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Programmer's Block at Development Transitions

Survey Introduction

Programmer’s Block During Development Transitions

This short 4–5 minute survey supports a master’s thesis at the Technical University of Chemnitz.
The goal of this study is to understand situations in which software developers feel “blocked” when transitioning between different development activities.

Understanding these situations can help researchers better understand developer productivity challenges and improve development processes.

Key Definitions

To ensure a shared understanding, the following terms are used in this survey:

Being blocked
Feeling stuck, uncertain, or unable to make meaningful progress on a programming task — even though you are actively trying.

Transition (handoff)
Moving from one development activity to another. For example:

  • Understanding requirements → Designing a solution

  • Designing → Writing code

  • Writing code → Debugging or testing

Who Can Participate

Anyone with programming or software development experience is welcome to participate.

This includes:

  • Professional developers

  • Students with development experience

  • Engineers working with software systems

Participation

Participation in this survey is voluntary.

  • The survey takes approximately 4–5 minutes to complete.

  • You may stop the survey at any time by closing your browser.

  • There are 11 questions in total.

Data Protection Information

This survey is part of a research project on “Programmer’s Block during Development Activity Transitions” conducted at the Technical University of Chemnitz, Professorship of Software Engineering.

The legal basis for processing data is your voluntary consent according to Article 6(1)(a) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Data Collected

This survey collects only:

  • Responses about your programming experience

  • Responses about situations where you feel blocked during development tasks

No personally identifiable information (such as name, address) will be collected.

Use of Data

Your responses will be used exclusively for scientific research purposes.

The collected data will:

  • be analyzed as part of an academic master’s thesis

  • potentially contribute to scientific publications

Anonymity

This survey is anonymous.

  • The record of your responses does not contain identifying information, unless you explicitly provide such information in a response.

  • If you accessed the survey using an access code, the code is stored separately from survey responses and cannot be linked to your answers.

Data Storage

The collected data will be:

  • securely stored

  • accessed only by the researchers involved in this project

  • deleted in accordance with academic research guidelines

Contact

If you have questions about the study or data protection, please contact:

Kunal Rokde,
Master’s Student
Technical University of Chemnitz
Email: kunal.rokde@s2023.tu-chemnitz.de

Belinda Schantong, M.Sc.
Technical University of Chemnitz – Professorship of Software Engineering
Email: belinda.schantong@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Janet Siegmund,
Technical University of Chemnitz – Professorship of Software Engineering
Email: janet.siegmund@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de

 

There are 11 questions in this survey.
This survey is anonymous.

The record of your survey responses does not contain any identifying information about you, unless a specific survey question explicitly asked for it.

If you used an identifying access code to access this survey, please rest assured that this code will not be stored together with your responses. It is managed in a separate database and will only be updated to indicate whether you did (or did not) complete this survey. There is no way of matching identification access codes with survey responses.

 
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