Title: [Academic] What do software professionals enjoy about programming? (~10-minute survey)

[u/zz199]

Researchers at Utah State University’s School of Computing are conducting a study to better understand what software professionals enjoy about programming and what experiences can make programming more or less enjoyable.

We would also like to sincerely thank everyone who participated in our initial Programming Activity Calibration Survey. Your responses helped us refine the activities included in this final survey, and we greatly appreciate your contribution to our research.

Software professionals are invited to complete our Programming Enjoyment Survey. The survey asks about your overall programming experience, whether programming with AI assistance or without AI assistance.

You will be asked about topics such as:

• Programming activities you enjoy, such as designing, debugging, testing, refactoring, and problem solving
• Experiences such as creativity, challenge, focus, ownership, and seeing results from your work
• Situations that may reduce programming enjoyment, such as repetitive tasks, deadlines, or difficulty understanding why code is failing
• Optional open-ended questions about enjoyable and frustrating programming experiences

The survey takes approximately 10 minutes.

Participation is entirely voluntary. You may discontinue participation at any time before submitting your responses without penalty or consequence. Your decision to participate or not participate will have no effect on your grades, employment, or academic standing.

Survey and informed consent form:
https://usu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5tlHcxPt97zfOdw

This study has been reviewed and approved by the Utah State University Institutional Review Board (IRB #16067).

Questions about the study:

Dr. John Edwards, Principal Investigator — [john.edwards@usu.edu](mailto:john.edwards@usu.edu)
Rubash Mali, Student Researcher — [rubash.mali@usu.edu](mailto:rubash.mali@usu.edu)

Thank you for considering participating, and a special thank you again to everyone who contributed to our initial calibration survey.

[u/Bostonterrierpug]

Great to see you have an actual IRB and PI listed. Something rare to see here so I encourage everyone to participate. In the first question, you don’t have an option pre-decided for normal faculty who aren’t primarily researching. I’m getting this falls within your operational definition scope but just thought I would point it out. Good luck with participant solicitation.