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.

翻译：本文借鉴民间传说研究，探讨软件工程中的民间传说概念，定义并描述了在软件开发社区中流传的叙事、神话、仪式、幽默及非正式知识。通过文献综述与主题分析，我们整理出代表性民间传说案例（例如关于缺陷出现位置的信念、10倍效率开发者传说、技术债务）。我们分析了其叙事形式、象征意义、职业相关性及其与软件工程知识领域的关联。为使这些概念与实践相结合，我们对瑞典12位行业从业者进行了半结构化访谈，探究此类叙事在其日常工作中如何被识别与传播，及其如何影响实际工作。综合研究结果，我们提出软件工程民间传说的操作性定义：在职业民间群体中非正式传播、具有传统性与涌现性的叙事及启发式方法，这些内容塑造着群体身份认同、价值观念与集体知识。我们认为，明确软件工程民间传说的概念能为后续的民族志与民间传说研究奠定基础，并为反思性实践提供支撑，从而在保留情境有效性启发式方法的同时，挑战无益的民间传说。