Team Size Research Articles

Impact of Task Constraint on Agent Team Size of Self-Organizing Systems Measured by Effective Entropy

Impact of Task Constraint on Agent Team Size of Self-Organizing Systems Measured by Effective Entropy

Agile effort estimation in Colombia: An assessment and opportunities for improvement

Effort estimation is fundamental for the development of software projects and critical to their success. The objective of this paper is to understand how Colombian agile practitioners perform effort estimates and to identify opportunities for improvement based on these results. For this purpose, we conducted an exploratory survey study using as instrument an on-line questionnaire answered by agile practitioners with experience in effort estimation. Data was collected from 60 agile practitioners and the main findings are: (1) Agile practitioners prefer non-algorithmic estimation techniques, mainly those based on Expert Judgment. (2) Most of the respondents perceive that their estimates have a medium accuracy level; however, in most cases, no formal analysis of the accuracy level is carried out. (3) The determining effort predictors/cost drivers are characteristics of the project team (size, experience, and skills) and attributes of the software to be built (complexity, type, and domain). (4) The use of datasets for estimation is not common; proprietary datasets predominate and are used for productivity comparisons within the company. (5) Most of the results of related studies are comparable with ours; however, there are significant differences in terms of the roles involved and the techniques used in the effort estimation process. Based on the results and findings of the survey, we identified key opportunities to improve estimation accuracy through (1) software measurement standardization, (2) use of effort datasets, (3) implementation of techniques for measuring accuracy levels, and (4) knowledge management in effort estimation.

Measuring the Impact of Primary Care Team Composition on Patient Activation Utilizing Electronic Health Record Big Data Analytics.

Team-based care has been linked to key outcomes associated with the Quadruple Aim and a key driver of high-value patient-centered care. Use of the electronic health record (EHR) and machine learning have significant potential to overcome previous barriers to studying the impact of teams, including delays in accessing data to improve teamwork and optimize patient outcomes. This study utilized a large EHR dataset (n=316,542) from an urban health system to explore the relationship between team composition and patient activation, a key driver of patient engagement. Teams were operationalized using consensus definitions of teamwork from the literature. Patient activation was measured using the Patient Activation Measure (PAM). Results from multilevel regression analyses were compared to machine learning analyses using multinomial logistic regression to calculate propensity scores for the effect of team composition on PAM scores. Under the machine learning approach, a causal inference model with generalized overlap weighting was used to calculate the average treatment effect of teamwork. Seventeen different team types were observed in the data from the analyzed sample (n=12,448). Team sizes ranged from 2 to 5 members. After controlling for confounding variables in both analyses, more diverse, multidisciplinary teams (team size of 4 or more) were observed to have improved patient activation scores. This is the first study to explore the relationship between team composition and patient activation using the EHR and big data analytics. Implications for further research using EHR data and machine learning to study teams and other patient-centered care are promising and could be used to advance team science.

A Cross-Sectional Online Survey of Researchers, Project Managers, and Decision-Makers to Assess Factors That Contribute to Complexity and Project Success

Complexity is a major problem for managers and decision-makers and needs to be addressed for projects to succeed. The aim of this study was to explore the factors contributing to complexity and project failure and success. An online cross-sectional survey of 114 researchers, project managers and decision-makers was conducted to explore these factors. Results showed that all participants who use project management indicated that it contributes to the success of their projects. Humans and human interactions were chosen by most participants as the main factor responsible for complexity. Most participants indicated that poor communication and collaboration was the biggest factor preventing them from achieving their goals. Participants mostly prefer working with people that they have a lot in common with, and most indicated that smaller teams of four to five people are better for optimal performance compared with larger team sizes. Feeling valued, respected, and being adequately rewarded motivated participants to perform well. In conclusion, project management may be able to improve the chances of project success. Addressing human factors and interactions may reduce complexity and motivate people to perform well. Limitations of this research include convenience sampling and subjective responses to a cross-sectional survey rather than objective measurement of outcomes.

