Cognitive Mapping in Software Quality: A Theoretical Proposal for the Inclusion of People with ADHD
Resumo
Studies indicate that approximately 15% to 20% of the global population may be considered neurodivergent, including individuals with Tourette Syndrome, Dyslexia, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It is also estimated that around 7 million children between the ages of 3 and 17 (11.4%) have been diagnosed with ADHD. Despite recent advances in promoting inclusion within Software Engineering, there is still a lack of structured strategies to adapt the teaching and practice of Software Quality to the needs of neurodivergent individuals. This study proposes a mapping between one of the behavioral profiles of ADHD, as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), and the main activities in the Software Quality domain, as outlined in the SWEBOK V4. A qualitative approach was adopted, based on a documentary review, in which the technical tasks described in the Software Quality area were cross-analyzed with the behavioral characteristics of ADHD. This process enabled the identification of potential cognitive barriers. As a result, a conceptual table is presented, relating technical activities, associated difficulties, and inclusive good practice guidelines, applicable both in educational and professional contexts. The proposed model contributes to cognitive inclusion in the field of Software Quality, supporting the development of strategies that enhance the engagement, learning, and performance of individuals with ADHD. Finally, it is suggested that future studies conduct empirical validations to deepen and apply the findings in real-world settings.
Palavras-chave:
Software Quality, Neurodiversity, ADHD, Executive Functions, Inclusive Education
Referências
2001. ISO/IEC 9126-1: Software engineering – Product quality – Part 1: Quality model. International Organization for Standardization.
2011. ISO/IEC 25010: Systems and software engineering — Systems and software Quality Requirements and Evaluation (SQuaRE) — System and software quality models. International Organization for Standardization.
American Psychiatric Association. 2013. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Publishing, Arlington, VA.
Getinet Ayano, Kalkidan Yohannis, Mebratu Abraha, and Mamaru Ayalew. 2023. Prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychiatry Research 326 (2023), 115236. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115236
Russell A. Barkley. 2015. Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Handbook for Diagnosis and Treatment (4 ed.). Guilford Press, New York.
Boris Beizer. 1990. Software failures and their costs. In The Handbook of Software Quality Assurance, G. Gordon Schulmeyer and James I. McManus (Eds.). Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 517–531.
B. W. Boehm, J. R. Brown, and M. Lipow. 1976. Quantitative evaluation of software quality. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Software Engineering (San Francisco, California, USA) (ICSE ’76). IEEE Computer Society Press, Washington, DC, USA, 592–605.
Thomas E. Brown. 2008. Executive Functions: Describing Six Aspects of a Complex Syndrome. Attention Magazine (February 2008).
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2023. Autism Prevalence Estimates Increased to 1 in 36 Children. [link]
Idalberto Chiavenato. 2010. Gestão de pessoas: o novo papel dos recursos humanos nas organizações (3 ed.). Elsevier.
Francesco Cirillo. 2006. The Pomodoro Technique: The Acclaimed Time-Management System That Has Transformed How We Work. Francesco Cirillo, Berlin, Germany.
Daniela Damian. 2024. Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Software Engineering: Best Practices and Insights (1st ed ed.). Apress L. P, Berkeley, CA.
Melissa L. Danielson, Angelika H. Claussen, Rebecca H. Bitsko, Samuel M. Katz, Kimberly Newsome, Stephen J. Blumberg, Michael D. Kogan, and Reem Ghandour. 2024. ADHD Prevalence Among U.S. Children and Adolescents in 2022: Diagnosis, Severity, Co-Occurring Disorders, and Treatment. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology 53, 3 (May 2024), 343–360. DOI: 10.1080/15374416.2024.2335625
Norman Fenton and Shari Lawrence Pfleeger. 1997. Software Metrics: A Rigorous and Practical Approach (2 ed.). PWS Publishing, Boston.
Kiev Gama and Aline Lacerda. 2023. Understanding and Supporting Neurodiverse Software Developers in Agile Teams. In Proceedings of the XXXVII Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering. ACM, Campo Grande, Brasil, 497–502. doi:10 .1145/3613372.3613384
Kiev Gama, Grischa Liebel, Miguel Goulão, Aline Lacerda, and Cristiana Lacerda. 2025. A Socio-Technical Grounded Theory on the Effect of Cognitive Dysfunctions in the Performance of Software Developers with ADHD and Autism. In 2025 IEEE/ACM 47th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society (ICSE-SEIS). 1–12. DOI: 10.1109/ICSE-SEIS66351.2025.00006
David A. Garvin. 1984. What Does “Product Quality” Really Mean? Sloan Management Review 26, 1 (1984), 25–43.
