Survey of 868 scientific programmers shows generative AI adoption is highest among the inexperienced, who prefer conversational tools, and perceived productivity correlates most with volume of accepted generated code rather than validation practices.
Developer Productivity With and Without GitHub Copilot: A Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Case Study
3 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.
abstract
This study investigates the real-world impact of the generative AI (GenAI) tool GitHub Copilot on developer activity and perceived productivity. We conducted a mixed-methods case study in NAV IT, a large public sector agile organization. We analyzed 26,317 unique non-merge commits from 703 of NAV IT's GitHub repositories over a two-year period, focusing on commit-based activity metrics from 25 Copilot users and 14 non-users. The analysis was complemented by survey responses on their roles and perceived productivity, as well as 13 interviews. Our analysis of activity metrics revealed that individuals who used Copilot were consistently more active than non-users, even prior to Copilot's introduction. We did not find any statistically significant changes in commit-based activity for Copilot users after they adopted the tool, although minor increases were observed. This suggests a discrepancy between changes in commit-based metrics and the subjective experience of productivity.
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UNVERDICTED 3representative citing papers
Claude Code centers on a model-tool while-loop surrounded by permission systems, context compaction, extensibility hooks, subagent delegation, and session storage; the same design questions yield different answers in OpenClaw's gateway context.
Students primarily used Copilot chat and code generation features during open-source contributions, with usage patterns varying significantly by gender, programming skill, and AI experience.
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A survey of generative AI adoption and perceived productivity among scientists who program
Survey of 868 scientific programmers shows generative AI adoption is highest among the inexperienced, who prefer conversational tools, and perceived productivity correlates most with volume of accepted generated code rather than validation practices.
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Claude Code centers on a model-tool while-loop surrounded by permission systems, context compaction, extensibility hooks, subagent delegation, and session storage; the same design questions yield different answers in OpenClaw's gateway context.
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Engineering Students' Usage and Perceptions of GitHub Copilot in Open-Source Projects
Students primarily used Copilot chat and code generation features during open-source contributions, with usage patterns varying significantly by gender, programming skill, and AI experience.