数据论文引用计量规律初探——基于中国数据期刊的案例研究

Data publishing provides an innovative model for data sharing. To gain better insights into data publishing, this paper uses a literature review and case studies to build up a citation metrics framework and conducts case studies on two Chinese data journals, Chinese Science Data and the Journal of Global Change Data and Discovery. This paper reveals the status of data publishing and reusability of the linked datasets in the two journals. And over thirty indicators have been analyzed, covering paper indicators (e.g. subjects, team size, and funding sources), data indicators (e.g. data sources, data scale, types, visits, and downloads), citation indicators (e.g. cited, citing, and time metrics), etc. The results unveil that, at the macro level, data publishing has become an important way for data sharing. It effectively promotes open cooperation, together with funding support, high data quality control, and facilitates the sharing of special collections of datasets across domains. Besides, national data centers play a vital role in supporting data publishing. At the micro level, datasets typically have strong associations with subjects but may still share commonalities across domains. Moreover, several indicators may contribute to decoding data reusability, such as combining data visits and downloads, and further links to citations. In addition, independent data publishing is on the rise in China, and we suggest nourishing data culture, diversifying business models, reinforcing data governance, developing robust platforms and technologies, and better incentives and metrics for data sharing in the long run.​

Gender composition and team performance: evidence from a randomized experiment

ABSTRACT This research aims to explore the impact of gender composition on team project performance in a college intermediate microeconomics course, using a randomized experiment approach and applying a rich database spanning over 14 years at an elite public university in Taiwan. The estimation results demonstrate a significantly negative relationship between the team male ratio and team project performance. In addition, we find a U-shape relationship between gender ratio and team performance after controlling for students’ prior GPA, midterm performance, individual project performance, and semester fixed effects. It implies that gender-unbalanced teams perform relatively better than gender-balanced teams. These results suggest potential communication and coordination failures across gender and less knowledge spillover and skill specializations for gender-balanced teams. The relatively large team size and the short time for teamwork in this experiment are plausible explanations for our findings.

Teamwork Coaching in the Research Development Process

Proposal teams play a critical, yet understudied, role in team science. This study advances our understanding of teamwork coaching in the research development (RD) process by analyzing proposal support in a U.S. Medical School (2009–2019). We find that teamwork coaching mediates the positive association between team size and awarded outcomes. We also find that teams with proposer team familiarity need less teamwork coaching and that teamwork coaching is particularly valuable for teams with proposers who have both clinical and research responsibilities. We discuss contributions to team science and team coaching literatures as well as implications for training and educating RD coaches.

International mobility matters: Research collaboration and scientific productivity

In this study, we examine the impact of government-sponsored international mobility on researchers’ scientific collaboration and productivity. To identify causal effects, we use a longitudinal dataset covering internationally mobile doctoral students sponsored by the China Scholarships Council for non-degree studies and non-mobile doctoral students while implementing a combined propensity-score matching and difference-in-differences approach. We find that international mobility has a significantly positive impact on researchers’ scientific collaboration and research output. Our findings suggest that international mobility influences individuals’ research output by increasing the size of collaboration teams. We further find that the effects of international mobility are heterogeneous, that they vary significantly across gender, prestige of doctoral institution, mobility time and destination: male researchers gain more benefits from international mobility in the numbers of collaborators and papers; mobility in early years are more beneficial in increasing collaborators; mobility to Asia and Oceania is most beneficial in improving research quality. These findings provide a deeper understanding of how international mobility shapes researchers’ academic performance and have implications for the policy formulation on government-sponsored international mobility.

A scoping review of international allied health professions escape room practices and scholarship

Purpose The purpose of this scoping review is to assess the literature on allied health professions escape rooms (AHPERs), investigating their common purposes and practices, and the trends in scholarship. Methods This scoping review followed PRISMA-ScR guidelines to assess the size and scope of evidence in the literature, categorize common purposes and practices, and explore trends in AHPER scholarship. Two reviewers developed a review protocol, collected literature using a search strategy aligned with inclusion criteria, and charted review results. Results The literature search yielded 6,170 articles. After the final review, 34 unique records met inclusion criteria. Studies were conducted in the United States, Spain, Australia, France, Brazil, and Canada. Most escape rooms reported participants, team size, puzzle type, and outcomes, but few used causal research designs, primarily using pre-post with no control designs. AHPERs represent an increasingly popular pedagogical approach. AHPERs tend to be simply structured, patient themed, and convey either disciplinary or interprofessional lessons. Generally, AHPERs were self-reported as effective and satisfying, but scholarship supporting AHPERs was insufficient in design for causal claims. Conclusion Developers and scholars may benefit from considering frameworks and guidelines for consistent creation and increased trustworthiness in the AHPER practice and knowledge base. Where AHPER scholars can increase attention to learning outcomes, and plan scholarly works in advance of the escape room, the AHPER body of knowledge will increase.

