Help us understand leadership in software development in the age of Generative AI

Murilo Coelho — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:10:51 +0000

A while ago, we started investigating a question that many software professionals experience in practice, but that is not always easy to define:

What characterizes leadership in software development projects?

Instead of starting only from predefined leadership models or formal job titles, we looked at how software practitioners themselves talk about leadership in their everyday work.

And this is where the DEV Community played an important role.

From DEV posts to a scientific publication

In the first stage of our research, we analyzed practitioner-authored articles published on DEV/Dev.to about leadership in software development.

The goal was to understand how software professionals describe leadership practices based on their own experiences, reflections, and narratives.

This analysis resulted in a scientific paper:

“What Characterizes a Software Leader? Identifying Leadership Practices from Practitioners’ Social Media”

Preprint link:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/403673428_What_Characterizes_a_Software_Leader_Identifying_Leadership_Practices_from_Practitioners'_Social_Media

In that study, we identified and organized leadership practices into recommended and discouraged practices, showing that software leadership goes far beyond formal roles such as manager, tech lead, or scrum master.

The findings suggest that leadership in software projects is strongly connected to interpersonal, managerial, communication, process, and strategic practices — not only to technical expertise.

Now we are moving to the next stage

Based on the findings from that study, we are now conducting a survey to better understand how these leadership practices and their effects are perceived by software development professionals.

We are also investigating a new and increasingly relevant dimension:

How is Generative Artificial Intelligence affecting leadership dynamics in software teams?

For example:

Can GenAI tools facilitate recommended leadership practices?
Can they reduce or intensify negative leadership effects?
Do they change the way teams communicate, learn, collaborate, or make decisions?
How do leaders and non-leaders perceive these impacts in practice?

Who can participate?

You can participate if you currently work or have recently worked on software development projects.

You do not need to have a formal leadership position.

We are interested in the perceptions of:

Developers
Tech leads
Engineering managers
Scrum masters
Product owners
QA professionals
UX/UI professionals
Data professionals
DevOps/SRE professionals
Researchers
And other professionals involved in software development projects

Both leaders and non-leaders are welcome to answer.

About the survey

The survey takes approximately 17 minutes to complete.

Your responses will be treated confidentially and analyzed in an anonymized manner.

At the end, if you wish, you may provide your email address to participate in a Gift Card raffle.

Survey link:

Investigating Leadership Aspects from the Perspective of Software Development Professionals

docs.google.com

Why your participation matters

This research started from the voice of software practitioners shared here on DEV.

Now, we would like to continue this conversation with the broader software development community.

Your participation can help us better understand how leadership is experienced in software projects and how Generative AI may be changing this landscape.

If possible, please also share this survey with other software development professionals.

Thank you for contributing to this research!