Enablers and Barriers of Empathy in Software Developer and User Interaction: A Mixed Methods Case Study
Hashini Gunatilake, John Grundy, Rashina Hoda, Ingo Mueller
TL;DR
The paper investigates empathy in software development by studying the developer–end user relationship within a real-world project (AskPCOS) using a mixed-method case study. It combines the QCAE empathy scale, observations of empathy cues, and semi-structured interviews analyzed with socio-technical grounded theory to identify awareness, enablers, barriers, and strategies for empathy. Key contributions include a taxonomy of developer awareness, a catalog of empathy enablers and barriers, observed verbal and nonverbal cues, and actionable recommendations for practitioners and researchers. The findings highlight the importance of direct interaction, familiarity, and reflective practice in fostering empathy, with implications for improving usability and stakeholder collaboration in SE projects.
Abstract
Software engineering (SE) requires developers to collaborate with stakeholders, and understanding their emotions and perspectives is often vital. Empathy is a concept characterising a person's ability to understand and share the feelings of another. However, empathy continues to be an under-researched human aspect in SE. We studied how empathy is practised between developers and end users using a mixed methods case study. We used an empathy test, observations and interviews to collect data, and socio technical grounded theory and descriptive statistics to analyse data. We identified the nature of awareness required to trigger empathy and enablers of empathy. We discovered barriers to empathy and a set of potential strategies to overcome these barriers. We report insights on emerging relationships and present a set of recommendations and potential future works on empathy and SE for software practitioners and SE researchers.