Replication Package of Understanding Developers Well-Being and Productivity: A Longitudinal Analysis of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has not only been one of the most disruptive events most people in Western countries experienced but has also led to far-reaching and long-lasting changes in people's life, such as increased flexibility in work arrangements. In the present longitudinal study, we investigate over a period of 24 months and six measurement points how the well-being, productivity, social contacts, and needs of software engineers changed over time (Ns = 192, wave 1, to 101, wave 6). We found changes for a range of variables. Variables such as levels of well-being increased while anxiety and loneliness decreased during the pandemic. Symmetrically, indicators of well-being (e.g., quality of social contacts) increased when lockdown measures were slowly lifted. On the other hand, other variables, including boredom and productivity, remained constant. Additionally, we run a preliminary investigation about the future of work at the end of the pandemic. A thematic analysis revealed that some form of hybrid work is here to stay. Also, we found that having changed jobs recently and low job satisfaction was reliably associated with the intention to change jobs again if the work conditions are not deemed adequate to developers' needs. This suggests specific challenges for software organizations that need to tailor various work arrangements if they want to be attractive employers. We conclude this paper with some actionable recommendations.