HOW COVID-19 AFFECTS SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS AND HOW THEIR
ORGANIZATIONS CAN HELP
As COVID-19 forces workers across the globe into unplanned remote work, an international research team revealed that software professionals are experiencing diminished emotional wellbeing and productivity.
Launched in twelve languages and completed by more than 2,000 individuals in over 50 countries, the study identified how current work environments and situations are affecting software professionals across industries.
Other key findings reveal that poor disaster preparedness, fear related to the pandemic and poor home office ergonomics are exacerbating professionals’ reduction in wellbeing or productivity; and that women, parents, and people with disabilities may be disproportionately affected.
The team, which submitted the findings today (May 4) to Empirical Software Engineering and arXiv, used the results to make practical recommendations to the software industry when managing employees working from home during social isolation now, and potentially in the future, to improve employee’s productivity and wellbeing.
As the Brazilian representative of the research team, I am available (kalinowski [at] inf.puc-rio.br) to Brazilian communication channels to provide a perspective on our research and on the unique challenges faced by employees and organizations during COVID-19 globally. Below you can find the executive summary of the results and the author version of our paper containing more detailed results.
Author Version of the Research Paper
Further information can be found on his website: http://www.inf.puc-rio.br/~kalinowski