Antonio Carlos Gil. 2017. Como Elaborar Projetos de Pesquisa (6 ed.). Atlas, São Paulo, Brasil.
Harvard Business Review. 2017. Neurodiversity as a Competitive Advantage. Harvard Business Review (2017). [link]
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). [n. d.]. Software and systems engineering – Software testing – Part 1: Concepts and definitions. ISO/IEC/IEEE International Standard.
Jon Kabat-Zinn. 1990. Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. Delacorte Press, New York, NY.
Cem Kaner, James Bach, and Bret Pettichord. 2002. Lessons Learned in Software Testing: A Context-Driven Approach. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.
Barbara Kitchenham. 1995. Towards a Framework for Software Measurement Validation. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 21, 12 (1995), 929–944.
Varsha Koushik and Shaun Kane. 2019. "It Broadens My Mind": Empowering People with Cognitive Disabilities through Computing Education. CHI ’19: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–12. DOI: 10.1145/3290605.3300744
Grischa Liebel, Noah Langlois, and Kiev Gama. 2024. Challenges, Strengths, and Strategies of Software Engineers with ADHD: A Case Study. In Proceedings of the 46th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society (Lisbon, Portugal) (ICSE-SEIS’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 57–68. DOI: 10.1145/3639475.3640107
J. A. McCall, P. K. Richards, and G. F. Walters. 1977. Factors in Software Quality. General Electric Co., USA.
Álvaro Menezes and Rafael Prikladnicki. 2018. Diversity in software engineering. In Proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (Gothenburg, Sweden) (CHASE ’18). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 45–48. DOI: 10.1145/3195836.3195857
Glenford J. Myers, Corey Sandler, and Tom Badgett. 2011. The Art of Software Testing (3 ed.). Wiley, Hoboken.
Kaia Newman, Sarah Snay, Madeline Endres, Manasvi Parikh, and Andrew Begel. 2025. Get Me In The Groove: A Mixed Methods Study on Supporting ADHD Professional Programmers. In Proceedings of the 47th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society (ICSE-SEIS 2025). 1–15.
Stack Overflow. 2022. Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2022. [link]
Roger S. Pressman. 2011. Engenharia de Software (7 ed.). McGraw-Hill, São Paulo.
Nader Salari, Reza Fatahian, Maryam Kazeminia, Masoud Mohammadi, Saeed Shohaimi, Ali Mohammadi, Sara Garosi, and Behnaz Khaledi-Paveh. 2023. The global prevalence of ADHD in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychiatry Research 320 (2023), 115002. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115002
Davi Santos, Dalton Vilela, Cleidson Souza, and Tayana Conte. 2011. Programas de Melhoria de Processo de Software – Uma pesquisa sobre a influência dos aspectos humanos. In Anais do X Simpósio Brasileiro de Qualidade de Software (Curitiba). SBC, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil, 183–197. DOI: 10.5753/sbqs.2011.15395
SAP. 2024. Autism at Work. [link]
Juliana Saraiva and Sergio Soares. 2023. Adoption of the LGPD Inventory in the User Stories and BDD Scenarios Creation. In Proceedings of the XXXVII Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering (Campo Grande, Brazil) (SBES ’23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 416–421. DOI: 10.1145/3613372.3613375
Elisabeth R. Silver, Christine L. Nittrouer, and Michelle R. Hebl. 2023. Beyond the business case: Universally designing the workplace for neurodiversity and inclusion. Industrial and Organizational Psychology 16, 1 (March 2023), 45–49. DOI: 10.1017/iop.2022.99
Simplify Hire. 2022. NDCC Job Portal. [link]
Judy SINGER. 1999. Why can’t you be normal for once in your life? From a problem with no name to the emergence of a new category of difference. In Disability discourse, M. Corker and S. French (Eds.). Open University Press, Buckingham, UK, 59–67.
Ian Sommerville. 2016. Software Engineering (10 ed.). Pearson, Boston.
Renata Vinadé and Sabrina Marczak. 2024. Educating for Accessibility: Insights into Knowledge Gaps and Practical Challenges in Software Engineering. In Proceedings of the XXIII Brazilian Symposium on Software Quality (SBQS ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 646–656. DOI: 10.1145/3701625.3701689
Hironori Washizaki (Ed.). 2024. Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK Guide) (version 4.0 ed.). IEEE Computer Society, Piscataway, NJ. [link] Accessed: July 2025.
