Cardiff Metropolitan University

B.Sc. (Hons) in Software Engineering

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Student Details ( Student should fill the content)

Name Tanushri Punsandani Welegama

Student ID st20212772@outlook.cardiffmet.ac.uk

Scheduled unit details

Unit code CIS5015

Unit title Research and Professional Skills

Unit enrolment details Year Term 4
Study period 2022/23
Lecturer Thiviyan
Mode of delivery Full Time
Assignment Details

Nature of the Assessment Assignment

Topic of the Case Study Research proposal

Learning Outcomes covered LO1,LO2,LO3

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Extension granted? Yes No Extension Date
Is this a resubmission? Yes No Resubmission Date
Declaration
I certify that the attached material is my original work. No other person’s work or ideas have been used without
acknowledgement. Except where I have clearly stated that I have used some of this material elsewhere, I have not
presented it for examination / assessment in any other course or unit at this or any other institution

Name/Signature T.P. Welegama Date 2023/03/10

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STUDENT NAME: STUDENT NUMBER:
CMU B.Sc. (HONS) SE - ASSIGNMENT FEEDBACK SHEET –ICBT CAMPUS

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Depressi
on
among
IT
Professi
onals
-Research
proposal-

Module- Research methods & Professional Skills (CIS5015)

Campus- Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK.
Student-Tanushri Welegama
Student ID- st20212772@outlook.cardiffmet.ac.uk
 Acknowledgement

First of all, I am really grateful for the university, Cardiff Metropolitan University,
and the staff of the campus, that lead us to fulfill our achievements, and our Kandy Branch
Campus, ICBT Campus lectures and staff that guided us in the right path in all our good
times and hard times. Then, I would like to offer my gratitude for my parents, and my friends,
and all who was there to give strength to make this project a success.
 Introduction/ Background

According to the modern world, IT plays a huge role in day to day lives of everyone.
From students till professionals, IT is used in various kinds of activities, while students try
their best to cover most areas of the subject area, they face ups and downs in their life. In this
research, observation is done about many knowing people, who suffers from depression that
vary from one another. Because there are many countless sides of people and depression, one
specific limited area is chosen of the study as how depression is going on in IT professionals
and how it takes over them, and the solutions that will work out for them. First, Indian
resources were read and articles were gone through to get a further knowledge about this and
it can be a huge support for the study.

Depression has touched almost every profession, that lead to physical and mental health.
(Psychiatry, 2013). Also, electronic screens can make us feel sleepy, and the professionals try
their best to cover the workload before deadlines, fighting with their sleepiness and tiredness.
the lack of sleep that the human body needs can also result with depression. It affects the
hormones in the brain via the blue light that comes from screens. (Clinic, 2019) The
inspiration and the likeness towards IT also makes some professionals work hard, even they
feel tiring. As an example, if we get to develop a project in two days, when suddenly an error
comes up, it takes four days to fix it up, but we keep on trying and when we meet the limit of
trying- we win- or else we end up depressed. (writer, 2022)
 Literature review

When it comes for the literature sources, websites and google scholar academic articles
were helpful to gather information.

As the Indian article (Psychiatry, 2013) about the depression among IT industry says, the
finding of the study has proven that professionally stressed IT professionals are ten times
higher risk for developing depression. In that study, females were at higher risk for
depression. Studies have found that work family conflict (i.e., work interference with family
or family interference with work) is experienced more often by women than by men.
Depression is found to be one of the most consistent and strongest outcome of work family
conflict. In the Indian context with women being expected to handle household
responsibilities as primary responsibility, women IT professionals might experience more
work family conflict increasing the prevalence of risk for developing depression women
population.

When considering about another study done towards women IT professionals, in

Karnataka, Bangalore. (Ashok, 2022) In their research design, a survey was done among the
woman software companies with the usage of questionnaire. The sampling of this study
includes two hundred and fifty women IT workers. From the convenience sampling with no
bias they have involved within the survey. Bangalore have many software companies and it
has extended the dimensions in the industry such as, software testing, developing programs,
database management, etc. so, with this, the workloads get higher along with the depression
levels.

According to the study in ACM Digital library, (Rajeswari, 2023), the exploratory
research study investigates sources of depression among software professionals, from the
perspective of the SDLC (Software development life cycle) process. A multi- response
questionnaire was developed to measure the sources of pressure among IT professionals,
based on interactions with academic individuals, normal software engineers and senior IT
developers that are involved within the IT Industry. Ten key factors that causes depression in
software professionals are identified using exploratory factor analysis from one hundred and
fifty six usable responses. The results shows that the stress levels vary from one another,
implications of the study are discussed.

In Pakistan, a factor analytic study (Jalbani, 2021) is done based on the job stress in
software professionals. It says, IT professionals’ occupation is highly bounded with time,
with intensive- technological background & client-oriented. With the rapid change of
technology, fear, interaction between clients, support for family, long working hours, the
depressed effect arises. A study was carried there with joining two hundred professionals, and
the data was gathered with different catagories such as age, gender, qualifications & marital
status.
 Methodology

Ontology

Because of the stressful background that they face, the research is more likely to be
certain with all its aim and objectives. The research is a great help to lift up the individuals
with depressed effect. This study will be a huge advantage for future, wider researches as
well. IT industry cannot exist without the work done by the IT professionals, as they give a
helping hand to hold up the occupation and the modern technological area of the world. So,
they need to be valued and stress- free while working within their firms/ companies.

