Towards a Science of Developer eXperience (DevX)

TL;DR

This paper advocates for establishing Developer eXperience (DevX) as a formal research field, emphasizing its importance for sustainable, inclusive, and effective software development amid increasing complexity and collaboration.

Contribution

It introduces DevX as a new research area, discusses its significance, and outlines scientific challenges and interdisciplinary approaches to advance human-centered software engineering.

Findings

DevX significantly impacts developer productivity and well-being.

Existing efforts to measure and improve DevX are identified and analyzed.

Key scientific challenges for DevX research are outlined.

Abstract

As software continues to permeate nearly every facet of modern life, the complexity and ubiquity of digital services underscore the need for sustainable, effective, and inclusive software development practices. Although software engineering has made significant progress in technical challenges since its inception, the human experience of those involved in software creation, broadly defined as developers, remains underexplored. This column advocates for the formal recognition of Developer eXperience (DevX) as a distinct research field. We argue that DevX profoundly influences critical development activities and overall productivity, especially as development becomes increasingly collaborative and diverse in terms of application domains. Building on existing efforts to measure and enhance DevX, we identify key rationales, scientific enablers, and interdisciplinary intersections that support this emerging discipline. We also outline the core scientific challenges ahead, aiming to call for actions from the research community and to promote more human-centered approaches to software engineering.