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Developer experience (DX) encompasses how developers feel about, think about, and value their work. DX pays particular attention to software development environments and the particular points of friction developers encounter in their everyday work across workflows, processes, and practices.

Definitions
"Developer experience" is a concept that began to emerge in 2012, inspired by the expansion of user experience (UX) to encompass the end-to-end experience of a product. The term "developer" refers to anyone who engages in the activity of developing software, while "experience" describes participation in that process, not simply having experience.

An early definition of DX, published by Fabian Fagerholm and Jürgen Münch, outlined three dimensions: cognitive, affective, and conative, which correspond to the trilogy of mind theory from social psychology (see also: psychology of self). These three factors respectively describe DX as encompassing how developers intellectually perceive their development infrastructure, how they feel about their work, and how they see the value of their contributions.

In 2021, a comprehensive approach to improving developer experience was published by researchers Abi Noda, Margaret-Anne Storey, and Michaela Greiler. The paper identified more than 25 socio-technical factors that affect the developer experience. These factors include interruptions, unrealistic deadlines, well-organized code, and pain-free releases.

Measurement
A later developer experience framework published in ACM Queue by Noda, Storey, and Greiler, and Nicole Forsgren, author of Accelerate, condensed the 25 factors identified in their earlier work into three dimensions affecting developer experience: feedback loops, cognitive load, and flow state.

This updated framework has identified several areas that can be measured to assess their impact on developer experience, highlighting that developer experience cannot be reduced to a single metric. The framework therefore emphasizes the significance of capturing comprehensive measurements that cut across developers' “perceptions and workflows."

Industry trends, initiatives, and teams
Major business consulting and market research firms have identified developer experience as a notable technology trend. According to a 2022 survey conducted by Forrester Research, 75% of enterprise leaders rated DevEx as "important/very important to business strategy execution."

Developer experience has also gained increasing attention as a crucial factor in software development at leading technology companies, with engineering leaders and C-level executives at industry giants such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Spotify recognizing its increasing importance in recent years.

Dedicated DevEx teams leading initiatives to improve developer experience are often part of the broader trend of platform engineering. Gartner research estimates that that 80% of software engineering organizations will have established platform teams by 2026. The charters of internal developer experience teams at technology leaders like Google, Stripe, and Twitter commonly prioritize ease and enablement as key objectives.

Industry discussions: significance
Recent industry reports have also highlighted the significance of enhancing developer experience for businesses.

McKinsey's research indicates that developer experience can help engineering organizations enhance productivity, business performance, and talent retention. A study conducted by McKinsey in 2020 revealed that companies with superior developer work environments achieved revenue growth four to five times higher than their competitors. The 2021 State of DevOps report also demonstrated that high-performing engineering organizations were twice as likely to surpass organizational performance objectives as low performers, outperforming competitors in metrics such as profitability, market share, and customer satisfaction.

Internal and external developer experience
This article primarily addresses internal developer experience, which refers to the quality of the experience that software developers have within an organization. However, it is important to note that developer experience is also a significant consideration for businesses that primarily offer software as a service (SaaS) products whose end-users are developers.