"Get Me In The Groove": A Mixed Methods Study on Supporting ADHD Professional Programmers
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Understanding the work styles of diverse programmers can help build inclusive workplaces, enabling all software engineers to excel. An estimated 10.6% of programmers have \textit{Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder} (ADHD), a condition characterized by differences in attention and working memory. Prior work has just begun to explore the impact of ADHD on software development, finding that inadequate support may negatively impact team productivity and employment. This prevents software development organizations from benefiting from ADHD-related strengths. To investigate these impacts, we conducted a two-phase mixed methods study. First, we qualitatively analyzed 99 threads (1,658 posts and comments) from \texttt{r/ADHD_Programmers}, the largest public forum dedicated to the ADHD programmer community. We constructed a mapping that reveals how ADHD programmers apply personal strategies and organizational accommodations to address software task-specific challenges. Second, we conducted a large-scale survey of 239 ADHD and 254 non-ADHD professional programmers to validate how our qualitative data generalize to the worldwide developer population. Our results show that ADHD programmers are 1.8 to 4.4 times more likely to struggle more frequently than neurotypical developers with all challenges we consider, but especially with time management and design. Our findings have implications for inclusive and effective tool- and policy-building in software workplaces and motivate further research into the experiences of ADHD programmers.
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Thu 1 MayDisplayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change
11:00 - 12:30 | |||
11:00 15mTalk | Code Today, Deadline Tomorrow: Procrastination Among Software Developers Research Track Zeinabsadat Saghi University of Southern California, Thomas Zimmermann University of California, Irvine, Souti Chattopadhyay University of Southern California | ||
11:15 15mTalk | "Get Me In The Groove": A Mixed Methods Study on Supporting ADHD Professional Programmers Research Track Kaia Newman Carnegie Mellon University, Sarah Snay University of Michigan, Madeline Endres University of Massachusetts Amherst, Manasvi Parikh University of Michigan, Andrew Begel Carnegie Mellon University | ||
11:30 15mTalk | Hints Help Finding and Fixing Bugs Differently in Python and Text-based Program Representations Research Track Ruchit Rawal Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, Victor-Alexandru Padurean Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, Sven Apel Saarland University, Adish Singla Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, Mariya Toneva Max Planck Institute for Software Systems Pre-print | ||
11:45 15mTalk | How Scientists Use Jupyter Notebooks: Goals, Quality Attributes, and Opportunities Research Track Ruanqianqian (Lisa) Huang University of California, San Diego, Savitha Ravi UC San Diego, Michael He UCSD, Boyu Tian University of California, San Diego, Sorin Lerner University of California at San Diego, Michael Coblenz University of California, San Diego Pre-print | ||
12:00 15mTalk | Investigating the Online Recruitment and Selection Journey of Novice Software Engineers: Anti-patterns and Recommendations Journal-first Papers Miguel Setúbal Federal University of Ceará, Tayana Conte Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Marcos Kalinowski Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Allysson Allex Araújo Federal University of Cariri | ||
12:15 15mTalk | Reputation Gaming in Crowd Technical Knowledge Sharing Journal-first Papers Iren Mazloomzadeh École Polytechnique de Montréal, Gias Uddin York University, Canada, Foutse Khomh Polytechnique Montréal, Ashkan Sami Edinburgh Napier University |