  [Context] The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disruptive impact on how people
work and collaborate across all global economic sectors, including the software
business. While remote working is not new for software engineers, forced
Work-from-home situations to come with both constraints, limitations, and
opportunities for individuals, software teams and software companies. As the
"new normal" for working might be based on the current state of Work From Home
(WFH), it is useful to understand what has happened and learn from that.
[Objective] The goal of this study is to gain insights on how their WFH
environment impacts software projects and software companies. We are also
interested in understanding if the impact differs between software startups and
established companies. [Method] We conducted a global-scale, cross-sectional
survey during spring and summer 2021. Our results are based on quantitative and
qualitative analysis of 297 valid responses. [Results] We observed a mixed
perception of the impact of WFH on software project management, resilience, and
innovation. Certain patterns on WFH, control and coordination mechanisms and
collaborative tools are observed globally. We find that team, agility and
leadership are the three most important factors for achieving resilience during
the pandemic. Although startups do not perceive the impact of WFH differently,
there is a difference between engineers who work in a small team context and
those who work in a large team context. [Conclusion] The result suggests a
contingency approach in studying and improving WFH practices and environment in
the future software industry.
