Exit the Code: A Model for Understanding Career Abandonment Intention Among Software Developers

2025-03-06

AI Summary

This study investigates key antecedents of occupational turnover intention among practicing software developers, addressing a gap in prior research that predominantly focuses on former developers. Grounded in the Investment Model, we adapt and validate it within the software engineering occupational context, proposing and testing a theoretical framework comprising technical job satisfaction, occupational alternatives, occupational investment, and occupational commitment. Using survey data from 221 active developers, we employ exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses alongside structural equation modeling (SEM). Results indicate that occupational commitment serves as a central mediator: technical job satisfaction positively predicts occupational commitment, which in turn negatively predicts turnover intention; occupational alternatives and occupational investment exert direct negative effects on turnover intention. The model demonstrates excellent fit and explanatory power, offering actionable theoretical foundations for developer retention interventions.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Software Engineering
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Satisfiability Modulo Theories
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Other Foundations of Cognitive Modeling & Systems

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Social and technical mechanisms of refusal for web technologies and applications
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Models for Web evolution
• Social Networks and Social Media: Socio-technical web-based systems

Abstract

Background. Career abandonment, the process in which professionals leave the activity, assuming positions in another area, among software developers involves frustration with the lost investment and emotional and financial costs, even though being beneficial for the human being, depending on personal context. Previous studies have identified work-related motivators for career abandonment, such as the threat of obsolescence, unstable requirements, and low code quality, though these factors have primarily been examined in former developers. The relationship between these motivators and the intention to abandon among currently active developers remains unexplored. Goal. This article investigates the relationship between key work-related motivators and currently active software developers intention to abandon their careers. Method. We employed a quantitative approach, surveying 221 software developers to validate a theoretical model for career abandonment intention, based on an adaptation of the Investment Model, which incorporates satisfaction with technical aspects of the profession as well as the intention to abandon. Findings. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, through structural equation modeling (SEM), provided robust support for the adapted Investment Model in explaining software developers intention to abandon their careers. Moreover, career commitment significantly impacts the intention to leave the profession, being positively influenced by satisfaction with technical work-related factors and negatively influenced by career alternatives and career investment. Conclusion. The paper offers valuable insights for organizational leaders and research, potentially guiding retention strategies to better support developers, and the adoption of theoretical models to explain career abandonment.

Problem

• Investigates motivators for career abandonment in active software developers.
• Explores relationship between work-related factors and intention to leave.
• Validates theoretical model explaining career abandonment intention using SEM.

Innovation

• Quantitative survey of 221 software developers
• Adapted Investment Model for career abandonment
• Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis