Overwhelmed software developers: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

TL;DR

This study explores software developers' experiences of overwhelm, revealing seven categories and highlighting both negative impacts like stress and productivity loss, as well as positive aspects such as increased focus and motivation.

Contribution

It provides qualitative insights into overwhelm in software development, identifying specific categories and highlighting potential unique attributes of developers that influence their experience.

Findings

Seven categories of overwhelm identified

Overwhelm can have positive effects like increased focus

Stress is the most common feeling during overwhelm

Abstract

In this paper, we report on an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study on experiencing overwhelm in a software development context. The objectives of our study are, hence, to understand the experiences developers have when being overwhelmed, how this impacts their productivity and which role stress plays in the process. To this end, we interviewed two software developers who have experienced overwhelm recently. Throughout a qualitative analysis of the shared experiences, we uncover seven categories of overwhelm (communication, disturbance, organizational, variety, technical, temporal, and positive overwhelm). While the first six themes all are related to negative outcomes, including low productivity and stress, the participants reported that overwhelm can sometimes be experienced to be positive and pleasant, and it can increase their mental focus, self ambition, and productivity. Stress was the most mentioned feeling experienced when overwhelmed. Our findings, for the most, are along the same direction of similar studies from other disciplines and with other participants. However, there may be unique attributes to software developers that mitigate the negative experiences of overwhelm.