Gerald M. Weinberg. 1971. The Psychology of Computer Programming. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.
Cynthia Zastudil, IV Smith, David H., Yusef Tohamy, Rayhona Nasimova, Gavin Montross, and Stephen MacNeil. 2025. Neurodiversity in Computing Education Research: A Systematic Literature Review. In Proceedings of the 30th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1 (Nijmegen, Netherlands) (ITiCSE 2025). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 114–120. DOI: 10.1145/3724363.3729088
2011. ISO/IEC 25010: Systems and software engineering — Systems and software Quality Requirements and Evaluation (SQuaRE) — System and software quality models. International Organization for Standardization.
American Psychiatric Association. 2013. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Publishing, Arlington, VA.
Getinet Ayano, Kalkidan Yohannis, Mebratu Abraha, and Mamaru Ayalew. 2023. Prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychiatry Research 326 (2023), 115236. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115236
Russell A. Barkley. 2015. Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Handbook for Diagnosis and Treatment (4 ed.). Guilford Press, New York.
Boris Beizer. 1990. Software failures and their costs. In The Handbook of Software Quality Assurance, G. Gordon Schulmeyer and James I. McManus (Eds.). Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 517–531.
B. W. Boehm, J. R. Brown, and M. Lipow. 1976. Quantitative evaluation of software quality. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Software Engineering (San Francisco, California, USA) (ICSE ’76). IEEE Computer Society Press, Washington, DC, USA, 592–605.
Thomas E. Brown. 2008. Executive Functions: Describing Six Aspects of a Complex Syndrome. Attention Magazine (February 2008).
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2023. Autism Prevalence Estimates Increased to 1 in 36 Children. [link]
Idalberto Chiavenato. 2010. Gestão de pessoas: o novo papel dos recursos humanos nas organizações (3 ed.). Elsevier.
Francesco Cirillo. 2006. The Pomodoro Technique: The Acclaimed Time-Management System That Has Transformed How We Work. Francesco Cirillo, Berlin, Germany.
Daniela Damian. 2024. Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Software Engineering: Best Practices and Insights (1st ed ed.). Apress L. P, Berkeley, CA.
Melissa L. Danielson, Angelika H. Claussen, Rebecca H. Bitsko, Samuel M. Katz, Kimberly Newsome, Stephen J. Blumberg, Michael D. Kogan, and Reem Ghandour. 2024. ADHD Prevalence Among U.S. Children and Adolescents in 2022: Diagnosis, Severity, Co-Occurring Disorders, and Treatment. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology 53, 3 (May 2024), 343–360. DOI: 10.1080/15374416.2024.2335625
Norman Fenton and Shari Lawrence Pfleeger. 1997. Software Metrics: A Rigorous and Practical Approach (2 ed.). PWS Publishing, Boston.
Kiev Gama and Aline Lacerda. 2023. Understanding and Supporting Neurodiverse Software Developers in Agile Teams. In Proceedings of the XXXVII Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering. ACM, Campo Grande, Brasil, 497–502. doi:10 .1145/3613372.3613384
Kiev Gama, Grischa Liebel, Miguel Goulão, Aline Lacerda, and Cristiana Lacerda. 2025. A Socio-Technical Grounded Theory on the Effect of Cognitive Dysfunctions in the Performance of Software Developers with ADHD and Autism. In 2025 IEEE/ACM 47th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society (ICSE-SEIS). 1–12. DOI: 10.1109/ICSE-SEIS66351.2025.00006
David A. Garvin. 1984. What Does “Product Quality” Really Mean? Sloan Management Review 26, 1 (1984), 25–43.
Antonio Carlos Gil. 2017. Como Elaborar Projetos de Pesquisa (6 ed.). Atlas, São Paulo, Brasil.
Harvard Business Review. 2017. Neurodiversity as a Competitive Advantage. Harvard Business Review (2017). [link]
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). [n. d.]. Software and systems engineering – Software testing – Part 1: Concepts and definitions. ISO/IEC/IEEE International Standard.
Jon Kabat-Zinn. 1990. Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. Delacorte Press, New York, NY.
Cem Kaner, James Bach, and Bret Pettichord. 2002. Lessons Learned in Software Testing: A Context-Driven Approach. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.
Barbara Kitchenham. 1995. Towards a Framework for Software Measurement Validation. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 21, 12 (1995), 929–944.
