepreneurs, and in Silicon Valley the term describing the start-up culture is called “tech bros” for a reason. This paper identifies different factors affecting the women's decision to select a tech sector and become an entrepreneur in the tech sector. In this paper we also aim to identify different pitfalls and problems, which could influence the attractiveness of the tech sector, and specifically technology entrepreneurship, towards the women interested in the science, technology, and engineering domains. To study the factors affecting women's interest towards entrepreneurship in the technology sector, we conducted a series of surveys and interviews to understand the underlying phenomena. Overall, this study interviewed ten female company founders, and conducted two surveys with women working, interested, or studying towards the tech sector, allowing us to combine and compare the qualitative data from the women who had become entrepreneurs against the quantitative trends and ideas collected from the general audiences. The most common factors limiting the individuals’ interest towards entrepreneurship such as financial risks or high responsibilities might not be gender-related, but there are also aspects as social acceptance, discrimination, and lack of role models, which affect especially the women interested in the possibilities of becoming an entrepreneur in tech. In general, the current younger generations are aware of the option of becoming entrepreneurs, and what becoming one requires. Initiatives, such as adding positive examples of females’ success, or supporting entry-level opportunities towards full-time entrepreneurship, could have a meaningful impact of reducing the gender imbalance in the STEM fields, and in technology entrepreneurship in general.