Consequences of Unhappiness While Developing Software (1701.05789v2)

Abstract: The growing literature on affect among software developers mostly reports on the linkage between happiness, software quality, and developer productivity. Understanding the positive side of happiness -- positive emotions and moods -- is an attractive and important endeavor. Scholars in industrial and organizational psychology have suggested that also studying the negative side -- 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, and is mainly expressed in terms of development productivity and software quality. In this paper, we attempt to uncover the experienced consequences of unhappiness among software developers. Using qualitative data analysis of the responses given by 181 questionnaire participants, we identified 49 consequences of unhappiness while doing software development. We found detrimental consequences on developers' mental well-being, the software development process, and the produced artifacts. Our classification scheme, available as open data, will spawn 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.

• The paper identifies 49 specific consequences of unhappiness across developers’ well-being, development processes, and software artifacts.
• It employs qualitative analysis on survey responses from 181 GitHub participants to examine impacts on cognition, motivation, and performance.
• Findings show that negative emotions reduce focus and productivity while degrading software quality, highlighting the need for supportive interventions.

Analysis of the Consequences of Unhappiness While Developing Software

The paper "Consequences of Unhappiness While Developing Software" presents an insightful exploration into the effects of negative affect among software developers. Its main objective is to comprehensively identify the consequences of unhappiness on developers, their work processes, and the resulting artifacts. This research bridges a critical gap in the paper of software development by shifting focus from the traditionally studied positive impacts of happiness on productivity and software quality to the less-explored negative impacts of unhappiness.

The paper utilizes qualitative data analysis on responses from 181 participants gathered through a large-scale survey conducted via GitHub. The results are robust, identifying 49 consequences of unhappiness that are categorized into three main domains: internal effects on developers’ well-being, external impacts on the software development process, and effects on software artifacts.

Key Findings

The paper categorizes its findings into three sections:

1. Internal Consequences:
   • Cognitive Impacts: Unhappiness notably affects developers' cognitive performance, decreasing focus and mental acuity, leading to mistakes and reduced problem-solving capabilities.
   • Mental Health Deterioration: There are notable mentions of increased stress, anxiety, burnout, and an alarming instance of depression among participants, highlighting a severe impact on mental health.
   • Motivation Decline: Unhappiness leads to reduced motivation and, in some cases, complete work withdrawal. Developers reported switching tasks or, in extreme cases, considering resigning from their positions.
2. Process-oriented Consequences:
   • Lower Productivity: There is a clear consensus among participants that negative emotions result in decreased productivity and efficiency in software development processes.
   • Deviations from Development Processes: Unhappiness prompts deviating from established processes, often resulting in rushed solutions and corner-cutting, which ultimately deteriorates workflow and process integrity.
3. Artifact-oriented Consequences:
   • Reduced Software Quality: The participants expressed that their unhappiness directly correlates with reduced quality of software artifacts, including less efficient code, increased bugs, and adherence to quality standards only in a superficial manner.

Implications for Practice and Research

Practical Implications

For practitioners, particularly managers and team leaders, the findings of this research offer actionable insights into improving workplace environments. Encouraging happiness in development settings may not only elevate productivity, but it can also help avert mental health issues and maintain process and product quality. Being aware of the consequences highlighted can guide interventions aimed at fostering a more supportive environment that proactively addresses developers' well-being.

Research Implications

This paper sets the stage for further research to quantify and explore the causal relationships behind the reported consequences of unhappiness. Future studies could take a mixed-methods approach to investigate not only the qualitative aspects but also gather quantitative data to back up these preliminary findings. Moreover, this research opens novel avenues in behavioral software engineering where the focus shifts towards the psychological and social dimensions of software development.

Conclusion

The paper is a pioneering effort in setting out empirical foundations for understanding the detrimental effects of unhappiness among software developers. It advocates for a broader application of behavioral and social science methodologies in software engineering research. As the field progresses, acknowledging and addressing these under-explored areas may lead to better overall outcomes in both developer well-being and software quality. The set of consequences identified serve as a significant resource for enhancing working conditions within the software development industry.