Don’t Forget to Breathe: A Controlled Trial of Mindfulness Practices in Agile Project Teams

Heijer, Peter den; Koole, Wibo; Stettina, Christoph Johann

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-57633-6_7

Cited by 16 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Participant, Health Care 71 In one study, teams conducted brief mindfulness meditations before their stand-up meetings, which significantly Open access enhanced subsequent meeting effectiveness and team cooperation. 72 However, they discontinued the exercises because they felt uncomfortable doing them in a public setting.…”

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confidence: 99%

Mindfulness-based programmes to reduce stress and enhance well-being at work: a realist review

2021

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ObjectivesTo understand how and why workplace mindfulness-based programmes (MBPs) work or do not work.DesignA realist review.Eligibility criteria for selectionWe considered any studies (experimental quasi-experimental, observational, qualitative and mixed-methods studies) of workplace MBPs as long as they provided data to explain our programme theories. All MBP formats and delivery modes were included.AnalysisConsistent with realist review methodology, we systematically screened and analysed data to explain how and why workplace MBPs work or do not work. These explanations were consolidated into a programme theory augmented by theories from organisational literature, such as conservation of resources theory.ResultsFindings from 75 primary studies suggest that workplace MBPs enable participants (including healthcare professionals) to deal more skillfully with stressful events and improve their well-being. The mechanisms involved can be grouped around awareness/self-regulation, acceptance/compassion, feeling permitted to take care of self, sense of growth and promise of goal attainment. In order for professionals to invest in an MBP and benefit from it, it is important that they feel safe to engage with self-care at work and share emotional difficulties among peers. It is also important that employees are able to link the programme and its activities to existing goals and practices. Concerns of being non-productive, of not getting work done or of being exposed in front of colleagues can result in strategic use of brief mindfulness exercises, non-adherence or drop-out.ConclusionsSimply offering an MBP to (healthcare) professionals in order to reduce stress and enhance well-being does not suffice. A supportive environment must exist in order for the programme’s benefits to be reaped.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42018086280.

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Mindfulness-based programmes to reduce stress and enhance well-being at work: a realist review

2021

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“…In the agile software process community, not only the practice of mindfulness has been recommended in order to create a good atmosphere in work groups, meetings, and interactions with customers and users [44], [45], but also an empirical study on the effects of mindfulness in agile developers has been recently carried out reporting positive effects [46] (see Section 7 for details).…”

Section: Mindfulness In Software Engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Mindfulness on Conceptual Modeling Performance: A Series of Experiments

Bernárdez

Durán

Parejo

et al. 2022

IIEEE Trans. Software Eng.

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Context. Mindfulness is a meditation technique whose main goal is keeping the mind calm and educating attention by focusing only on one thing at a time, usually breathing. The reported benefits of its continued practice can be of interest for Software Engineering students and practitioners, especially in tasks like conceptual modeling, in which concentration and clearness of mind are crucial. Goal. In order to evaluate whether Software Engineering students enhance their conceptual modeling performance after several weeks of mindfulness practice, a series of three controlled experiments were carried out at the University of Seville during three consecutive academic years (2013-2016) involving 130 students. Method. In all the experiments, the subjects were divided into two groups. While the experimental group practiced mindfulness, the control group was trained in public speaking as a placebo treatment. All the subjects developed two conceptual models based on a transcript of an interview, one before and another one after the treatment. The results were compared in terms of conceptual modeling quality (measured as effectiveness, i.e. the percentage of model elements correctly identified) and productivity (measured as efficiency, i.e. the number of model elements correctly identified per unit of time). Results. The statistically significant results of the series of experiments revealed that the subjects who practiced mindfulness developed slightly better conceptual models (their quality was 8.16% higher) and they did it faster (they were 46.67% more productive) than the control group, even if they did not have a previous interest in meditation. Conclusions. The practice of mindfulness improves the performance of Software Engineering students in conceptual modeling, especially their productivity. Nevertheless, more experimentation is needed in order to confirm the outcomes in other Software Engineering tasks and populations.

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“…As a final example there have been inconsistent outcomes regarding the association of mindfulness with performance indicators. Some studies show that mindfulness may be associated with improved individual [5,[22][23][24] and team performance [25,26]. Other studies report negative or no effects of state mindfulness or MT on performance indicators [27,28].…”

Section: Kind Regardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Running too far ahead? Towards a broader understanding of mindfulness in organisations

Rupprecht

Koole

Chaskalson

et al. 2019

Current Opinion in Psychology

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Current workplace mindfulness research and interventions assume that teaching mindfulness will have beneficial effects for people and organizations. While research shows that mindfulness trainings may increase resilience of working adults, assuming that mindfulness will have independent effects on outcomes at different levels of an organization is not well grounded. We assert that mindfulness training would, however, be beneficial for organizations when tailored to that context and shaped by an understanding of organizational theory and practice. We also envisage mindfulness as a beneficial property of teams, organizations and the individuals who constitute them. To close the evidence gap we propose building multi-level models of mindfulness in organizations, broadening training programs, and developing a novel competency framework for teachers in this context.

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Don’t Forget to Breathe: A Controlled Trial of Mindfulness Practices in Agile Project Teams

Cited by 16 publications

References 31 publications

Mindfulness-based programmes to reduce stress and enhance well-being at work: a realist review

Mindfulness-based programmes to reduce stress and enhance well-being at work: a realist review

Effects of Mindfulness on Conceptual Modeling Performance: A Series of Experiments

Running too far ahead? Towards a broader understanding of mindfulness in organisations

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