Revealing Software Engineering Theory-in-Use through the Observation of Software Engineering Apprentices´ Course-of-Action

Theories of action study what an actor do, in a given situation, in order to achieve consequence or objectives. Argyris and Schoumln made a distinction between espoused theories - those that an individual claims to follow - and theories-in-use - those that can be inferred from action -. In the software engineering field, software processes and practices constitute the espoused theory, since it is what engineers claim to follow. But what engineers - and especially apprentices - do may reveal a different theory-in-use. The capstone project provides students, working in groups, with the possibility to reflect on her/his action and that may help making explicit theories-in-use. The course of action theory considers the observable aspect of the actor´s activity, i.e., what is presentable, accountable and commentable. The course-of-action observatory collects data on the courses-of-action. This observatory connects continuous observations and recordings of the agents´ behavior, the provoked verbalizations of these agents in activity and the agents´ comments in self confrontation with recordings of their behavior. A case study, based on the activity of a team of 6 young software engineer apprentices is used to illustrate the building and the data collecting of the course-of-action observatory and the self-reconstruction of apprentices´ activity. As primary results of this work, we may think that self-observing and self-analyzing software engineer´s activity help to reveal her/his theory-in-use - what governs engineers´ behavior and tends to be tacit structures -and it may help them to learn more suitable theories-in-use, thus contributing to improve productivity and performance. In the special case of apprenticeship learning, it may form a part of an appropriate education intended to develop a reflective attitude.