The information practices of software professionals in their cultural contexts: a phenomenological and hermeneutic approach

Abstract

Software developers use information and knowledge to create, alter and correct programming source code. The collective ways of dealing with information, informational culture, are embedded in organizational culture. Although organizational culture is unique to each company, it is influenced by shared perspectives on a profession and a niche market, the professional culture. Informational practices deal with the interconnection of subjective and collective factors in the relationship of subjects with information and knowledge. This paper aims to analyze the informational practices of software developers at the intersection of professional, organizational and informational cultures, distinguishing the informational values of each company and those pertaining to the professional culture. It also aims to identify the appropriate values for the effectiveness of the work and problems in this regard. As methodological procedures, it is employed a multiple cases study through interviews with managers and programmers of two companies. For data analysis and interpretation, categorical content analysis and Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutic phenomenology are used, elucidating underlying collective aspects in individual discourse. As a result, the cultural elements in common among organizations emphasize the informal socialization of information and knowledge, and it is difficult to register them in software documentation, the primacy of Internet as information source, among other aspects. Managers are advised to make employees aware of the importance of information recording, the use of reliable sources, and to establish policies to encourage personal interaction for information sharing.