How COVID-19 Pandemic affects Software Developers’ Wellbeing: An Exploratory Study in the West Border Area of Mexico-USA

Abstract

The coronavirus COVID-19 swept the world in early 2020, working from home was a necessity. In the software industry, thousands of software developers began working from home, many did so on short notice, under difficult and stressful conditions. The emotions of developers can be affected by this situation. Software engineering research lacks theory and methodologies for addressing human aspects in software development. In this paper we present an exploratory study with a survey applied to practitioners in the west border area of Mexico-USA. This study is focused on the developers’ wellbeing during pandemic, expressed as emotions. The results show that high percent expressed to experience positive emotions such as optimism, serenity, happiness, acceptance, trust, and interest; however, even when negative emotions are not experienced in a significant level, a portion of respondents expressed to feel them. 91.0% expressed to be satisfied working from home, however, some conditions should be improved.