R user or R Developer? The survey results

We asked this question to the Community and are now ready to present the results.

< !--more-->

Running up to the Panel Discussion “R User or R Developer? This is the question” at the useR!2021 conference, Mirai conducted a survey regarding what makes one an R Developer and how does it differ from being an R User.

The Survey

The Google Form survey was taken by 156 participants between 2021-06-28 and 2021-07-13, and presented 8 technical questions spanning from the definition and skills of an R Developer (for which we reckon there is no consensus in the Community), to what roles exist in the job market and what characteristics make R an approachable programming language, maybe ready for production?

For a quick overview of the results, check out the panel discussion slides:

Otherwise, with this post we would like to present the results of the survey.

< !-- #### Question 1: "Define R Developer" -->

In the preparation of the panel we discussed the topic extensively, both internally and with the panelists. We therefore realized, how varied the view of the definition of R Developer is. With the goal of reaching a common understanding, we asked the Community to pick a description of an R Developer, starting from the more diverse opinions we had collected up to that point. Interestingly, about 48% of the participants picked as definition “someone who develops tools for others to use (also domain specific)”.

< !-- #### Question 2: "How do you consider yourself?" -->

Since the R Developer and R User roles seem not clearly differentiated, it is not surprising that on a scale between 1 and 5 (where 1 meant “R User” and 5 meant “R Developer”), the participants distributed themselves almost uniformly, with a slight pick towards the R User side.

< !-- #### Question 3: "Is R a programming language for production?" -->

Independently of considering themselves an R User or an R Developer, the majority of the survey participants agreed, that R is a programming language ready for production.

< !-- #### Question 4: "Is there a role such as an R developer in your company/place of work?" -->

We also asked about what the job market is currently looking for. We wondered if there are such roles as R Developer or R User in the place of work of the survey participants and which skills were needed for those roles.

< !-- ##### Question 5: "If yes, what skills are required by your company for the "R developer" role?" -->

< !-- #### Question 6: "Is there a role such as an R user in your company/place of work?" -->

< !-- ##### Question 7: "If yes, what skills are required by your company for the "R user" role?" -->

< !-- #### Question 8: "What makes R an approachable language?" -->

Finally, a key factor in R’s popularity is without any doubt its approachability for people without a software engineering background. So we asked the Community what characteristics made R an approachable language.

It is a pleasure to see that the kind and inclusive R Community is one of the main reasons of R’s success among its users.

Follow up

If you are interested in having a look at the raw data, do not hesitate to contact us directly.

If you missed the panel discussion during the conference, you have now a chance to watch it on youtube.

< !-- –>