Too Many Meetings? Scheduling Rules for Team Coordination

Workers in knowledge-intensive industries often complain of having too many meetings, but organizations still give little thought to deciding when or how often to meet. We investigate the efficiency and robustness of various coordination scheduling rules. We consider workers who are engaged in a common activity (e.g., software programming) that can be divided into largely independent, parallel production tasks, but that necessitates periodic coordination. Coordination enables workers to address issues they have encountered in their independent work but takes time away from production. Using a stylized game-theoretic model, we show that small teams allow a more fluid, that is, worker-driven, approach to scheduling coordination, such as preemptive coordination (or production), under which any worker can impose coordination (or production). In larger teams this becomes inefficient. Several approaches can mitigate this effect. One option is to allocate the decision rights to produce or coordinate to the most productive worker. A more general version is to implement a voting-based scheme, where a minimum number of workers from a predetermined subset choose to coordinate. A third approach is to modify the preemptive coordination and production rules by adding time-based controls, to reserve some minimal amount of productive time or to enforce coordination after some point. Finally, a fixed-interval meeting schedule works well for very large teams. Our research helps formalize the tension between meeting (coordinating) and producing and indicates how to adapt team coordination scheduling rules to the degree of worker heterogeneity and team size. This paper was accepted by Jay Swaminathan, operations management. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.03227 .

Inter-reviewer reliability of human literature reviewing and implications for the introduction of machine-assisted systematic reviews: a mixed-methods review

ObjectivesOur main objective is to assess the inter-reviewer reliability (IRR) reported in published systematic literature reviews (SLRs). Our secondary objective is to determine the expected IRR by authors of SLRs...

An Analysis of the Impact of Team Composition and Psychosocial Factors on Engineering Team Effectiveness

There is limited research on the mix of team composition and psychosocial factors influencing engineering team effectiveness. This study explored how team composition (gender, age, race, experience, educational diversity, and team size) and psychosocial factors (cognition and group climate) influence the effectiveness of engineering teams. A survey on the performance of engineering teams was carried out to elicit the relevant data from Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) companies and oil refineries in the United States. The results from a multiple linear regression analysis of the data indicate that gender composition, age, experience, and the group climate’s Engaged variable positively impacted team effectiveness. On the other hand, the team size and the group climate’s Avoiding and Conflict variables had a negative impact. The engineering team’s racial composition, educational diversity, and cognition did not have a significant impact on team effectiveness. The insight from the study opens new vistas for how engineering managers can improve the effectiveness of their teams. Managers could modulate the team composition variables at the point of recruitment into the team for maximum effectiveness, while also ensuring the work atmosphere is devoid of negative tendencies like tension and anger. The findings of the study form a foundation for further research on engineering team effectiveness.

Analysis of robot-specific operative time and surgical team anxiety level and its effect on alignment during robot-assisted TKA.

Adapting to robotic-assisted (RA) total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is hindered by the surgeon's fear of extra time. The main purpose of this study was to determine the robot's operative time, and the secondary goals were to assess the surgical team's anxiety, implant location and size, and limb alignment. From February to April 2022, 40 participants participated in prospective research. The study included primary Cuvis joint active RA-TKA patients for end-stage arthritis, but conversion of unicompartmental knee arthroplasty to TKA, and patients with prior knee surgery were excluded. The active RA-TKA surgical time included surgeon-dependent and surgeon-independent/active robot time. The surgeon's anxiety was measured using the state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI). The implant size/position and limb alignment were checked by post-operative weight-bearing lateral, anteroposterior, and full-length scanograms. Operative time specifically related to active RA-TKA was higher in the first 10 cases as against 10-20, 20-30 and 30-40 cases which was observed to lower from cohort 2. A similar trend was observed for the surgical team's anxiety levels which seem to lower from cohort 2 (case 10-20). Cumulative experience of active RA-TKA showed no effect on the precision of implant alignment/ size, limb alignment and complications. The study showed progressive improvement in the surgical anxiety scores and reduction in operating time indicating the proficiency gained by the surgical team. Further no learning curve was involved in achieving the implant positioning and sizing, limb alignment with the absence of complications.

Team complexity and care coordination for cancer survivors with multiple chronic conditions: a mixed methods study.

