Folklore in Software Engineering: A Definition and Conceptual Foundations

TL;DR

The paper defines software engineering folklore as informally transmitted, traditional, and emergent narratives and artifacts enacted within occupational groups that shape identity and collective knowledge. It combines folklore theory with a literature review and 12 semi-structured interviews in Sweden to identify folklore forms (myths, legends, anecdotes, rituals, artifacts, humor) and map them to practices and SWEBOK knowledge areas. A thematic analysis yields a working definition and a set of implications for ethnography, reflective practice, and organizational intervention, while also highlighting gaps in transmission mechanisms and empirical validation. Overall, the work provides a foundation for systematically studying SE culture as a folkloric phenomenon to preserve useful heuristics and challenge unhelpful folklore.

Abstract

We explore the concept of folklore within software engineering, drawing from folklore studies to define and characterize narratives, myths, rituals, humor, and informal knowledge that circulate within software development communities. Using a literature review and thematic analysis, we curated exemplar folklore items (e.g., beliefs about where defects occur, the 10x developer legend, and technical debt). We analyzed their narrative form, symbolic meaning, occupational relevance, and links to knowledge areas in software engineering. To ground these concepts in practice, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 industrial practitioners in Sweden to explore how such narratives are recognized or transmitted within their daily work and how they affect it. Synthesizing these results, we propose a working definition of software engineering folklore as informally transmitted, traditional, and emergent narratives and heuristics enacted within occupational folk groups that shape identity, values, and collective knowledge. We argue that making the concept of software engineering folklore explicit provides a foundation for subsequent ethnography and folklore studies and for reflective practice that can preserve context-effective heuristics while challenging unhelpful folklore.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Overview of the method used to explore SE folklore: theory grounding, folklore items, practitioner interviews, and synthesis into a working definition.
• Figure 2: Illustrative examples of transmitted memes referenced in the interviews.