Unveiling the Spectrum of Hybrid Work in Software Engineering: Research Directions

Abstract

Despite the heated debate on whether hybrid work would be the new normal in the post-pandemic world, it is an exciting, if not new, research phenomenon for Software Engineering (SE) researchers. Hybrid work has a wide range of dimensions and aspects that need exploration and understanding for modern software companies to truly benefit from it. In this paper, we propose a framework that incorporates multiple perspectives on hybrid work in software engineering. We applied the framework to group a set of research topics collected at the GoHyb (Global and Hybrid Work in Software Engineering) workshop collocated with the XP2023 conference, and extrapolated some new topics based on the framework, to demonstrate various research questions that can be asked on hybrid work in software engineering. We conclude the paper with a remark on the need of more contextual and nuanced understanding of hybrid work in software engineering.