Pandemic programming How COVID-19 affects software developers and how their organizations can help

Context As a novel coronavirus swept the world in early 2020, thousands of software developers began working from home. Many did so on short notice, under difficult and stressful conditions. Objective This study investigates the effects of the pandemic on developers’ wellbeing and productivity. Meth...

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Veröffentlicht in:Empirical software engineering : an international journal Jg. 25; H. 6; S. 4927 - 4961
Hauptverfasser: Ralph, Paul, Baltes, Sebastian, Adisaputri, Gianisa, Torkar, Richard, Kovalenko, Vladimir, Kalinowski, Marcos, Novielli, Nicole, Yoo, Shin, Devroey, Xavier, Tan, Xin, Zhou, Minghui, Turhan, Burak, Hoda, Rashina, Hata, Hideaki, Robles, Gregorio, Milani Fard, Amin, Alkadhi, Rana
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: New York Springer US 2020
Schlagworte:
behaviors
Compilers
Computer Science
COVID-19
Crisis management
Disaster
Disaster management
Emergency management
Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa och socialmedicin
health
impact
information
Interpreters
knowledge
management
Pandemic
Productivity
Programming Languages
Programvaruteknik
Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine
Questionnaire
risk perception
Software development
Software Engineering
Software Engineering and COVID-19
Software Engineering/Programming and Operating Systems
Structural equation modeling
teleworking
Wellbeing
work
Work from home
Productivity
COVID-19
Crisis management
Questionnaire
Software development
Structural equation modeling
Work from home
Disaster management
Emergency management
Wellbeing
Pandemic
ISSN:1382-3256, 1573-7616, 1573-7616
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Zusammenfassung:Context As a novel coronavirus swept the world in early 2020, thousands of software developers began working from home. Many did so on short notice, under difficult and stressful conditions. Objective This study investigates the effects of the pandemic on developers’ wellbeing and productivity. Method A questionnaire survey was created mainly from existing, validated scales and translated into 12 languages. The data was analyzed using non-parametric inferential statistics and structural equation modeling. Results The questionnaire received 2225 usable responses from 53 countries. Factor analysis supported the validity of the scales and the structural model achieved a good fit (CFI = 0.961, RMSEA = 0.051, SRMR = 0.067). Confirmatory results include: (1) the pandemic has had a negative effect on developers’ wellbeing and productivity; (2) productivity and wellbeing are closely related; (3) disaster preparedness, fear related to the pandemic and home office ergonomics all affect wellbeing or productivity. Exploratory analysis suggests that: (1) women, parents and people with disabilities may be disproportionately affected; (2) different people need different kinds of support. Conclusions To improve employee productivity, software companies should focus on maximizing employee wellbeing and improving the ergonomics of employees’ home offices. Women, parents and disabled persons may require extra support.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
Communicated by: Robert Feldt and Thomas Zimmermann
ISSN:1382-3256
1573-7616
1573-7616
DOI:10.1007/s10664-020-09875-y