How do interruptions impact different software engineering activities?

The page summarizes a study on how interruptions affect software engineers across code writing, code comprehension, and code review. It says interruption effects vary by task and by interruption type, and that requester authority changes how disruptive an interruption feels. It also notes that remote work has increased interruptions through notifications and fewer in-person interactions.

Reading notes

#

• Duke and Vanderbilt researchers studied three engineering tasks with six interruption types, using physiological data and self-reported stress ratings from twenty participants.
• Interruptions affected productivity in different ways. In-person and on-screen interruptions together extended code review time, and simpler code comprehension problems were more affected than complex ones.
• Code writing showed the highest stress response. In-person interruptions lowered physiological stress measures, but participants still reported them as more stressful than on-screen interruptions.
• Physiological data and perception did not always match. Code review showed lower physiological stress scores, yet many participants still perceived the work as stressful.
• The recommendation is to rely more on perception data when improving team productivity, because beliefs about stress and interruption shape behavior.
• Suggested actions include reducing high-dominance interruptions during focus periods, protecting code-writing time with Do Not Disturb blocks, and measuring interruption impact with surveys and telemetry over time.