While the software engineering community (i.e., those involved with engineering software) is constantly in search of insights into team atmosphere and group dynamics and the way these issues impact team performance, little opportunities typically exist to explore this issue. Student projects offer an opportunity for us to understand these issues, and particularly if these students are on the verge of leaving university for post-study work and using similar practices to those used in industry. We explore a range of student software development projects’ data and students’ open-ended responses to five group dynamics categories: communication, time management, commitment, problem analysis and solving, and initiative and involvement. We analyse both quantitative and qualitative data to study the variation in group dynamics across teams developing different software and how these variations correlated with team satisfaction. We also explore the group dynamics themes that evolve from students’ open responses in relation to the five categories. Furthermore, we relate the prevalence of the themes to various software development performance metrics, before exploring the opportunity of predicting an optimum team dynamics. We observe variations in the way different teams work, but higher performing teams also committed more to their projects. Various group dynamics themes were evident among functional teams, and specific patterns were more pronounced when teams were productive. Further, while there is no specific group dynamics pattern that predicts project success, successful teams were most organised and reflective. Competence may set the tone for positive group dynamics and team performance. Also, an achievement-driven orientation is as important as the soft skills and interpersonal aspects.

The need for collective intelligence in technology means that online Q&A platforms, such as Stack Overflow and Reddit, have become invaluable in building the global knowledge ecosystem. Despite literature demonstrating a prevalence of inclusion and contribution disparities in online communities, studies investigating the underlying reasons behind such fluctuations remain scarce. The current study examines Stack Overflow users’ contribution profiles, both in isolation and relative to various diversity metrics, including GDP and access to electricity. This study also examines whether such profiles propagate to the city and state levels, supplemented by granular data such as per capita income and education, before validating quantitative findings using content analysis. We selected 143 countries and compared the profiles of their respective users to assess implicit diversity-related complications that impact how users contribute. Results show that countries with high GDP, prominent R&D presence, less wealth inequality and sufficient access to infrastructure tend to have more users, regardless of their development status. Similarly, cities and states where technology is more prevalent (e.g., San Francisco and New York) have more users who tend to contribute more often. Qualitative analysis reveals distinct communication styles based on users’ locations. Urban users exhibited assertive, solution-oriented behaviour, actively sharing information. Conversely, rural users engaged through inquiries and discussions, incorporating personal anecdotes, gratitude and conciliatory language. Findings from this study may benefit scholars and practitioners, allowing them to develop sustainable mechanisms to bridge the inclusion and diversity gaps.

Since software systems are designed to satisfy customers' needs, developers have an obligation to address users' requirements and demands logged via issue trackers and other forums. Having to respond to a large number of requests while developing and perfecting systems presents prioritization challenges, however. Android Operating System (OS) developers have largely overcome this obstacle by responding to specific user requests, which may be traced back to actual software code changes, providing lessons for the software engineering community. This study applies text and data mining techniques to investigate the Android community as an ecosystem, exploring how developers responded to issues raised by the community over several versions of the OS. Results show a strong relationship between issues raised by the community and developer responses to these issues. This relationship also extended to actual source code changes made by developers. Furthermore, the findings show a correlation between user requests and developer responses enacted via code changes across specific Android versions and important functionalities. This evidence suggests that developers have invested in the Android platform to guarantee its survival and overall success, largely through addressing user demands. We outline implications for software engineering professionals and software systems success.