Little is known about the perceptions and experiences of care received from healthcare teams among cancer survivors with multiple chronic conditions (MCCs). Cancer survivors completed an online survey (N=441) of which 12 participated in an interview. Team complexity was operationalized based on team size, clinician specialties, and health system affiliation. Kilpatrick's Patient-Perceptions of Team Effectiveness (PTE) questionnaire measured team effectiveness. Constant comparative method was used to identify care coordination challenges and facilitators from interviews. Mean age at cancer diagnosis was 45 years (SD=14), 68% were 5 years from diagnosis, the most common cancer was breast (27%), and two-thirds had two or more pre-diagnosis comorbidities. Sixty percent rated both cancer and other condition(s) as taking priority. Team complexity varied from low (32%), moderate (49%), and high (20%). Eighty percent rated PTE overall as high, with variation by subscales: coordination (85%) and patient-family focus (47%). Higher team complexity was associated with lower PTE overall (p=0.049). Challenges were identified: sequential referrals with no integration across team members; no shared mental model among team; and cancer survivor having to "referee" conflicting care decisions. This mixed method study found an inverse relationship between team complexity and PTE-overall, where high-complexity teams had lower team effectiveness. Participants reported issues with the problem-solving abilities of their teams and felt like their contributions were not valued by their care team. Improving team effectiveness offers one way to leverage the expertise of multiple specialties to deliver integrated, patient-centered care for the growing population of cancer survivors with MCC.

Trainee-supervisor collaboration, progress-visualisation, and coaching: a survey on challenges in assessment of ICU trainees.

Assessing trainees is crucial for development of their competence, yet it remains a challenging endeavour. Identifying contributing and influencing factors affecting this process is imperative for improvement. We surveyed residents, fellows, and intensivists working in an intensive care unit (ICU) at a large non-university hospital in Switzerland to investigate the challenges in assessing ICU trainees. Thematic analysis revealed three major themes. Among 45 physicians, 37(82%) responded. The first theme identified is trainee-intensivist collaboration discontinuity. The limited duration of trainees' ICU rotations, large team size operating in a discordant three-shift system, and busy and unpredictable day-planning hinder sustained collaboration. Potential solutions include a concise pre-collaboration briefing, shared bedside care, and post-collaboration debriefing involving formative assessment and reflection on collaboration. The second theme is the lack of trainees' progress visualisation, which is caused by unsatisfactory familiarisation with the trainees' development. The lack of an overview of a trainee's previous achievements, activities, strengths, weaknesses, and goals may result in inappropriate assessments. Participants suggested implementing digital assessment tools, a competence committee, and dashboards to facilitate progress visualisation. The third theme we identified is insufficient coaching and feedback. Factors like personality traits, hierarchy, and competing interests can impede coaching, while high-quality feedback is essential for correct assessment. Skilled coaches can define short-term goals and may optimise trainee assessment by seeking feedback from multiple supervisors and assisting in both formative and summative assessment. Based on these three themes and the suggested solutions, we developed the acronym "ICU-STAR" representing a potentially powerful framework to enhance short-term trainee-supervisor collaboration in the workplace and to co-scaffold the principles of adequate assessment. According to ICU physicians, trainee-supervisor collaboration discontinuity, the lack of visualisation of trainee's development, and insufficient coaching and feedback skills of supervisors are the major factors hampering trainees' assessment in the workplace. Based on suggestions by the survey participants, we propose the acronym "ICU-STAR" as a framework including briefing, shared bedside care, and debriefing of the trainee-supervisor collaboration at the workplace as its core components. With the attending intensivists acting as coaches, progress visualisation can be enhanced by actively collecting more data points. N/A.

