THE SECRET OF DEVELOPER HAPPINESS? A SURVEY AMONG SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS

Alphageeks IL, meetup #5, @yuvalgo, yuvalgo@gmail.com

About the Survey

Who would answer a survey about their job?

Are we good/productive?

How people and environment affects us?

Are we happy at our jobs?

305 developers/managers answered in 3 days

Mostly from www.dzone.com and twitter links

DISCLAIMER

Survey Population - Developers

20, 7%

246, 81%

7, 2% 32, 10%

CIO/CTO/C*O/Architect

Developer / QA / Graphic Design / Business Analyst

Other

Team leader of some sort

(blank)

Questions asked

Are you happy with your current position?

Do you respect your direct boss?

Are you looking for another job?

Are you happy with your current salary?

Would you recommend your friend to work in your team?

Do you do code reviews in your team?

Are you productive using the tools that you use (language, IDE, source control, database, build tools, runtime server platform)?

How professional are the people in your team?

How many hours do you work in an average week?

Does your team write developer tests code (unit testing, integration testing)?

How good are your team's deliverables?

Does your company communicate strategy, goals and customer feedback to you effectively?

What is your favorite color?

My thoughts before the survey…

We’re generally happy with our jobs

The people around us have a great effect on our

happiness

We’re earning a lot but not satisfied with it

We’re working a lot of hours

How many hours a week do you work?

Less than 40 hours a week?

40-50?

50-60

60 +

87% working less than 50 hrs

158, 52%

33, 11%

107, 35%

7, 2%

40-5050-60Less than 40

More than 60 (OMFG)

Satisfied with your salary?

60% are satisfied!

40, 13%

144, 47%41, 14%

80, 26%It's great, I'm happy

It's ok, not great

It's terrible terrible terrible

Not happy, need more cash!

Do you respect your direct boss?

Only 45%...

97, 32%

69, 23%41, 13%

98, 32%He's ok but could be better

I dont respect my boss at all

I love my boss

I respect my boss

Good intra-communications?

20, 6%

97, 32%

78, 26%

110, 36%

All the time

Kinda..

Sometimes

Strategy who?

Methodology VS. Mythology

Do you conduct code reviews in your team?

Do you write developer (unit/integration) testing?

Are you using productive tools?

Is your team doing a good job?

Do you do code reviews in your team?

Not really… (only 8% do it all the time)

24, 8%

120, 39%161, 53%All the time

For 1 out of 3 or 5 tasks

Not at all

Productive tools? 51: yes, 49 no

39, 13%

37, 12%

115, 38%

114, 37%Excellent tools, very productive!

I hate the tools I'm using, NOT productive at all

I think the tools that I use makes me productive

Productivity could be better

How professional is your team?

71% says theirs good!

53, 17%

35, 12%

62, 20%

155, 51%Just barely

Not at all

They are good

They're OK

How good is your team (2) ?

47% says theirs good!

24, 8%

119, 39%100, 33%

62, 20%

Little bugs, allmost alwayes on time

We are allmost ok, some bugs, sometimes late

We are good but have some bugs, you know, the occasional late build

We're terrible, lots of bugs, never on time

47% != 71%

Only 29% Happy with their current

position

60, 20%28, 9%

100, 33%

117, 38%I like it

I like it a lot.

It's Ok

No

Would you recommend your friend to

work in your team? Only 23% would

113, 37%

121, 40%

71, 23%

Maybe

No

Yes

Looking for another job?

85% aren’t ?

45, 15%

152, 50%

108, 35%

Actively looking

Keeping an open ear

No

But why…. ?

Developers are not happy at their current position

So they wouldn’t recommend a friend joining

But they aren’t leaving their jobs

Fail,

Excellent tools and technical environment,

Happy? – 51%

10, 25%

10, 26%9, 23%

10, 26%

I like it

I like it a lot.

It's Ok

No

14, 34%

12, 29%

13, 32%

2, 5%

Love their boss, happy? (63%)

I like it

I like it a lot.

It's Ok

No

60, 20%

28, 9%

100, 33%

117, 38%

Happy with your job? (29%)

I like it

I like it a lot.

It's Ok

No

17, 27%

14, 23%16, 26%

15, 24%

Great team, happy? (50%)

I like it

I like it a lot.

It's Ok

No

60, 20%

28, 9%

100, 33%

117, 38%

Happy with your job? (29%)

I like it

I like it a lot.

It's Ok

No

15, 37%

11, 28%

8, 20%

6, 15%

Happy with their salary, Happy? (%65)

I like it

I like it a lot.

It's Ok

No

22, 21%

8, 7%

33, 31%

44, 41%

Less than 40 hours, happy? (30%)

I like it

I like it a lot.

It's Ok

No

My thoughts VS. Real-Life

Before

We’re generally happy with our jobs:

The people around us have a great effect on our happiness

We’re earning a lot but not satisfied with it

We’re working a lot of hours

After:

Only 29% happy: Things could be better!

If the money’s good and the boss is good, we’re good (65%)

We don’t work more than 50 hours

Testing, Code reviews: get real!

Productivity: not really…

Favorite Color == BLUE

146, 48%

56, 18%

64, 21%

39, 13%

Blue

Green

Other

Red