Cited by 100Software Engineering Techniques and PracticesEmployee Performance and ManagementTeam Dynamics and Performance

What Predicts Software Developers’ Productivity?

Murphy-Hill, Emerson, Jaspan, Ciera, Sadowski, Caitlin, Shepherd, David, Phillips, Michael, Winter, Collin, Knight, Andrea, Smith, Edward +1 more·2021·IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

Abstract

Organizations have a variety of options to help their software developers become their most productive selves, from modifying office layouts, to investing in better tools, to cleaning up the source code. But which options will have the biggest impact? Drawing from the literature in software engineering and industrial/organizational psychology to identify factors that correlate with productivity, we designed a survey that asked 622 developers across 3 companies about these productivity factors and about self-rated productivity. Our results suggest that the factors that most strongly correlate with self-rated productivity were non-technical factors, such as job enthusiasm, peer support for new ideas, and receiving useful feedback about job performance. Compared to other knowledge workers, our results also suggest that software developers' self-rated productivity is more strongly related to task variety and ability to work remotely.

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Crossref · 10.1109/tse.2019.2900308

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  • One survey of developers found indications that developers tolerated, and in some cases valued, erroneous suggestions from the model.

    “One survey of developers considered the use of AI to support translation between programming languages and found indications that developers tolerated, and in some cases valued, erroneous suggestions from the model.26”

    From Measuring GitHub Copilot's Impact on Productivity (2024) · cites this paper as [26]

  • There is some evidence that acceptance rate (and indeed correctness) might not tell the whole story.

    “There is some evidence that acceptance rate (and indeed correctness) might not tell the whole story.”

    From Measuring GitHub Copilot's Impact on Productivity (2024) · cites this paper as [26]

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Authors
Murphy-Hill, E., Jaspan, C., Sadowski, C., Shepherd, D., Phillips, M., Winter, C., Knight, A., Smith, E., & Jorde, M.
Affiliations
  • Google (United States) (US)
  • National Instruments (United States) (US)
  • Bloomberg (United States) (US)
Venue
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Published
2021-03-01
Volume
47
Issue
3
Pages
582-594
ISSN
  • 0098-5589 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-3520
  • 2326-3881
OpenAlex
W2915232514
Cited by
100
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 3
FWCI
11.15
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
  • Social Sciences › Human Factors and Ergonomics › Employee Performance and Management
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Team Dynamics and Performance
Keywords
non-technical factors, work enthusiasm, peer support, performance feedback, task variety, remote work, knowledge workers, work environment

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