Impact of Work from Home on Developers’ Working Habits, Perceived Productivity, and Team Dynamics during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Abstract: Background: In 2019, the world witnessed a novel coronavirus emerge in Wuhan, China. In a very short amount of time, the viral infection became a global pandemic. This resulted in a significant change in both work life and personal life. Social Distancing with others, wearing masks in public places, avoiding major meeting places, and working from home, these things become common in daily life. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, several organizations have opted to enable their employees to work from home. This change has had a tremendous influence on workplace culture and adapting to it has proven to be a monumental task. The research in this area was generalized to all employees, regardless of the tasks they play at their organizations. The working style, well-being, perceived productivity, and team dynamics of a software developer have a substantial influence on the product’s quality and efficiency. So, understanding the transition from on-site to WFH can be employed to boost overall productivity and provide some direction to companies looking to improve the working conditions for software developers who work remotely. Objectives: The objective of this thesis is to determine how work from home affects the developers' work habits, how those working habits impacted their perceived productivity, and also to investigate the impact of team dynamics on software developers during the pandemic. The results can be used to better understand the work habits, perceived productivity, and team dynamics of software developers who work remotely and offers few insights to organizations that enhance software developers' overall performance and work conditions at home. Methods: For this research, we employ surveying and semi-structured interviewing techniques to identify and understand the effects of work-from-home on developers' work habits, perceived productivity, and team dynamics. Results: The findings of this thesis indicate that work-from-home practices have a considerable influence on software developers. The 69\% of software developers who worked from home were negatively impacted in terms of their well-being and work habits. The well-being and work habits of software developers were significantly damaged in the early stages of the pandemic. Despite the fact that their working habits and well-being have transformed, developers are good at managing their professional lives. While working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic, 59\% of software developers were satisfied with their overall work productivity even though there are substantial concerns with their company’s team dynamics. Conclusions: Studying the effects on work habits, perceived productivity, and team dynamics is crucial since they have a big impact on developers' overall productivity. Essentially, software companies can employ research on these aspects and concentrate on improving the performance of their developers, which can ultimately result in better software. It will aid software organizations in looking at the experiences of their employees during work-from-home and contributes to the current understanding of the subject of organizational work culture.