Important project context — Knowledge data 2026 | Stack Overflow Developer Survey

Developer Survey 2026

Question

When working on a project or task, which types of context are most important for you to have? Select up to 5.

multi select
Optional
v2026.1

Data

	Respondents	Percent
Project goals or requirements	10,806	85.2%
Code, repositories, or technical documentation	9,297	73.3%
Prior decisions and rationale	5,580	44.0%
Related tickets, tasks, or issues	4,679	36.9%
Business goals or product strategy	4,189	33.0%
Pull requests, commit history, or release notes	3,332	26.3%
Customer or user feedback	3,296	26.0%
Team norms, preferences, or ways of working	3,183	25.1%
Compliance, security, or policy requirements	2,498	19.7%
Current status or ownership	2,490	19.6%
Past discussions in chat, email, or meetings	2,000	15.8%
Data, dashboards, or reports	932	7.4%
I do not usually need additional context	266	2.1%
Other	79	0.6%

Use this data

Citation

Response data is released under the ODbL 1.0, which asks that you attribute it.

Stack Exchange Inc. (2026). “Important project context”. Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026. Licensed under ODbL 1.0. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/knowledge/data/context-select

JSON

Structured for code, with the question, the year and the source url alongside the numbers.

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Markdown

A formatted table, ready to paste into a document, an issue or a prompt.

|  | Respondents | Percent |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Project goals or requirements | 10,806 | 85.2% |
| Code, repositories, or technical documentation | 9,297 | 73.3% |
| Prior decisions and rationale | 5,580 | 44.0% |
| Related tickets, tasks, or issues | 4,679 | 36.9% |
| Business goals or product strategy | 4,189 | 33.0% |
| Pull requests, commit history, or release notes | 3,332 | 26.3% |
| Customer or user feedback | 3,296 | 26.0% |
| Team norms, preferences, or ways of working | 3,183 | 25.1% |
| Compliance, security, or policy requirements | 2,498 | 19.7% |
| Current status or ownership | 2,490 | 19.6% |
| Past discussions in chat, email, or meetings | 2,000 | 15.8% |
| Data, dashboards, or reports | 932 | 7.4% |
| I do not usually need additional context | 266 | 2.1% |
| Other | 79 | 0.6% |

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