Can Surgical Teams Help Shape the Future of AI-Augmented Software Development? 🩺

[chbrown13]

In the best-selling software engineering book The Mythical Man-Month, Fred Brooks introduces the surgical team metaphor where the head surgeon (a chief programmer) write the critical code while other developers take on supporting roles (i.e., copilot, toolsmith, administrator, etc.) to handle build setup, testing, tooling, and coordination. We aim to explore how developers perceive this metaphor and how it might support agentic software development work.

What’s Involved?

Survey: This study will involve an online survey to gather your background, experience with AI coding tools, perceptions of the surgical team metaphor, and insights on opportunities for AI agents.

Follow-Up Study: After the survey, follow-up focus group will be held to gain practical insights on agentic surgical development teams. For this virtual study, you will work in groups to complete coding tasks under different human-agent configurations, and discuss your experience. Participants who complete this study will be compensated $50.

Who can join?

To participate, you must be at least 18 years old and have experience completing software development-related tasks with AI tools.

Why Participate?

Your insights will directly shape the design of AI-driven development tools and the organization of AI agents in software teams, providing insights into human-AI collaborations in software development contexts.

How to sign up:

Click the following link to complete the survey and indicate whether you would like to participate in the live focus group study:

🔗 https://virginiatech.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5gvGi0XnHEJt4Lc

This study was approved by the Virginia Tech Institutional Review Board (#26-717). More details can be found in the following information sheet. If you have any questions about the survey or study, please contact Dr. Chris Brown (dcbrown@vt.edu). Thank you for your time and consideration.