GenderMag experiences in the field: The whole, the parts, and the workload

摘要

Recent research has reported numerous studies bringing into question the gender inclusiveness of many kinds of software. Inclusiveness of software (gender or otherwise) matters because supporting diversity matters - it is well-known that the more diverse a group of problem-solvers, the higher the quality of the solution. To help software creators identify features within their software that are not gender-inclusive, we recently created a method known as GenderMag. In this paper, we investigate the experience of teams of software professionals using GenderMag to find problems with software they are building. Our results show a high engagement with GenderMag personas - more than twice that of other personas research - and a very high degree of accuracy (93%) most of the time. Finally, our results pinpointed situations that we term “detours” that were especially prone to errors, with teams 6 times more likely to make errors in detours than they did otherwise.