Meet Margaret-Anne Storey
Margaret-Anne Storey is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Victoria and Canada Research Chair studying the human and social aspects of software engineering. Her work spans developer productivity and experience, collaboration, knowledge sharing, software visualization, and human-centered AI-assisted software development, with recent focus on how generative and agentic AI affect technical, cognitive, and intent debt in software teams.
Summary of Margaret-Anne Storey’s portfolio
Margaret-Anne Storey is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Victoria and a Canada Research Chair in the Human and Social Aspects of Software Engineering. Her portfolio is an academic/research website built with Jekyll, combining a short bio, research profile, publications, talks, teaching, activities, and a blog.
Her work sits at the intersection of software engineering, human-computer interaction, information visualization, social informatics, and knowledge management. A recurring theme is understanding how people—especially software developers and knowledge workers—make sense of complex systems, collaborate, share knowledge, and stay productive.
Main areas of work
From her research page, Dr. Storey’s research focuses on:
- Human and social aspects of software engineering
- Developer productivity and developer experience
- Software tools and processes
- Communication and collaboration in software teams
- Program comprehension and knowledge sharing
- Software visualization and data analytics
- Human-centered approaches to AI-assisted software development
She leads or works with the CHISEL research group and notes opportunities for exceptional PhD students/research assistants interested in data analytics, visualization, and software engineering tools/processes.
Current and recent research themes
A strong current focus is the impact of generative and agentic AI on software development. Her recent blog posts explore ideas such as cognitive debt, intent debt, and how AI-generated code can change the nature of technical debt. In “How Generative and Agentic AI Shift Concern from Technical Debt to Cognitive Debt”, she argues that AI may make it easier to generate code quickly while making it harder for humans to maintain a shared understanding of what the system does and why.
Her selected publications include influential work on developer productivity and experience, such as:
- “The SPACE of Developer Productivity”
- “DevEx: What Actually Drives Productivity?”
- “An Actionable Framework for Understanding and Improving Developer Experience”
- Work on software teams working from home during COVID-19
- Research on GenAI, software engineering, code review comprehension, impostor phenomenon, and mixed methods research
Recognition and community roles
Her about page lists a substantial set of awards and roles. Highlights include:
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
- Honorary Doctorate from Lund University
- MSR Foundational Contribution Award
- Canada Research Chair appointments from 2005 through 2028
- Multiple distinguished paper and best paper awards
- Leadership roles in major software engineering conferences and journals
Her activities page shows broad service to the research community, including collaboration with Microsoft Research, involvement in Developer Velocity Lab work, and co-founding software developer diversity and inclusion efforts.
Talks and public engagement
Her talks page lists many keynotes and invited talks. Recent talks focus on:
- Generative AI and agentic AI in software development
- Developer productivity and developer experience
- Cognitive debt and technical debt
- Human-centered AI-assisted software engineering
- Software bots and collaboration tools
She has given keynotes at venues such as ICSE-related conferences, CHASE, ASE, MSR, and other international software engineering events.
Teaching and community projects
Her teaching page lists recent University of Victoria courses including Startup Programming, Software Testing, Empirical Software Engineering, Computer-Supported Collaborative Work, and Human-Computer Interaction.
She also maintains Sewire, a visualization and community resource for “Software Engineering Women in REsearch,” including a map, spreadsheet, and Slack community.
Social profiles
The site links to her social profiles:
Overall, the portfolio presents Margaret-Anne Storey as a leading software engineering researcher focused not just on code and tools, but on the people, teams, social systems, and knowledge practices that make software development successful—especially as AI reshapes how software is built.