Epistemology

In here, describes how this research is framed to discover the knowledge. First,
observing the situation of the individuals that are selected for this project, and searching
similar articles in google scholar. Indian IT professionals has stated the same symptoms that
they faced, and how the researches have rated them through depression scales and
occupational life stress scales. The study is going on for depths to understand further, such as
medical articles, psychiatric articles linked with the case study in India. But in this research
(assessment), the knowledge got from additional sources were helpful to cover the research
proposal based on the requirements of the limited tasks of the assessment.

Aims & objectives

Research question
How IT professionals face their profession & depression that may arise?
Key aim

To analyze the findings of the study of Depression among IT professionals and

come up with solutions that work out for them.
The key aim is the long-term final solution for this problem. The objectives below are
listed to fulfill this key aim.

Objectives

 To screen for the widespread presence of IT occupational stress, risk of

depression among IT professionals
 To study the connection between professional stress, emotional stress, risk of
depression
 To introduce events, with various kinds of games and hobbies for the IT
professionals to get their mindset healthy.

Variables of the study

Following are the main factors contributing in professional stress of IT professionals

working in different software companies
o Obsolescence Fear: rapid change of technology and the hurry of learning new
technology.
o Individual & team interaction: Interaction between analyst, developing
departments and project manager.
o Interactions with clients: business analysts and system analysts
o Work-family bond: Taking all the work for home or working for long periods.
o Roles of the occupation: different roles in a different or same project.
o Working culture: going abroad and facing different cultures around the world
o Technical dimension: low levels of technical expertise.
o Family support towards the job
o Workload: Excessive and variety of work.
 o Technical risk: Risks that comes up when using innovative technology or
process.

Formal strategy

Measures

Professional life stress scale- twenty questions are included as an open- ended questionnaire,
and the domains used are:

 Workload of the IT profession

 Work environment
 Rewards

The scoring range is: 0-60

Score below 15 is considered as not stressed.

Score that is similar and above 16 is considered as stress, higher amounts that are almost near
60 is taken as severe depression.

In this study, IT professionals that selected are hundred people, that interacts via linkedIn
accounts & campuses. Sixty of them suffer from depression, while the rest of fourty face their
industry normal as usual, the results after calculating the scores.

Depression scale- this is also a screening interview and the elements used are,

 Appetite loss
 Guilt
 Mood swings
 Hopeless
 Helplessness
 Lack of sleep

Responses are captured within seven days, and the point range is 0-60.
The score that was below sixteen is taken as less stress/ normal, while the score above sixteen
is taken as anxiety disorder and depressed mentality the IT professionals are affected.

Hypothesis

Depression will be higher among IT professionals, comparing with other professionals.

Null hypothesis H0- pressure is independent from uncomfortable work.

Alternative Hypothesis H1- the pressure depends on uncomfortable work

H0- there are no connection between workload and depression

H1- there is a connection between workload and depression

The hypothesis is tested by the questionnairs and results.

What type of data

Research data is usually collected in various ways, such as, experimental,

observational, simulation and derived. From the above data types, the one that is used here is,
observational data collecting method. Observing human behavior, questionnaires and surveys
are done in this. So, in this research project, behavior of stressed and normal IT professionals
are noted for further study and move on this research.

Primary data is gathered by questionnaires and surveys, & the secondary data is
collected by the journal articles, newspapers and magazines.
Human participants & sampling

Non-probability human sampling is used for this research, because it involves non- random
selection that is based on convenience or other criteria that allows to easily collect data. This
is linked with the quantitative, exploratory research method. The aim is not to test a
hypothesis about a very broad population and just a batch of hundred, but to develop an
understanding of a small population of hundred volunteered members, that are IT
professionals of selected IT companies.

In this sampling method, the voluntary response sampling is used, so the hundred individuals
have their freedom to volunteer by themselves for this study. They did respond for the online
questionnaire that held for this assessment. As a student, that was the appropriate sampling
method used.

Access and ethical issues

Below are some of ethical issues that may arise during the project time period:

 Personal information mis using

 Deep fakes and loss of information
 Use of AI (Artificial intelligence)
 Less oversight and acceptance of responsibility

So, we can raise our concern towards ethical practices as below…

 The respect for IT professionals and their privacy- data protection measures and
procedures can help ensure that data is not leaked or used inappropirately.
 Moral use of data and resources
  Create culture of responsibility

Gannt Chart – Timeline of the study

This chart explains about the timeline that spent to complete the research process. More time
has spent for all the among tasks, as three-week time period.
References

Ashok, D. J., 2022. Stress And Depression Experienced By Women Software. [Online]
Available at: file:///C:/Users/DELL/Downloads/document.pdf
[Accessed 2023].

Clinic, D. B.-. M., 2019. Mayo Clinic Minute: Is a rise in teen depression linked to technology, social
media?. [Online]
Available at: https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-minute-is-a-rise-in-teen-
depression-linked-to-technology-social-media/#:~:text=Electronic%20screens%20also%20can
%20disrupt,comes%20off%20of%20these%20screens.%22
[Accessed February 2023].

Jalbani, D. A. A., 2021. 1Journal of Independent Studies and Research (MSSE) Volume 7 Number 1
January 2009 Job stress in Pakistan IT professionals. [Online]
Available at: https://jisrmsse.szabist.edu.pk/index.php/szabist/article/view/320/288
[Accessed March 2023].

Psychiatry, I. J., 2013. A study on professional stress, depression and alcohol use among Indian IT
professionals. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3574458/
[Accessed February 2023].

Rajeswari, K., 2023. ACM Library-Development of an instrument to measure stress among software
professionals: factor analytic study. [Online]
Available at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/761849.761855
[Accessed January 2023].

writer, Q., 2022. QUORA-Why IT professionals started feeling depressed after 3-4 years?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.quora.com/Why-IT-professionals-started-feeling-depressed-after-3-4-
years
[Accessed February 2023].

Turnitin report