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ICSE 2021
Mon 17 May - Sat 5 June 2021

The mass shift to working at home during the COVID-19 pandemic radically changed the way many software development teams collaborate and communicate. To investigate how team culture and team productivity may also have been affected, we conducted two surveys at a large software company. The first, an exploratory survey during the early months of the pandemic with 2,265 developer responses, revealed that many developers faced challenges reaching milestones and that their team productivity had changed. We also found through qualitative analysis that important team culture factors such as communication and social connection had been affected. For example, the simple phrase “How was your weekend?” had become a subtle way to show peer support.

In our second survey, we conducted a quantitative analysis of the team cultural factors that emerged from our first survey to understand the prevalence of the reported changes. From 608 developer responses, we found that 74% of these respondents missed social interactions with colleagues and 51% reported a decrease in their communication ease with colleagues. We used data from the second survey to build a regression model to identify important team culture factors for modeling team productivity. We found that the ability to brainstorm with colleagues, difficulty communicating with colleagues, and satisfaction with interactions from social activities are important factors associated with how developers report their software development team’s productivity. Our findings inform how managers and leaders in large software companies can support sustained team productivity during times of crisis and beyond.

Fri 28 May

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

16:40 - 17:55
16:40
15m
Paper
QFL: Data-Driven Feedback Loop to Manage Quality in Agile DevelopmentSEIS
SEIS - Software Engineering in Society
Lidia López Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain, Alessandra Bagnato Softeam, Antonin Ahbervé , Xavier Franch Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Pre-print Media Attached
16:55
20m
Paper
The Daily Life of Software Engineers during the COVID-19 PandemicSEIP
SEIP - Software Engineering in Practice
Daniel Russo Department of Computer Science, Aalborg University, Paul Hanel University of Essex, Seraphina Altnickel mia raeumerei GmbH, Niels van Berkel Aalborg University
Pre-print Media Attached
17:15
20m
Paper
Pandemic Programming: How Covid-19 affects software developers and how their organizations can helpJournal-First
Journal-First Papers
Paul Ralph Dalhousie University, Sebastian Baltes QAware GmbH and The University of Adelaide, Gianisa Adisaputri Dalhousie University, Richard Torkar Chalmers and the University of Gothenburg, Vladimir Kovalenko JetBrains Research, Marcos Kalinowski Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Nicole Novielli University of Bari, Shin Yoo Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Xavier Devroey Delft University of Technology, Xin Tan Peking University, China, Minghui Zhou Peking University, China, Burak Turhan Monash University, Rashina Hoda Monash University, Hideaki Hata Shinshu University, Gregorio Robles Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Amin Milani Fard New York Institute of Technology, Rana Alkadhi King Saud University
Link to publication DOI Pre-print Media Attached
17:35
20m
Paper
“How Was Your Weekend?” Software Development Teams Working From Home During COVID-19ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished PaperArtifact ReusableTechnical TrackArtifact Available
Technical Track
Courtney Miller New College of Florida, Paige Rodeghero Clemson University, Margaret-Anne Storey University of Victoria, Denae Ford Microsoft Research, Thomas Zimmermann Microsoft Research
Pre-print Media Attached

Sat 29 May

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

04:40 - 05:55
04:40
15m
Paper
QFL: Data-Driven Feedback Loop to Manage Quality in Agile DevelopmentSEIS
SEIS - Software Engineering in Society
Lidia López Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain, Alessandra Bagnato Softeam, Antonin Ahbervé , Xavier Franch Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Pre-print Media Attached
04:55
20m
Paper
The Daily Life of Software Engineers during the COVID-19 PandemicSEIP
SEIP - Software Engineering in Practice
Daniel Russo Department of Computer Science, Aalborg University, Paul Hanel University of Essex, Seraphina Altnickel mia raeumerei GmbH, Niels van Berkel Aalborg University
Pre-print Media Attached
05:15
20m
Paper
Pandemic Programming: How Covid-19 affects software developers and how their organizations can helpJournal-First
Journal-First Papers
Paul Ralph Dalhousie University, Sebastian Baltes QAware GmbH and The University of Adelaide, Gianisa Adisaputri Dalhousie University, Richard Torkar Chalmers and the University of Gothenburg, Vladimir Kovalenko JetBrains Research, Marcos Kalinowski Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Nicole Novielli University of Bari, Shin Yoo Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Xavier Devroey Delft University of Technology, Xin Tan Peking University, China, Minghui Zhou Peking University, China, Burak Turhan Monash University, Rashina Hoda Monash University, Hideaki Hata Shinshu University, Gregorio Robles Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Amin Milani Fard New York Institute of Technology, Rana Alkadhi King Saud University
Link to publication DOI Pre-print Media Attached
05:35
20m
Paper
“How Was Your Weekend?” Software Development Teams Working From Home During COVID-19ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished PaperArtifact ReusableTechnical TrackArtifact Available
Technical Track
Courtney Miller New College of Florida, Paige Rodeghero Clemson University, Margaret-Anne Storey University of Victoria, Denae Ford Microsoft Research, Thomas Zimmermann Microsoft Research
Pre-print Media Attached