research-article

Understanding Developers Well-Being and Productivity: A 2-year Longitudinal Analysis during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Authors:

Paul H. P. Hanel,

Niels van BerkelAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, Volume 33, Issue 3

Article No.: 57, Pages 1 - 44

https://doi.org/10.1145/3638244

Published: 15 March 2024 Publication History

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant and enduring shifts in various aspects of life, including increased flexibility in work arrangements. In a longitudinal study, spanning 24 months with six measurement points from April 2020 to April 2022, we explore changes in well-being, productivity, social contacts, and needs of software engineers during this time. Our findings indicate systematic changes in various variables. For example, well-being and quality of social contacts increased while emotional loneliness decreased as lockdown measures were relaxed. Conversely, people’s boredom and productivity remained stable. Furthermore, a preliminary investigation into the future of work at the end of the pandemic revealed a consensus among developers for a preference of hybrid work arrangements. We also discovered that prior job changes and low job satisfaction were consistently linked to intentions to change jobs if current work conditions do not meet developers’ needs. This highlights the need for software organizations to adapt to various work arrangements to remain competitive employers. Building upon our findings and the existing literature, we introduce the Integrated Job Demands-Resources and Self-Determination (IJARS) Model as a comprehensive framework to explain the well-being and productivity of software engineers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Cited By

Russo DHanel Pvan Berkel N(2024)Understanding Developers Well-being and Productivity: A 2-year Longitudinal Analysis during the COVID-19 Pandemic—RCR ReportACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/364033833:3(1-4)Online publication date: 15-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3640338

Index Terms

Understanding Developers Well-Being and Productivity: A 2-year Longitudinal Analysis during the COVID-19 Pandemic
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing industry
    2. Management of computing and information systems
      1. Project and people management

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cover image ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology

ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology Volume 33, Issue 3

March 2024

943 pages

EISSN:1557-7392

DOI:10.1145/3613618

Editor:
Mauro Pezzé
USI Universitá della Svizzera italiana and SIT Schaffhausen Institute of Technology, Switzerland

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Publication History

Published: 15 March 2024

Online AM: 22 December 2023

Accepted: 16 August 2023

Revised: 29 June 2023

Received: 06 December 2022

Published in TOSEM Volume 33, Issue 3

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Russo DHanel Pvan Berkel N(2024)Understanding Developers Well-being and Productivity: A 2-year Longitudinal Analysis during the COVID-19 Pandemic—RCR ReportACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/364033833:3(1-4)Online publication date: 15-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3640338

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