Flow, Intrinsic Motivation, and Developer Experience in Software Engineering

Kati Kuusinen; Helen Petrie; Fabian Fagerholm; Tommi Mikkonen

Flow, Intrinsic Motivation, and Developer Experience in Software Engineering

Kati Kuusinen, Helen Petrie, Fabian Fagerholm, Tommi Mikkonen

Computer Science

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

Software developers are both users of development tools but also designers of new software systems. This dual role makes developers special users of work-related software. To increase the understanding of developers as users and to evaluate the ability of common measurement scales to address developer experience, we conducted a survey measuring developers’ flow state, intrinsic motivation and user experience. Scales used were the Short Dispositional Flow Scale, items from the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, the Short AttrakDiff-2, and our own DEXI scale. 57 developers from 25 countries responded and results indicate that intrinsic motivation and autotelic experience are significant predictors of developers’ UX whereas hedonic, pragmatic, and general quality are not. In addition, developers’ needs are characterized by efficiency, informativeness, intuitiveness, and flexibility of the tool.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the International Conference on Agile Software Development
Subtitle of host publication	Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming (XP 2016)
Publisher	Springer
Publication status	Published - 24 May 2016

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing
Publisher	Springer
Volume	251

Bibliographical note

Access to Document

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© 2016, The Author(s).
Accepted author manuscript, 323 KB

Cite this

@inproceedings{7dae3478bba04fc9a49302c8d32cd8b5,

title = "Flow, Intrinsic Motivation, and Developer Experience in Software Engineering",

abstract = "Software developers are both users of development tools but also designers of new software systems. This dual role makes developers special users of work-related software. To increase the understanding of developers as users and to evaluate the ability of common measurement scales to address developer experience, we conducted a survey measuring developers{\textquoteright} flow state, intrinsic motivation and user experience. Scales used were the Short Dispositional Flow Scale, items from the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, the Short AttrakDiff-2, and our own DEXI scale. 57 developers from 25 countries responded and results indicate that intrinsic motivation and autotelic experience are significant predictors of developers{\textquoteright} UX whereas hedonic, pragmatic, and general quality are not. In addition, developers{\textquoteright} needs are characterized by efficiency, informativeness, intuitiveness, and flexibility of the tool.",

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Flow, Intrinsic Motivation, and Developer Experience in Software Engineering. / Kuusinen, Kati; Petrie, Helen; Fagerholm, Fabian et al.
Proceedings of the International Conference on Agile Software Development: Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming (XP 2016). Springer, 2016. (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ; Vol. 251).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

TY - GEN

T1 - Flow, Intrinsic Motivation, and Developer Experience in Software Engineering

AU - Kuusinen, Kati

AU - Petrie, Helen

AU - Fagerholm, Fabian

AU - Mikkonen, Tommi

PY - 2016/5/24

Y1 - 2016/5/24

N2 - Software developers are both users of development tools but also designers of new software systems. This dual role makes developers special users of work-related software. To increase the understanding of developers as users and to evaluate the ability of common measurement scales to address developer experience, we conducted a survey measuring developers’ flow state, intrinsic motivation and user experience. Scales used were the Short Dispositional Flow Scale, items from the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, the Short AttrakDiff-2, and our own DEXI scale. 57 developers from 25 countries responded and results indicate that intrinsic motivation and autotelic experience are significant predictors of developers’ UX whereas hedonic, pragmatic, and general quality are not. In addition, developers’ needs are characterized by efficiency, informativeness, intuitiveness, and flexibility of the tool.

AB - Software developers are both users of development tools but also designers of new software systems. This dual role makes developers special users of work-related software. To increase the understanding of developers as users and to evaluate the ability of common measurement scales to address developer experience, we conducted a survey measuring developers’ flow state, intrinsic motivation and user experience. Scales used were the Short Dispositional Flow Scale, items from the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, the Short AttrakDiff-2, and our own DEXI scale. 57 developers from 25 countries responded and results indicate that intrinsic motivation and autotelic experience are significant predictors of developers’ UX whereas hedonic, pragmatic, and general quality are not. In addition, developers’ needs are characterized by efficiency, informativeness, intuitiveness, and flexibility of the tool.

M3 - Conference contribution

T3 - Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing

BT - Proceedings of the International Conference on Agile Software Development

PB - Springer

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