Software Engineering Research

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evidence EV-HANDOFF-2026-B6E8

Software onboarding outcomes are multidimensional and task-dependent

Identifier
EV-HANDOFF-2026-B6E8
Research Area
engineering-handoff
Status
draft
Version
0.1
Confidence
0.6
Priority
medium
Tags
onboarding, tasks, counterevidence
Updated
2026-07-22
Source
research/evidence/EV-HANDOFF-2026-B6E8--onboarding-is-multidimensional.md

Evidence Record

Evidence summary

Interviews with 32 developers and 15 managers, triangulated by surveys of 189 developers and 37 managers, found that onboarding tasks affect learning, confidence, and socialization and require situation-dependent strategies.

Interpretation

A reconstruction-time pilot is too narrow to claim improved onboarding. It can test task continuation only.

Limitations

Single-company case study and self-reported outcomes; nevertheless it is strong counterevidence against collapsing onboarding into document comprehension.