Hacker, Hustler, or Hipster: Decoding Perceived Role Strain in Academic Information Technology Software Development Teams

Abstract

Software development projects at South East Asian Institute of Technology, Inc. (SEAIT), often require students to adopt roles following the Hacker–Hustler–Hipster framework. While roles are assigned to balance responsibilities, disparities in workload and expectations can still cause stress, impacting both team dynamics and individual performance. Students may experience varying levels of mental, emotional, physical, and social strain. Despite the inevitability of burdens and overload in collaborative teams, limited research has examined how each role specifically affects students’ stress levels, providing an incomplete overview of how role assignment impacts wellbeing. To close this gap, the current study evaluated how 241 third-year IT students at SEAIT perceived their stress levels. Subsequent to a role pre-test, respondents were administered a survey using a 4-point Likert scale to assess strain across four dimensions.
The results showed that the demands of coding and problem-solving caused the greatest strain for Hackers (x̄ = 2.74, High Strain), who were followed by Hipsters (x̄ = 2.59, High Strain) from tasks involving documentation and design. Coordination tasks appeared less taxing, as Hustlers reported the lowest strain (x̄ = 2.37, Minimal Strain). Regardless of role, projects can be stressful, as evidenced by the overall mean of 2.56 (High Strain). Statistical analysis using ANOVA revealed that there were no significant differences in emotional strain (F = 2.618, p = 0.07537), but there were in mental (F = 9.021, p = 0.00018), physical (F = 5.959, p = 0.00305), and social (F = 4.721, p = 0.00990) strains. These findings underscore the significance of role-specific strain, the importance of fair workload distribution, and the need of more robust student support systems in project-based learning environments.