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To Work from Home (WFH) or Not to Work from Home? Lessons Learned by Software Engineers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Systems, Software and Services Process Improvement (EuroSPI 2021)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1442))

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Abstract

This research investigates software engineering during the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on the lessons learned and predictions for future software engineering work. Four themes are explored: Remote work, Team management, Work/Life balance, and Technology/Software Engineering Methods. Our research has demonstrated that software companies will derive tangible benefits from supporting their employees during this uncertain time through ergonomic home offices, listening to their concerns, as well as encouraging breaks and hard stops to boost long term well-being and productivity. It shows that communication and collaboration tools, critical to project success, have been utilised. The hiring of new talent has been reimagined, with managers playing a vital role in the process. The insights gained are significant as they will assuage some pre-existing concerns regarding remote work, creating a new understanding of its role in the future. Looking to a post-COVID-19 future, we envision the rise of hybrid software development working arrangements, with a focus on the Working-From-Home to Not-Working-From-Home ratio - WFH: NWFH - perhaps colloquialised as Home: Not Home (HNH). For many this ratio will be neither 100:0 or 0:100, the former would lead to team breakdowns, developer isolation, difficulties onboarding and too many communication gaps, the latter would lead to disaffected employees. We identify plausible future software engineering working arrangements, noting that there are challenging times ahead for employers and employees as they navigate this HNH future, but there are benefits for both parties in getting the balance right.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported with the financial support of the Science Foundation Ireland grant 13/RC/2094_2 and co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund through the Southern & Eastern Regional Operational Programme to Lero - the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software (www.lero.ie).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computing, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Aifric Nolan, Rachel White, Mahjabeen Soomro, Boluwatife Comfort Dopamu & Paul Clarke

  2. Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, Limerick, Ireland

    Murat Yilmaz & Paul Clarke

  3. FINEOS Corporation, Dublin, Ireland

    David Solan

  4. Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

    Murat Yilmaz

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  1. Aifric Nolan
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  2. Rachel White
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Correspondence to Paul Clarke .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

    Murat Yilmaz

  2. Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Paul Clarke

  3. I.S.C.N. GesmbH, Graz, Austria

    Richard Messnarz

  4. IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Krems, Austria

    Michael Reiner

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Nolan, A. et al. (2021). To Work from Home (WFH) or Not to Work from Home? Lessons Learned by Software Engineers During the COVID-19 Pandemic. In: Yilmaz, M., Clarke, P., Messnarz, R., Reiner, M. (eds) Systems, Software and Services Process Improvement. EuroSPI 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1442. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85521-5_2

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