Spontaneous Utilization: A Classic Grounded Theory of Utilizing Ambient Displays in Professional, Large-Scale Agile Software Development Environments

ABSTRACT

This research addresses an interdisciplinary problem area concerning the long-term deployment of socially embedded technology in authentic environments. It concentrates on the case of ambient displays, where long-term research in the real world is still scant and evidentially requires methodological development. This study seeks to advance on this situation at both findings and methodological levels. To this end, we introduce our Ambient Surfaces solution that was deployed in the agile software development department of a company for circa 5 years. Classic grounded theory was chosen to methodologically guide the evaluation, while the theoretical contribution of this work is a substantive theory exemplified by its core category of Spontaneous utilization. The theory reveals insights on how ambient displays are utilized by practitioners in professional and large-scale agile environments. We found, among others, that staff members used the Ambient Surfaces largely not on purpose, that our solution evolved toward having a strong emphasis on progress tracking information, and that inter-team awareness as well as intra-team communication were encouraged.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Werum and the ASD department for their long-standing participation in this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. https://www.werum.com/de/home/

2. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/wpf/

3. https://www.maxqda.com/

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Jan Schwarzer

Jan Schwarzer is a postdoc researcher at CSTI. His primary research interests include ambient displays, machine learning, methodology development, field deployment research, and agile software development. He received his PhD in computer science from UWS.

Susanne Draheim

Susanne Draheim is managing director of the research and transfer institute Smart Systems and the affiliated research laboratories CSTI and Living Place Hamburg. She has a background in Sociology, Educational Sciences and Cultural Sciences and holds a PhD in Sociology from TU Dresden.

Kai von Luck

Kai von Luck is a full professor at HAW Hamburg for computer science and artificial intelligence. He acts as academic director of the research and transfer institute Smart Systems and the affiliated research laboratories CSTI and Living Place Hamburg.

Qi Wang

Qi Wang is a Professor at UWS. He has served as a Board Member of the EU 5G-PPP Technology Board, Scotland’ s Developing AI and AI Enabled Products and Services Working Group, and ITU-T Focus Group on Autonomous Networks. He is a winner of Uk Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2020.

Christos Grecos

Christos Grecos (SM IEEE 2006, SM SPIE 2008) is the Chair and Full Professor of the Computer Science Department at Arkansas State University. His research interests include image/video compression standards, image/video processing and analysis, image/video networking and computer vision.