Expecting the Unexpected: Distilling Bot Development, Challenges, and Motivations

Software bots are becoming an increasingly popular tool in the software development landscape, which is particularly due to their potential of use in several different contexts. More importantly, software developers interested in transitioning to bot development may have to face challenges intrinsic related to bot software development. However, so far, it is still unclear what is the profile of bot developers, what motivate them, or what challenges do they face when dealing with bot development. To shed an initial light on this direction, we conducted a survey with 43 Github users who have been involved (showing their interest or actively contributing to) in bot software projects.