The Dynamics of Creativity in Software Development

Abstract

Software is primarily developed for people by people and human fac-tors must be studied in all software engineering phases. Creativity is the source to improvise solutions to problems for dominating complex systems such as soft-ware development. However, there is a lack of knowledge in what creativity is in software development and what its dynamics are. This study describes the current state of the research plan towards a theory on creativity in software development. More specifically, it (1) states the motivation for studying creativity in software development under a multidisciplinary view; it (2) provides a first review of the literature identifying the shortcomings in the field; it (3) proposes a research de-sign, which includes rarely employed methods in software engineering. To un-derstand creativity in software development will provide a better knowledge of the software construction process and how individuals intellectually contribute to the creation of better, innovative products.