Indexed in
License and use
Work-from-home impacts on software project: A global study on software development practices and stakeholder perceptions
Publicated to:Software-Practice & Experience. 54 (5): 896-926 - 2024-05-01 54(5), DOI: 10.1002/spe.3306
Authors: Anh, ND; Khanna, D; Le, GH; Greer, D; Wang, XF; Zaina, LM; Matturro, G; Melegati, J; Guerra, E; Kettunen, P; Hyrynsalmi, S; Edison, H; Sales, A; Chanin, R; Rutitis, D; Kemell, KK; Aldaeej, A; Mikkonen, T; Garbajosa, J; Abrahamsson, P
Affiliations
Abstract
Context: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disruptive impact on how people work and collaborate across all global economic sectors, including software business. While remote working is not new for software engineers, forced WFH situations come with both limitations and opportunities. As the ‘new normal’ for working might be based on the current state of Work-from-home (WFH), it is useful to understand what has happened and learn from that. Objective: This study aims to gain insights into how their WFH arrangement impacts project management and software engineering. We are also interested in exploring these impacts in different contexts, such as startups and established companies. Method: We conducted a global-scale, cross-sectional survey during the spring and summer 2021. Our results are based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of 297 valid responses. Results: We characterize the profile of WFH in both spatial and temporal aspects, together with a set of common collaborative tools and coordination and control mechanisms. We revealed some areas of project management that are relatively more challenging during WFH situations, such as coordination, communication and project planning. We also revealed a mixed picture of the perceived impact of WFH on different software engineering activities. Conclusion: WFH is a situational phenomenon which can have both negative and positive impact on software teams. For practitioners, we suggest a unified approach to consider the context of WFH, collaborative tools, associated coordination and control approaches and a process that resolve those aspects that are sensitive to physical interaction.
Keywords
Quality index
Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel
The work has been published in the journal Software-Practice & Experience due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2024 there are still no calculated indicators, but in 2023, it was in position 49/132, thus managing to position itself as a Q2 (Segundo Cuartil), in the category Computer Science, Software Engineering. Notably, the journal is positioned en el Cuartil Q2 para la agencia Scopus (SJR) en la categoría Software.
From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 2.8, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Jun 2025)
Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-06-09, the following number of citations:
- Scopus: 2
- OpenCitations: 1
Impact and social visibility
Leadership analysis of institutional authors
This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Brazil; Finland; Gran Bretanya; Italy; Latvia; Norway; Saudi Arabia; Sweden; United Kingdom; Uruguay.
There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (GARBAJOSA SOPEÑA, JUAN) .