Complete thesis - Murdoch University

on the perceived soft skills of the candidate, obtained through face-to-face assessments. Thissecond set of skill data has often been stated to be the most important for the final hiring ofthe candidate.Confirming the quote above from Macauley and Mylopoulos (1995a)’s work, Minor (2004)’sinterviewees also placed considerable emphasis on more generic abilities:Personality – confident and faithful, strong work ethic, be proactive or self-started, inquisitivenature, have the ability to ask people questions and accept to appear stupid,perseverance, be teachable and willing to learnInterpersonal skills – communications (inherent and improvable but not necessarily teachable),dealing with people of different background, written language, coherent writingand generally good documentation skillsManagement – of self (personal work organisation) and of large amounts of information.While the latter two items may be incorporated into learning models, and, in fact, coversome of the attributes often noted as exit criteria in tertiary education, Personality may bemore difficult to address. Minor’s interviewees unanimously noted that it was very rare thatnewly hired graduates are involved in requirements activities. He states:the interviewees mention that almost exclusively more senior people do requirementsactivities. Some interviewees argue that experience is necessary. One intervieweeexpects credibility and presence from somebody doing requirements activities.These characteristics are considered to be reserved to people more maturethan most graduates are. In businesses where requirements activities do not involvedirect contact with customers the argument is that people must have insightand knowledge about the existing software, which is described as experience.(Minor, 2004, p 83)This also confirms the results of the Macauley and Mylopoulos (1995a) study, with somerespondents even expressing doubts about RE being a suitable topic for university study.Macauley and Mylopoulos (1995a) conclude that efficient requirements activities require acertain level of knowledge and maturity which can only be gained through experience indealing with practical problems, and acknowledge that a standard university lecture cannotachieve what industry requires, while the work of Lee (specifically Lee (2004)) suggests thereis an underlying ‘socialisation’ requirement for a graduate to achieve ‘working professional’status. Minor (2004)’s study adds personality traits to the mix of characteristics necessaryin competent REs.34