6533b82efe1ef96bd1293c24
RESEARCH PRODUCT
What happens when software developers are (un)happy
Pekka AbrahamssonXiaofeng WangFabian FagerholmFabian FagerholmDaniel Graziotinsubject
FOS: Computer and information scienceshuman aspectsohjelmistokehittäjätdeveloper experiencemedia_common.quotation_subjectohjelmistotuotantoCREATIVITYemotion02 engineering and technologySoftware development processComputer Science - Software EngineeringComputer Science - Computers and SocietyComputers and Society (cs.CY)0502 economics and business0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineeringhappinessMETAANALYSISmedia_commonta11305 social sciences020207 software engineeringPERFORMANCECreativity113 Computer and information sciencesSoftware qualitySoftware Engineering (cs.SE)ComprehensionEMOTIONSHardware and ArchitectureJob performanceaffect8. Economic growthMOODtunne-elämäHappinessIndustrial and organizational psychologytyöpsykologiabehavioral software engineeringPsychologyonnellisuusSocial psychology050203 business & managementSoftwareInformation SystemsQualitative researchdescription
The growing literature on affect among software developers mostly reports on the linkage between happiness, software quality, and developer productivity. Understanding happiness and unhappiness in all its components -- positive and negative emotions and moods -- is an attractive and important endeavor. Scholars in industrial and organizational psychology have suggested that understanding happiness and unhappiness could lead to cost-effective ways of enhancing working conditions, job performance, and to limiting the occurrence of psychological disorders. Our comprehension of the consequences of (un)happiness among developers is still too shallow, being mainly expressed in terms of development productivity and software quality. In this paper, we study what happens when developers are happy and unhappy while developing software. Qualitative data analysis of responses given by 317 questionnaire participants identified 42 consequences of unhappiness and 32 of happiness. We found consequences of happiness and unhappiness that are beneficial and detrimental for developers' mental well-being, the software development process, and the produced artifacts. Our classification scheme, available as open data enables new happiness research opportunities of cause-effect type, and it can act as a guideline for practitioners for identifying damaging effects of unhappiness and for fostering happiness on the job.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-07-03 | Journal of Systems and Software |