Time Warp: The Gap Between Developers’ Ideal vs Actual Workweeks in an AI-Driven Era
Award Winner
Software developers balance a variety of different tasks in a workweek, yet the allocation of time often differs from what they consider ideal. Identifying and addressing these deviations is crucial for organizations aiming to enhance the productivity and well-being of the developers. In this paper, we present the findings from a survey of 484 software developers at Microsoft, which aims to identify the key differences between how developers would like to allocate their time during an ideal workweek versus their actual workweek. Our analysis reveals significant deviations between a developer’s ideal workweek and their actual workweek, with a clear correlation: as the gap between these two workweeks widens, we observe a decline in both productivity and satisfaction. By examining these deviations in specific activities, we assess their direct impact on the developers’ satisfaction and productivity. Additionally, given the growing adoption of AI tools in software engineering, both in the industry and academia, we identify specific tasks and areas that could be strong candidates for automation. In this paper, we make three key contributions: 1) We quantify the impact of workweek deviations on developer productivity and satisfaction 2) We identify individual tasks that disproportionately affect satisfaction and productivity. 3) We provide actual data-driven insights to guide future AI automation efforts in software engineering, aligning them with the developers’ requirements and ideal workflows for maximizing their productivity and satisfaction.
Wed 30 AprDisplayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change
11:00 - 12:30 | Human and Social Process 1SE In Practice (SEIP) / New Ideas and Emerging Results (NIER) / Journal-first Papers at 207 Chair(s): Hausi Müller University of Victoria | ||
11:00 15mTalk | Toward a Theory on Programmer's Block Inspired by Writer's Block Journal-first Papers Belinda Schantong Chemnitz University of Technology, Norbert Siegmund Leipzig University, Janet Siegmund Chemnitz University of Technology Link to publication | ||
11:15 15mTalk | Digital Twins for Software Engineering Processes New Ideas and Emerging Results (NIER) Robin Kimmel University of Stuttgart, Judith Michael University of Regensburg, Andreas Wortmann University of Stuttgart, Jingxi Zhang University of Stuttgart Pre-print | ||
11:30 15mTalk | Discovering Ideologies of the Open Source Software Movement New Ideas and Emerging Results (NIER) Yang Yue California State University San Marcos, Yi Wang Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, David Redmiles University of California, Irvine | ||
11:45 15mTalk | Identifying Factors Contributing to ``Bad Days'' for Software Developers: A Mixed-Methods Study SE In Practice (SEIP) Ike Obi Purdue University, West Lafayette, Jenna L. Butler Microsoft Research, Sankeerti Haniyur Microsoft Corporation, Brian Hassan Microsoft Corporation, Margaret-Anne Storey University of Victoria, Brendan Murphy Microsoft Corporation | ||
12:00 15mTalk | Time Warp: The Gap Between Developers’ Ideal vs Actual Workweeks in an AI-Driven EraAward Winner SE In Practice (SEIP) Sukrit Kumar Georgia Institute of Technology, Drishti Goel Microsoft, Thomas Zimmermann University of California, Irvine, Brian Houck Microsoft Research, B. Ashok Microsoft Research. India, Chetan Bansal Microsoft Research | ||
12:15 15mTalk | Wearables to measure developer experience at work SE In Practice (SEIP) Charlotte Brandebusemeyer Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, Tobias Schimmer SAP Labs, Bert Arnrich Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam |