What have we learned? A conceptual framework on New Zealand software professionals and companies’ response to COVID-19

Context The COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges to people from all professions and walks of life, and software professionals were no exceptions. Objective In this study, we investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on software professionals and their work practices with a focus on New Zealand. We specifically examined how software professionals and companies responded to different challenges, which is missing in the current literature. Method We conducted an exploratory study to learn how COVID-19 challenged software professionals and their responses to these challenges. We interviewed eighteen software professionals working in different New Zealand software companies providing them an opportunity to reflect on how they and their companies faced and dealt with the pandemic. We performed thematic analysis to identify various themes from our data set. Results We found that software professionals faced various personal, financial, and work setup-related challenges. COVID-19 impacted the productivity and workload of software professionals. It also affected the software development practices for teams, specifically for colocated teams. We observed that software professionals tried to workaround some challenges by themselves. We found that software professionals demonstrated empathy to their coworkers and supported each other during tough times. We also found that software companies facilitated software professionals in several various ways. We present a framework of the perceived responses of the software professionals, teams, and companies to various challenges they faced during the pandemic. Conclusion Our results reveal that software professionals with specific demographics, e.g., working and single parents, contractual employees, and employees working for smaller companies, were most impacted by the COVID-19 restrictions. Our findings indicate that, through the COVID-19 pandemic, software companies trusted and empowered their employees and equipped them with the right tools and equipment and a healthy environment.