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Perceived diversity in software engineering: a systematic literature review

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Abstract

We define perceived diversity as the diversity factors that individuals are born with. Perceived diversity in Software Engineering has been recognized as a high-value team property and companies are willing to increase their efforts to create more diverse work teams. The current diversity state-of-the-art shows that gender diversity studies have been growing during the past decade, and they have shown the benefits of including women in software teams. However, less is known about how other perceived diversity factors such as race, nationality, disability, and age of developers are related to Software Engineering. Through a systematic literature review, we aim to clarify the research area concerned with perceived diversity in Software Engineering. Our goal is to identify (1) what issues have been studied and what results have been reported; (2) what methods, tools, models, and processes have been proposed to help perceived diversity issues; and (3) what limitations have been reported when studying perceived diversity in Software Engineering. Furthermore, our ultimate goal is to identify gaps in the current literature and create a call for future action in perceived diversity in Software Engineering. Our results indicate that the individual studies have typically had a gender diversity perspective focusing on showing gender bias or gender differences instead of developing methods and tools to mitigate the gender diversity issues faced in SE. Moreover, perceived diversity aspects related to SE participants’ race, age, and disability need to be further analyzed in Software Engineering research. From our systematic literature review, we conclude that researchers need to consider a wider set of perceived diversity aspects for future research.

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Notes

  1. https://diversity.google/

  2. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/diversity

  3. https://diversity.fb.com/read-report/

  4. Following the guidelines described in Hall et al. (2011), publications included in our Systematic Literature Review (SLR) are cited using the following format: [SLR#ref]. Other citations use the normal format [#ref].

  5. https://vault.cs.uwaterloo.ca/s/Zc5qDwoDmKzA7gG

  6. the paper defines feminine expertise as “a combination of traits (characteristics and behavior attributed to femininity) and skills (learned abilities in playing the gender roles)”

  7. https://diversity.google

  8. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/diversity/default.aspx

  9. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Diversity_and_Inclusion_Strategy

  10. https://vault.cs.uwaterloo.ca/s/Zc5qDwoDmKzA7gG

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Emerson Murphy-Hill, Dr. Denae Ford, Dr. Anita Sarma, and Dr. Alexander Serebrenik for their invaluable help assessing the list of papers included in this SLR and recommending more papers related to perceived diversity aspects in SE.

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  1. University of British Columbia, Kelowna, Canada

    Gema Rodríguez-Pérez

  2. University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada

    Reza Nadri & Meiyappan Nagappan

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  1. Gema Rodríguez-Pérez
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  2. Reza Nadri
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Correspondence to Meiyappan Nagappan.

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Rodríguez-Pérez, G., Nadri, R. & Nagappan, M. Perceived diversity in software engineering: a systematic literature review. Empir Software Eng 26, 102 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-021-09992-2

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