The SPACE of Developer Productivity

Forsgren, Nicole; Storey, Margaret-Anne; Maddila, Chandra; Zimmermann, Thomas; Houck, Brian; Butler, Jenna

doi:10.1145/3454122.3454124

Cited by 77 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Future research should focus on collecting more data about virtual hackathons in other large-scale agile organizations to develop further insights into how virtual hackathons can be organized and improved. When doing this, one could consider using the SPACE framework for developer productivity suggested by Forsgren et al [14]. The framework recognizes multiple productivity dimensions for large-scale agile organizations, both on an individual, team, and organizational level, that are similar to our findings on hackathons.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Innovation in Large-Scale Agile - Benefits and Challenges of Hackathons When Hacking from Home

Ulfsnes

Stray

Moe

et al. 2021

Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming – Workshops

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Hackathons are events in which diverse teams work together to explore and develop solutions, software, or even ideas. Hackathons have been recognized not only as public events for hacking but also as a corporate mechanism for innovation. Hackathons are a way for established large-scale agile organizations to achieve increased employee wellbeing as well as being a curator for innovation and developing new products. The sudden transition to the work-from-home mode caused by the COVID-19 pandemic first put many corporate events requiring collocation, such as hackathons, temporarily on hold and then motivated companies to find ways to hold these events virtually. In this paper, we report our findings from investigating hackathons in the context of a large agile company by first exploring the general benefits and challenges of hackathons and then trying to understand how they were affected by the virtual setup. We conducted nine interviews, surveyed 23 employees, and analyzed a hackathon demo. We found that hackathons provide both individual and organizational benefits of innovation, personal interests, and acquiring new skills and competencies. However, several challenges such as added stress due to stopping the regular work, employees fearing not having enough contribution to deliver, and potential mismatch between individual and organizational goals were also found. With respect to the virtual setup, we found that virtual hackathons are not diminishing the innovation benefits. However, some negative effects surfaced on the social and networking side.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Innovation in Large-Scale Agile - Benefits and Challenges of Hackathons When Hacking from Home

Ulfsnes

Stray

Moe

et al. 2021

Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming – Workshops

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Measuring performance in these domains can be challenging, as it is often multi-dimensional and may include subjective elements [15]. For example, in the context of programming, it is difficult to capture programmer productivity in a single metric.…”

Section: Generative Models and Programmer Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Generation Probabilities Are Not Enough: Exploring the Effectiveness of Uncertainty Highlighting in AI-Powered Code Completions

Vasconcelos¹,

Bansal²,

Fourney³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Large-scale generative models enabled the development of AI-powered code completion tools to assist programmers in writing code. However, much like other AI-powered tools, AI-powered code completions are not always accurate, potentially introducing bugs or even security vulnerabilities into code if not properly detected and corrected by a human programmer. One technique that has been proposed and implemented to help programmers identify potential errors is to highlight uncertain tokens. However, there have been no empirical studies exploring the effectiveness of this technique-nor investigating the different and not-yet-agreed-upon notions of uncertainty in the context of generative models. We explore the question of whether conveying information about uncertainty enables programmers to more quickly and accurately produce code when collaborating with an AI-powered code completion tool, and if so, what measure of uncertainty best fits programmers' needs. Through a mixed-methods study with 30 programmers, we compare three conditions: providing the AI system's code completion alone, highlighting tokens with the lowest likelihood of being generated by the underlying generative model, and highlighting tokens with the highest predicted likelihood of being edited by a programmer. We find that highlighting tokens with the highest predicted likelihood of being edited leads to faster task completion and more targeted edits, and is subjectively preferred by study participants. In contrast, highlighting tokens according to their probability of being generated does not provide any benefit over the baseline with no highlighting. We further explore the design space of how to convey uncertainty in AI-powered code completion tools, and find that programmers prefer highlights that are granular, informative, interpretable, and not overwhelming. This work contributes to building an understanding of what uncertainty means for generative models and how to convey it effectively.

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“…Moreover, specifically in case of software engineering, the inclusion of developers who are more representative of the population ensures that the software can meet the needs of society as a whole. Gender diversity is beneficial for productivity of software development teams [18] and sense of control for older workers is associated with maintaining well-being [78], which is one of the aspects of developer productivity [79].…”

Section: E Actionable Insightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

"STILL AROUND": Experiences and Survival Strategies of Veteran Women Software Developers

Breukelen¹,

Barcomb²,

Baltes³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The intersection of ageism and sexism can create a hostile environment for veteran software developers belonging to marginalized genders. In this study, we conducted 14 interviews to examine the experiences of people at this intersection, primarily women, in order to discover the strategies they employed in order to successfully remain in the field. We identified 283 codes, which fell into three main categories: Strategies, Experiences, and Perception. Several strategies we identified, such as (Deliberately) Not Trying to Look Younger, were not previously described in the software engineering literature. We found that, in some companies, older women developers are recognized as having particular value, further strengthening the known benefits of diversity in the workforce. Based on the experiences and strategies, we suggest organizations employing software developers to consider the benefits of hiring veteran women software developers. For example, companies can draw upon the life experiences of older women developers in order to better understand the needs of customers from a similar demographic. While we recognize that many of the strategies employed by our study participants are a response to systemic issues, we still consider that, in the shortterm, there is benefit in describing these strategies for developers who are experiencing such issues today.

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The SPACE of Developer Productivity

Cited by 77 publications

References 18 publications

Innovation in Large-Scale Agile - Benefits and Challenges of Hackathons When Hacking from Home

Innovation in Large-Scale Agile - Benefits and Challenges of Hackathons When Hacking from Home

Generation Probabilities Are Not Enough: Exploring the Effectiveness of Uncertainty Highlighting in AI-Powered Code Completions

"STILL AROUND": Experiences and Survival Strategies of Veteran Women Software Developers

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