Improving Productivity and Motivation : Success Factors for DevEx and DevRel during onboarding in the Public Sector

Sammanfattning

Background. Software development involves a critical onboarding phase where the new hire acclimates to their working environment, with typical ramp-up times ranging from 3 to 12 months. Improving Developer Experience (DevEx) and Developer Relations (DevRel) during this period is essential for productivity, yet there is a lack of context-aware recommendations suited for large-scale, public sector software organisations. Objectives. This thesis aims to identify which onboarding initiatives positively impact DevEx and DevRel within large, public sector software organisations in Sweden. Furthermore, it seeks to determine the critical success factors behind the implementation of these onboarding initiatives. Methods. To explore the state of the art and compare it to the state of practice, the research combines a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), adapted as a Rapid Review, with a qualitative Case Study. The case study was conducted at Trafikverket, a Swedish government agency responsible for infrastructure employing around 450 software developers, utilising semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis to validate literature recommendations against practical constraints. Results. The findings demonstrate that DevEx is improved by human-centric, pedagogical mentoring frameworks that prioritise psychological safety and mutual, bidirectional feedback. However, practitioners hold conflicting views regarding the optimal number of mentors due to communication overhead. Technologically, prompt engineering is highly valued for comprehending legacy code, but fragmented adoption, AI-generated bugs, and data privacy requirements hinder its standardised use. Practitioners rely heavily on visual dashboards and automated testing to provide the safe, corrective feedback necessary for codebase exploration. Finally, DevRel is enhanced when dedicated teams standardise internal tools and proactively engage new hires without causing information overload. Conclusions. The success of implementing these onboarding initiatives hinges on structural factors such as progressive task selection, project standardisation and accounting for public sector constraints, such as the inability to provide monetary incentives. This research highlights a severe disconnect between academic literature and industry practice, as large public sector organisations struggle with fundamental onboarding practices due to systemic under-resourcing and a lack of context-aware guidance. Future research must address the integration of local, non-cloud Large Language Models (LLMs) in restricted environments and investigate optimal mentor-to-mentee ratios.