Varsha Koushik and Shaun Kane. 2019. "It Broadens My Mind": Empowering People with Cognitive Disabilities through Computing Education. CHI ’19: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–12. DOI: 10.1145/3290605.3300744
Grischa Liebel, Noah Langlois, and Kiev Gama. 2024. Challenges, Strengths, and Strategies of Software Engineers with ADHD: A Case Study. In Proceedings of the 46th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society (Lisbon, Portugal) (ICSE-SEIS’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 57–68. DOI: 10.1145/3639475.3640107
J. A. McCall, P. K. Richards, and G. F. Walters. 1977. Factors in Software Quality. General Electric Co., USA.
Álvaro Menezes and Rafael Prikladnicki. 2018. Diversity in software engineering. In Proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (Gothenburg, Sweden) (CHASE ’18). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 45–48. DOI: 10.1145/3195836.3195857
Glenford J. Myers, Corey Sandler, and Tom Badgett. 2011. The Art of Software Testing (3 ed.). Wiley, Hoboken.
Kaia Newman, Sarah Snay, Madeline Endres, Manasvi Parikh, and Andrew Begel. 2025. Get Me In The Groove: A Mixed Methods Study on Supporting ADHD Professional Programmers. In Proceedings of the 47th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society (ICSE-SEIS 2025). 1–15.
Stack Overflow. 2022. Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2022. [link]
Roger S. Pressman. 2011. Engenharia de Software (7 ed.). McGraw-Hill, São Paulo.
Nader Salari, Reza Fatahian, Maryam Kazeminia, Masoud Mohammadi, Saeed Shohaimi, Ali Mohammadi, Sara Garosi, and Behnaz Khaledi-Paveh. 2023. The global prevalence of ADHD in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychiatry Research 320 (2023), 115002. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115002
Davi Santos, Dalton Vilela, Cleidson Souza, and Tayana Conte. 2011. Programas de Melhoria de Processo de Software – Uma pesquisa sobre a influência dos aspectos humanos. In Anais do X Simpósio Brasileiro de Qualidade de Software (Curitiba). SBC, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil, 183–197. DOI: 10.5753/sbqs.2011.15395
SAP. 2024. Autism at Work. [link]
Juliana Saraiva and Sergio Soares. 2023. Adoption of the LGPD Inventory in the User Stories and BDD Scenarios Creation. In Proceedings of the XXXVII Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering (Campo Grande, Brazil) (SBES ’23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 416–421. DOI: 10.1145/3613372.3613375
Elisabeth R. Silver, Christine L. Nittrouer, and Michelle R. Hebl. 2023. Beyond the business case: Universally designing the workplace for neurodiversity and inclusion. Industrial and Organizational Psychology 16, 1 (March 2023), 45–49. DOI: 10.1017/iop.2022.99
Simplify Hire. 2022. NDCC Job Portal. [link]
Judy SINGER. 1999. Why can’t you be normal for once in your life? From a problem with no name to the emergence of a new category of difference. In Disability discourse, M. Corker and S. French (Eds.). Open University Press, Buckingham, UK, 59–67.
Ian Sommerville. 2016. Software Engineering (10 ed.). Pearson, Boston.
Renata Vinadé and Sabrina Marczak. 2024. Educating for Accessibility: Insights into Knowledge Gaps and Practical Challenges in Software Engineering. In Proceedings of the XXIII Brazilian Symposium on Software Quality (SBQS ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 646–656. DOI: 10.1145/3701625.3701689
Hironori Washizaki (Ed.). 2024. Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK Guide) (version 4.0 ed.). IEEE Computer Society, Piscataway, NJ. [link] Accessed: July 2025.
Gerald M. Weinberg. 1971. The Psychology of Computer Programming. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.
Cynthia Zastudil, IV Smith, David H., Yusef Tohamy, Rayhona Nasimova, Gavin Montross, and Stephen MacNeil. 2025. Neurodiversity in Computing Education Research: A Systematic Literature Review. In Proceedings of the 30th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1 (Nijmegen, Netherlands) (ITiCSE 2025). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 114–120. DOI: 10.1145/3724363.3729088
Publicado
04/11/2025
Como Citar
CARTAGENA, Tatiana; GOELZER, Natalya; KOHL, Karina; MARCZAK, Sabrina.
Cognitive Mapping in Software Quality: A Theoretical Proposal for the Inclusion of People with ADHD. In: SIMPÓSIO BRASILEIRO DE QUALIDADE DE SOFTWARE (SBQS), 24. , 2025, São José dos Campos/SP.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2025
.
p. 529-539.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sbqs.2025.15263.
