Developers Spend More Time Fighting Documentation Than Code

Code Can Be Fleeting, Documentation is Forever

A recent Stack Overflow survey of over 800 developers found that while 84% are incorporating AI into their workflow, the biggest pain points aren’t directly related to coding – they’re tied to poor documentation and fragmented knowledge. Developers report spending 67% of their time working with proprietary code, but experience the most frustration with tasks like learning a codebase and managing support tickets.

Why This Matters

The ideal software development lifecycle assumes readily available, high-quality documentation, but reality often falls short. The cost of inadequate documentation extends beyond developer frustration; estimates suggest technical debt stemming from documentation gaps can consume up to 40% of a development budget, leading to delayed releases and increased maintenance costs.

Key Insights

• 66% of developers spend the most time working with proprietary code.
• Documentation gaps exacerbate frustration: Learning codebases ranks high in frustration despite being less time-intensive than coding.
• AI adoption doesn’t solve documentation woes: While 50% of developers use AI daily, documentation remains a core issue, with 39% not planning to use AI for documentation tasks.

Practical Applications

• Use Case: Stripe leverages robust internal documentation to onboard new engineers rapidly and maintain consistent code quality across teams.
• Pitfall: Ignoring documentation leads to “tribal knowledge” concentrated in a few individuals, creating a single point of failure and hindering scalability.

References:

• https://stackoverflow.blog/2025/12/10/tell-us-what-you-really-really-do-not-spend-time-working-on/