CAROL LEE
Developer Thriving
This project was led by Dr. Cat Hicks (I was the supporting author & lead statistician)
Problem: Lack of empirical evidence on the sociocognitive factors promoting sustainable and long-term thriving in software developers, leading to misconceptions about how improve developer experience and productivity in a sustainable way.
Outcomes & Solutions: We developed and tested the first empirical model and measure of developer thriving, the process of sustainable growth and development. We found that developer thriving was the strongest predictor of developer productivity, and that organizations could improve thriving by using software metrics in a healthy way and increasing the visibility and value of developers' work.
Purpose & Method: Survey study proposing a multifactorial measure of developer thriving and the mechanisms driving both developer thriving and productivity.
Outcome: Healthy metrics use, visibility and value of work, and developer thriving were all significantly associated with perceived productivity, with developer thriving having the strongest effect on productivity. Notably, thriving also mediated the relations between perceived productivity and both healthy metrics use and visibility and value of work, indicating that the other variables impact productivity partially because of thriving – identifying developer thriving as a key component of increasing productivity
