Bibliography Reference
Publication Abstract
Context In Software Engineering, practitioners must understand stakeholders' needs for the software they are designing, which implies achieving empathy. Problem Grounded in prior empirical work, we identify a research gap at the intersection of three issues. Traditional requirement-gathering practices often fail to support deep empathy with users. In agile contexts, developers’ technology-oriented cognitive style can further bias requirements analysis away from users’ perspectives. Yet empathy training remains underexplored in Software Engineering. Objective This paper contributes a conceptual framework to design empathy training for early-stage software design by integrating Design Thinking, Agile values, and Experiential Learning. In our proposal, agile empathy is the empathy that can be achieved by combining two resources: Interview to Empathise and Prototype to Empathise in time-boxed sessions with potential users. Thus, the interview insights are translated into rapid prototypes that deepen understanding of users’ needs. Methods We conducted an exploratory study of our conceptual framework proposal, which was instantiated with two different settings (e.g. domains). The participants were senior computer science students (N = 32). We used a mixed-method research design. The empathy achieved by the trainees is from the interviewees' perspective, as they respond to a 5-point Likert scale and an open-ended question about their personalised prototypes. Results Our exploratory study revealed that trainees achieved partial or total empathy from the interviewees' perspective, even with only one training session. Seventy-eight per cent of the participants are developers with IT industry experience, expanding our findings beyond the classroom.
@article{41995821,
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scico.2026.103494},
year = {2026},
month = {Agosto},
title = {Agile empathy for the early stage of software design},
author = {Cecilia Challiol, Andres Rodriguez, Alejandra Garrido.},
number = {103494},
volume = {253},
journal = {Science of Computer Programming},
abstract = {Context In Software Engineering, practitioners must understand stakeholders' needs for the software they are designing, which implies achieving empathy. Problem Grounded in prior empirical work, we identify a research gap at the intersection of three issues. Traditional requirement-gathering practices often fail to support deep empathy with users. In agile contexts, developers’ technology-oriented cognitive style can further bias requirements analysis away from users’ perspectives. Yet empathy training remains underexplored in Software Engineering. Objective This paper contributes a conceptual framework to design empathy training for early-stage software design by integrating Design Thinking, Agile values, and Experiential Learning. In our proposal, agile empathy is the empathy that can be achieved by combining two resources: Interview to Empathise and Prototype to Empathise in time-boxed sessions with potential users. Thus, the interview insights are translated into rapid prototypes that deepen understanding of users’ needs. Methods We conducted an exploratory study of our conceptual framework proposal, which was instantiated with two different settings (e.g. domains). The participants were senior computer science students (N = 32). We used a mixed-method research design. The empathy achieved by the trainees is from the interviewees' perspective, as they respond to a 5-point Likert scale and an open-ended question about their personalised prototypes. Results Our exploratory study revealed that trainees achieved partial or total empathy from the interviewees' perspective, even with only one training session. Seventy-eight per cent of the participants are developers with IT industry experience, expanding our findings beyond the classroom.},
}