Hyrynsalmi, Sonja M., authorBaltes, Sebastian, authorBrown, Chris, authorPrikladnicki, Rafael, authorRodriguez-Perez, Gema, authorSerebrenik, Alexander, authorSimmonds, Jocelyn, authorTrinkenreich, Bianca, authorWang, Yi, authorLiebel, Grischa, authorACM, publisher2025-09-252025-09-252025-05-27Sonja M. Hyrynsalmi, