By Daniel Shiloh and Jacob Cole, Office for National Statistics
In the autumn of 2020 over 1000 government analysts responded to the coding in analysis and research survey (CARS). We were interested in how they use code and how much they knew about using software engineering practices to improve quality and efficiency in their analysis.
Below are some things we’ve learned so far. Keep in mind: our sample is not necessarily representative and is likely to over-represent people interested in coding.
1. People’s coding skills get better with practice
The more people use code in their work, the more their skills improve. Our findings also show that people who don’t code in their work often feel they are losing their skills. Hardly surprising!