Happy software developers solve problems better: psychological measurements in empirical software engineering (1505.00922v1)

Abstract: For more than 30 years, it has been claimed that a way to improve software developers' productivity and software quality is to focus on people and to provide incentives to make developers satisfied and happy. This claim has rarely been verified in software engineering research, which faces an additional challenge in comparison to more traditional engineering fields: software development is an intellectual activity and is dominated by often-neglected human aspects. Among the skills required for software development, developers must possess high analytical problem-solving skills and creativity for the software construction process. According to psychology research, affects-emotions and moods-deeply influence the cognitive processing abilities and performance of workers, including creativity and analytical problem solving. Nonetheless, little research has investigated the correlation between the affective states, creativity, and analytical problem-solving performance of programmers. This article echoes the call to employ psychological measurements in software engineering research. We report a study with 42 participants to investigate the relationship between the affective states, creativity, and analytical problem-solving skills of software developers. The results offer support for the claim that happy developers are indeed better problem solvers in terms of their analytical abilities. The following contributions are made by this study: (1) providing a better understanding of the impact of affective states on the creativity and analytical problem-solving capacities of developers, (2) introducing and validating psychological measurements, theories, and concepts of affective states, creativity, and analytical-problem-solving skills in empirical software engineering, and (3) raising the need for studying the human factors of software engineering by employing a multidisciplinary viewpoint.

• The paper finds that positive mood strongly correlates with improved analytical problem-solving, as evidenced by SPANE scores and Tower of London test results.
• It employs experimental methods with 42 computer science students, offering empirical evidence that contradicts earlier theories favoring negative affect for analytical tasks.
• The study emphasizes the need for positive work environments to boost developer performance and calls for further research with diverse professional samples.

The Impact of Affective States on Software Development Performance

The research paper by Graziotin, Wang, and Abrahamsson explores the influence of affective states on software developers' analytical problem-solving performance and creativity. It underscores the significance of human factors in software engineering, a domain often highlighted but insufficiently examined in empirical research. The paper operates under the hypothesis that positive affective states correlate with enhanced problem-solving abilities, particularly in analytic contexts.

Methodology and Results

The paper involved 42 participants from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano's Faculty of Computer Science. The authors employed the SPANE measurement instrument to assess affective states, which allowed them to categorize participants into non-positive (N-POS) and positive (POS) groups based on their affect balances. Creativity was measured through caption-generating tasks, graded by independent judges, while analytical problem-solving was assessed using the Tower of London test.

Notably, the research data showed a significant distinction in analytical problem-solving capabilities between developers with higher positive affective states and those with lower. Specifically, the POS group outperformed the N-POS group, which calls into question previous assertions by Schwarz & Clore and Melton concerning negative affective states fostering critical and analytic thinking. On the contrary, no significant variance emerged regarding the creativity task scores across different affective states, highlighting a potential nuanced interaction between mood and creative output that requires further exploration.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research

The paper's constraints primarily revolve around its sample size and demographic composition—predominantly computer science students—raising questions about the generalizability to professional settings. Additionally, the median split technique used for data analysis potentially limits the precision obtainable with continuous SPANE-B measures, which the authors acknowledge as a methodological limitation.

Future research should aim to replicate these findings within larger and more diverse populations, including seasoned software professionals, to validate the results across varying levels of experience. Moreover, adopting a process-oriented approach to investigate affective states during software development projects could unveil more profound insights into how mood influences productivity and code quality.

Theoretical and Practical Implications

This research contributes to theoretical discussions by suggesting that positive affective states might be indicative of heightened analytic problem-solving skills among developers. Practically, these insights could inform management strategies, emphasizing the need for environments that foster satisfaction and positive emotions. Silicon Valley's model of employee perks and incentives offers partial justification based on emerging empirical support for the productivity benefits of happy developers.

In conclusion, this paper is a pivotal step toward an integrative approach that marries psychological insights with software engineering, advocating for a multidisciplinary consideration of human factors in the pursuit of higher productivity and better software quality.