Need for a Soft Dimension

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the critical importance of human factors and psychological considerations in software engineering, arguing that neglecting the soft aspects leads to system failures and highlighting the need for integrating human-centered approaches.

Contribution

It highlights the overlooked role of human and psychological factors in software engineering and advocates for developing a 'soft' dimension to improve success rates.

Findings

Human issues are a primary cause of software failures.

Developers focus more on technological solutions than human factors.

Addressing soft skills can reduce system failures.

Abstract

It is impossible to separate the human factors from software engineering expertise during software development, because software is developed by people and for people. The intangible nature of software has made it a difficult product to successfully create, and an examination of the many reasons for major software system failures show that the reasons for failures eventually come down to human issues. Software developers, immersed as they are in the technological aspect of the product, can quickly learn lessons from technological failures and readily come up with solutions to avoid them in the future, yet they do not learn lessons from human aspects in software engineering. Dealing with human errors is much more difficult for developers and often this aspect is overlooked in the evaluation process as developers move on to issues that they are more comfortable solving. A major reason for this oversight is that software psychology (the softer side) has not developed as extensively.