---
title: "Important project context — Knowledge data 2026"
url: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/knowledge/data/context-select
year: 2026
chapter: "knowledge"
question: "ContextSelect"
section: "Context Challenges"
licence: "ODbL 1.0 (https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1-0/)"
---

# Important project context

Project goals (85%) and code/technical docs (73%) are the most needed context types.

Asked as: When working on a project or task, which types of context are most important for you to have? Select up to 5. (`ContextSelect`, multi select, optional, v2026.1)

## Options offered

1. Project goals or requirements
2. Prior decisions and rationale
3. Current status or ownership
4. Related tickets, tasks, or issues
5. Code, repositories, or technical documentation
6. Pull requests, commit history, or release notes
7. Customer or user feedback
8. Business goals or product strategy
9. Compliance, security, or policy requirements
10. Team norms, preferences, or ways of working
11. Past discussions in chat, email, or meetings
12. Data, dashboards, or reports
13. I do not usually need additional context
14. Other, please specify (with free-text entry)

## Results

### All Respondents

n = 12,678

|  | 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% |

In context: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/knowledge/data.md