Satisfaction and Performance of Software Developers during Enforced Work from Home in the COVID-19 Pandemic
Daniel Russo, Paul H.P. Hanel, Seraphina Altnickel, Niels van Berkel

TL;DR
This study investigates software developers' satisfaction and productivity during enforced remote work in the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing that activity-specific factors like autonomy influence well-being more than time spent on tasks.
Contribution
It provides empirical evidence on how activity-specific autonomy and relatedness impact developer satisfaction and productivity during enforced remote work, grounded in self-determination theory.
Findings
Time spent on activities was similar pre- and during pandemic.
Activity-specific autonomy predicts satisfaction and productivity.
Helping others increases satisfaction; bugfixing decreases it.
Abstract
Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, the daily lives of software engineers were heavily disrupted as they were abruptly forced to work remotely from home. To better understand and contrast typical working days in this new reality with work in pre-pandemic times, we conducted one exploratory (N = 192) and one confirmatory study (N = 290) with software engineers recruited remotely. Specifically, we build on self-determination theory to evaluate whether and how specific activities are associated with software engineers' satisfaction and productivity. To explore the subject domain, we first ran a two-wave longitudinal study. We found that the time software engineers spent on specific activities (e.g., coding, bugfixing, helping others) while working from home was similar to pre-pandemic times. Also, the amount of time developers spent on each activity was…
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Taxonomy
TopicsCyberloafing and Workplace Behavior · Technostress in Professional Settings · Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports
