Pandemic programming: How COVID-19 affects software developers and how their organizations can help
Journal article, 2020
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.
Software development
COVID-19
Disaster management
Questionnaire
Structural equation modeling
Pandemic
Wellbeing
Work from home
Productivity
Emergency management
Crisis management
Author
Paul Ralph
Dalhousie University
Sebastian Baltes
University of Adelaide
Gianisa Adisaputri
Dalhousie University
Richard Torkar
Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS)
Chalmers, Computer Science and Engineering (Chalmers)
University of Gothenburg
Vladimir Kovalenko
JetBrains
Marcos Kalinowski
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Nicole Novielli
University of Bari Aldo Moro
Shin Yoo
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Xavier Devroey
Delft University of Technology
Xin Tan
Beijing University of Technology
Minghui Zhou
Beijing University of Technology
Burak Turhan
Monash University
University of Oulu
Rashina Hoda
Monash University
Hideaki Hata
Nara Institute of Science and Technology
Gregorio Robles
Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC)
Amin Milani Fard
New York Institute of Technology
Rana Alkadhi
King Saud University
Empirical Software Engineering
1382-3256 (ISSN) 1573-7616 (eISSN)
Vol. 25 6 4927-4961Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)
Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Software Engineering
Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
DOI
10.1007/s10664-020-09875-y