Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems (지능정보연구)

Korea Intelligent Information System Society (한국지능정보시스템학회)
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A Study of Factors Associated with Software Developers Job Turnover

데이터마이닝을 활용한 소프트웨어 개발인력의 업무 지속수행의도 결정요인 분석

  • Jeon, In-Ho (Hivalue consulting) ;
  • Park, Sun W. (Department of Psychology, Korea University) ;
  • Park, Yoon-Joo (Department of Business Administration, Seoul National University of Science and Technology)
  • 전인호 (하이밸류컨설팅) ;
  • 박선웅 (고려대학교 심리학과) ;
  • 박윤주 (서울과학기술대학교 글로벌경영학과)
  • Received : 2015.02.14
  • Accepted : 2015.05.26
  • Published : 2015.06.30
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Abstract

According to the '2013 Performance Assessment Report on the Financial Program' from the National Assembly Budget Office, the unfilled recruitment ratio of Software(SW) Developers in South Korea was 25% in the 2012 fiscal year. Moreover, the unfilled recruitment ratio of highly-qualified SW developers reaches almost 80%. This phenomenon is intensified in small and medium enterprises consisting of less than 300 employees. Young job-seekers in South Korea are increasingly avoiding becoming a SW developer and even the current SW developers want to change careers, which hinders the national development of IT industries. The Korean government has recently realized the problem and implemented policies to foster young SW developers. Due to this effort, it has become easier to find young SW developers at the beginning-level. However, it is still hard to recruit highly-qualified SW developers for many IT companies. This is because in order to become a SW developing expert, having a long term experiences are important. Thus, improving job continuity intentions of current SW developers is more important than fostering new SW developers. Therefore, this study surveyed the job continuity intentions of SW developers and analyzed the factors associated with them. As a method, we carried out a survey from September 2014 to October 2014, which was targeted on 130 SW developers who were working in IT industries in South Korea. We gathered the demographic information and characteristics of the respondents, work environments of a SW industry, and social positions for SW developers. Afterward, a regression analysis and a decision tree method were performed to analyze the data. These two methods are widely used data mining techniques, which have explanation ability and are mutually complementary. We first performed a linear regression method to find the important factors assaociated with a job continuity intension of SW developers. The result showed that an 'expected age' to work as a SW developer were the most significant factor associated with the job continuity intention. We supposed that the major cause of this phenomenon is the structural problem of IT industries in South Korea, which requires SW developers to change the work field from developing area to management as they are promoted. Also, a 'motivation' to become a SW developer and a 'personality (introverted tendency)' of a SW developer are highly importantly factors associated with the job continuity intention. Next, the decision tree method was performed to extract the characteristics of highly motivated developers and the low motivated ones. We used well-known C4.5 algorithm for decision tree analysis. The results showed that 'motivation', 'personality', and 'expected age' were also important factors influencing the job continuity intentions, which was similar to the results of the regression analysis. In addition to that, the 'ability to learn' new technology was a crucial factor for the decision rules of job continuity. In other words, a person with high ability to learn new technology tends to work as a SW developer for a longer period of time. The decision rule also showed that a 'social position' of SW developers and a 'prospect' of SW industry were minor factors influencing job continuity intensions. On the other hand, 'type of an employment (regular position/ non-regular position)' and 'type of company (ordering company/ service providing company)' did not affect the job continuity intension in both methods. In this research, we demonstrated the job continuity intentions of SW developers, who were actually working at IT companies in South Korea, and we analyzed the factors associated with them. These results can be used for human resource management in many IT companies when recruiting or fostering highly-qualified SW experts. It can also help to build SW developer fostering policy and to solve the problem of unfilled recruitment of SW Developers in South Korea.

국내 소프트웨어(SW) 개발인력의 미충원율은 매우 높으며, 특히 2년 이상의 현장경력이 있는 고급 개발자의 부족문제는 심각하다. 최근 정부도 이를 인식하고, 정책적으로 SW개발 신규인력 양성에 힘을 기울이고 있다. 그러나, 이러한 노력은 초급개발자의 수급문제를 해결하는데 효과적일 수 있지만, 업계에서 요구하는 고급 개발자의 부족현상을 해결하는 근본적인 대책으로 인식되지는 못하고 있다. SW 전문개발자를 양성하기 위해서는 초급개발자들이 지속적으로 직무를 수행하여 풍부한 업무경험을 갖춘 고급 개발자로 성장해야 하기 때문이다. 이에, 본 연구는 국내 SW업체에서 근무하고 있는 개발관련 인력들의 업무 지속수행 의도를 조사하고, 이에 영향을 주는 주요요인들을 분석하였다. 이를 위해, 2014년 9월부터 10월까지 국내 SW업체에 근무하고 있는 현직 개발자 총 130명을 대상으로 설문조사를 수행하였으며, 이를 기반으로 SW개발업무 지속수행의도 및 이에 영향을 주는 요인들을 개발자의 특성, 직무환경, 그리고 SW개발자에 대한 사회적 인식 및 산업전망 등의 측면에서 분석하였다. 분석에는 데이터마이닝 기법들 중에서, 분석과정에서의 설명능력이 있는 회귀분석과 의사결정나무가 사용되었다. 회귀분석 결과, SW개발자가 스스로 인식하는 근무 가능한 연령이 높을수록, 내성적인 성향을 가질수록, 또한 적성에 맞아서 직무를 선택한 경우, 지속적 직무 수행 의도가 높은 것으로 나타났다. 이와 더불어, 선형회귀분석에서는 유의하지 않았으나, 규칙기반의 의사결정나무 분석에서 파악된 추가적 요인으로, 새로운 기술에 대한 학습능력 및 SW산업에 대한 전망이 직무 지속수행의도에 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 연구결과는 기업의 인적자원관리 및 고급 SW인력 양성정책에 활용될 수 있을 것으로 생각되며, 궁극적으로 SW개발인력의 직무 지속성을 증진시키는 데 기여할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.

Keywords

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