The effects of audit engagement partner ownership on audit engagements: evidence from Korea

ABSTRACT We examine the relationship between the partnership share ratio of audit engagement partners and 1) audit fees and billing rates, 2) engagement team size, and 3) audit quality. Based on data from Korea for the period 2018–2020, we find that audit engagement partners’ partnership share ratio is positively associated with audit fees and billing rates, and negatively associated with engagement team size. Furthermore, the association is more pronounced for engagement partners at Big4 accounting firms. However, we do not observe any association between partnership share ratio and audit quality. This study extends the limited empirical studies examining the effect of profit-sharing in accounting firms on engagement decisions, and nicely answers the call for more research on profit-sharing in accounting firms. Moreover, this study offers insight to policy-makers interested in what incentivizes audit engagement partners in making audit fee and engagement team decisions. 1

Team Size Dynamics: A Study on Factors Influencing Pull Request Acceptance in Open-Source Software Repositories

In contemporary software development, Pull-Based Development has become the prevalent methodology, prompting extensive research into the factors influencing the success of contributions. Our study delves into numerous factors while specifically investigating the pivotal role of team size in the evaluation and acceptance of pull requests. The significance of team size is underscored by its historical importance in guiding the choice of software methodologies. Our findings reveal that team size impacts the decision-making process concerning pull requests. The factors influencing these decisions are affected by team size, emphasizing the necessity of considering this variable in modern software projects. Our research illuminates the complex dynamics of pull-based development, providing valuable insights for project owners and developers alike.

Do fund managers’ performance rely on gender and team size? Evidence from India

The study investigates how gender and team size impact mutual fund manager’s performance. Using comprehensive collected data of 1,207 manager-funds observations from January 1991 to March 2022, we analyse the performance of Indian fund managers. The study also examines whether the age and tenure of fund managers affect the association between gender and team size with performance. Our result shows that female fund managers independently perform better than their male counterparts. The manager’s performance improves with an increase in the size of the team. We also discover that older male fund managers or those with shorter tenure managing funds perform superior in team-managed funds.

Pengaruh Shift Kerja terhadap Stres Kerja pada Lima Orang Karyawan PT Asam Jawa, Kota Pinang

The Occupational Health and Safety Branch (2008) explains that optimizing work shift arrangements can help reduce the potential health impacts on employees. Shift work involves various schedules and work patterns, and its arrangement must take into account a number of factors, such as the length of the shift or the number of hours worked per shift, team size, rest breaks, rotation periods or speed, and shift timing. The aim of this research is to determine the influence of shift work on the stress levels of PT Pegawai Asam Jawa employees in Kota Pinang, and whether there is a relationship between shift work variables and employee stress at PT Asam Jawa in Kota Pinang, using qualitative methodology. This study involved 114 participants. The research indicates that although morning shift workers do not experience high levels of stress, night shift workers do, resulting in decreased overall productivity in the afternoon and evening. Worker performance, health, and psychosocial issues are the subjects of these complaints. Except for night shift workers who complain of being less focused due to poor quality, there are no physical complaints experienced by morning shift workers and night shift workers in terms of body complaints, so the impact of shift work on employee stress can be observed.

Mapping the German Diamond Open Access Journal Landscape

In the current scientific and political discourse surrounding the transformation of the scientific publication system, significant attention is focused on Diamond Open Access (OA). Diamond OA is characterized by no charges for readers or authors and relies on monetary allowances and voluntary work. This article explores the potential and challenges of Diamond OA journals, using Germany as a case study. Two key questions are addressed: first, the current role of such journals in the scientific publication system is determined through bibliometric analysis across various disciplines. Second, an investigation is conducted to assess the sustainability of Diamond OA journals and identify associated structural problems or potential breaking points. This investigation includes an in-depth expert interview study involving 20 editors of Diamond OA journals. The empirical results are presented using a landscape map that considers two dimensions: 'monetized and gift-based completion of tasks' and 'journal team size.' The bibliometric analysis reveals a substantial number of Diamond OA journals in the social sciences and humanities, but limited adoption in other fields. The model proves effective for small to mid-sized journals, but not for larger ones. Additionally, it was found that 23 Diamond OA journals have recently discontinued their operations. The expert interviews demonstrate the diversity within the landscape and the usefulness of the two dimensions in understanding key differences. Journals in two of the four quadrants of the map exemplify sustainable conditions, while the other two quadrants raise concerns about long-term stability. These concerns include limited funding leading to a lack of division of labor and an excessive burden on highly committed members. Gift-like contributions, while appealing, also present challenges as potential donors not only decide whether to contribute but also how to contribute, potentially creating friction between the gift and the journal's requirements. Furthermore, journals in the lower right quadrant often rely on third-party funding, necessitating a transformation once the funding expires. Common pathways for sustaining operations include lobbying for funding at the journal's home institution or increasing reliance on gift-based completion of tasks. These findings underscore the need for the development of more sustainable funding models to ensure the success of Diamond OA journals.