Journeys up the mountain: Different paths to learning object-oriented programming

Nelson, H. James; Irwin, Gretchen; Monarchi, David E.

doi:10.1016/s0959-8022(96)00024-0

Cited by 16 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The empirical evidence shown in this study, however, suggests that while the emergence of interpretivism in IS research and the wider use of case studies might be true, their influences are still rather insignificant, particularly given that case studies have been widely used in a positivist fashion (e.g. Swanson, 1992; Jones, 1994; Kirsch & Cummings, 1996; Nelson et al ., 1997; Reeves‐Ellington & Anderson, 1997). As Landry & Banville (1992) claimed: ‘it is relatively easy to get in, but getting in the field is quite afar from exerting a meaningful and lasting influence’ (p. 86).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

A paradigmatic and methodological examination of information systems research from 1991 to 2001

Chen

Hirschheim

2004

Information Systems Journal

383

323

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The field of information systems (IS) has evolved for more than three decades. Although many schools of thought have emerged and even become well established, few historical analyses of research paradigms and methodologies have been undertaken. One of the rare exceptions is Orlikowski & Baroudi (1991). Yet, the IS research community has evolved substantially since 1991 in many aspects. A variety of journal outlets have emerged and become well established. More attention has been paid to paradigmatic and methodological issues. Political and professional contexts have also changed noticeably. Therefore, it should be an opportune time for the field to ask: 'What changes are manifested in journal publications?' 'Is the field making progress regarding pluralism in IS research?' 'How will the field's publications practices change in the future?' The purpose of this paper is to investigate these questions and, in turn, reflect on the paradigmatic and methodological progress made since 1991. We examined 1893 articles published in eight major IS publication outlets between 1991 and 2001. Our findings suggest that the long-term endeavours of interpretivist researchers might need to continue because the paradigmatic progress appears somewhat inconsequential; positivist research still dominates 81% of published empirical research. In particular, US journals, as opposed to European journals, tend to be more positivist, quantitative, cross-sectional and survey oriented. With respect to research design, survey research is still the most widely used method (41%), although case studies have gained substantial recognition (36%). Further, the increase of qualitative research (30%), empirical studies (61%) and longitudinal cases (33%) at the expense of laboratory experiments (18%) might suggest that IS researchers have become more interested in obtaining scientific knowledge in real world settings. In summary, we suggest that the field has been dominated by the positivist paradigm, despite calls to the contrary. Indeed, if the field was to truly embrace pluralism, it would have to find ways to fundamentally change the publication practices of the journal system, including the current tenure and promotion system, which pose considerable obstacles for the acceptance of alternative paradigms.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

A paradigmatic and methodological examination of information systems research from 1991 to 2001

Chen

Hirschheim

2004

Information Systems Journal

383

323

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“…Prior research indicates that software developers experienced in traditional development have difficulty making the transition to OO development (e.g., Nelson et al, 1997;Rosson and Alpert, 1990;Rosson and Carroll, 1990;Vessey and Conger, 1994). Further, this transition requires a cognitive as well as technological shift to successfully adapt to the new approach (Armstrong and Hardgrave, 2007).…”

Section: Relative P-j Fitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance and strain levels of it workers engaged in rapidly changing environments

2010

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Technological changes ripple through information technology (IT) development environments. IT professionals must often incorporate these changes into their job or risk obsolescence. This paper looks at the effects of technological change, and focuses on job environment conditions which affect individual performance, health, and well-being by applying person-job fit theory to software developers that have moved to an object-oriented development approach. Heretofore, the literature on person-job fit has viewed its effects statically, disregarding the effects of change. The current research recognizes the dynamics of the IT workplace and investigates the impact of a rapidly changing job environment on individual IT workers by including a comparison of fit at two different points in time. Results indicate that for a change in job environment, individuals whose professional needs match what is supplied by the job fare better in terms of strain and performance. By devoting attention to supplying IT workers who are facing increasing amounts of change with job environment dimensions these workers need, managers are able to direct their efforts toward the job environment dimensions that may improve worker performance and reduce the ill-effects of stress and strain. This, in turn, may have positive effects on overall system development. This study provides insights for managers regarding the pressures felt by software developers moving to a new development environment, and contributes to the person-job fit literature by incorporating a technological change in job environment. ACM Categories: D.1.5 Object Oriented Programming; D.2.9 Management.

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“…But my brain was stuck in the old concept of string. When I realized that I was stuck I was able to get out of that and reburn that memory trace or whatever (Nelson et al ., 1997, p. 69).…”

Section: Theoretical Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite this student's efforts to change his mental processes from SD to OD, at the end of the course he found himself falling back on his SD knowledge to ‘get the job done’ because of the difficulties he experienced in applying his newly acquired OD knowledge to completing a Smalltalk programming assignment (Nelson et al ., 1997).…”

Section: Theoretical Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because we cannot assume that team mental models become more consistent over time, we consider whether the transitioning developers' mental models became more or less consistent with that of an OD expert. If the transitioning developers' mental models became less consistent with that of an OD expert, the developers may have failed to utilize their OD knowledge and instead used their SD knowledge during the project (Nelson et al ., 1997). As most empirical evidence indicates that team mental models become more consistent over time, we state the following:…”

Section: Theoretical Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Managing change in an information systems development organization: understanding developer transitions from a structured to an object‐oriented development environment¹

Shaft

Albert

Jasperson

2007

Information Systems Journal

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Object-oriented systems development has attracted great interest in the information systems (IS) field because of a belief that using object-oriented development (OD) makes it easier to develop and maintain software plus achieve software reuse. However, the transition from structured to OD may be especially challenging for IS developers. In fact, some argue that structured development (SD) knowledge may interfere with the ability to learn OD approaches because of a form of proactive interference.To understand how knowledge of SD concepts influences the ability to gain OD knowledge, we assessed a team of IS developers' understanding of structured and object-oriented concepts at the beginning of their first OD project and repeated our assessment 1 year later. Developers increased their understanding of some object-oriented concepts, but these changes were associated with increases in understanding of one of the SD concepts. Further, at the beginning and end of the project, developers' mental models were highly consistent with one another and that of an OD expert with regard to most OD concepts. It appears that the formal training that developers received allowed them to attain a good understanding of most object-oriented concepts. These findings challenge the idea that structured developers must 'unlearn' SD to adopt OD approaches. Future research may wish to examine the different types of software development knowledge to ascertain

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Journeys up the mountain: Different paths to learning object-oriented programming

Cited by 16 publications

References 21 publications

A paradigmatic and methodological examination of information systems research from 1991 to 2001

A paradigmatic and methodological examination of information systems research from 1991 to 2001

Performance and strain levels of it workers engaged in rapidly changing environments

Managing change in an information systems development organization: understanding developer transitions from a structured to an object‐oriented development environment¹

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Journeys up the mountain: Different paths to learning object-oriented programming

Cited by 16 publications

References 21 publications

A paradigmatic and methodological examination of information systems research from 1991 to 2001

A paradigmatic and methodological examination of information systems research from 1991 to 2001

Performance and strain levels of it workers engaged in rapidly changing environments

Managing change in an information systems development organization: understanding developer transitions from a structured to an object‐oriented development environment1

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Managing change in an information systems development organization: understanding developer transitions from a structured to an object‐oriented development environment¹