A user survey on the adoption of crowd-based software engineering instructional screencasts by the new generation of software developers

Abstract

Context:In recent years, crowd-based content in the form of instructional screencast videos has gained popularity among software engineers. For organizations to remain competitive in attracting and retaining their workforce, they must accommodate the use of such crowd-based documentation content. Objective:We conduct a user survey to gain insights on how a user’s background and work tasks influence the use of different documentation media types. In our analysis we focus on how-to tutorial screencasts and how the new generation of software engineers is using such videos as an information resource. Methods:For this research, we report results from our user survey, including benefits and challenges software engineers face in using screencasts as project documentation. We discuss potential avenues on how to improve the usefulness of how-to tutorial screencasts. Results:The level of professional experience, job position or reason for resorting to a documentation, affect the type of resource being used. As most (78%) of our survey participants were junior software engineers, our survey results are in particular applicable to this user group. Conclusion:We conclude our paper with lessons learned and provide some recommendations for screencast creators, such as: building a dedicated platform, making screencasts searchable and link their content to other artifacts.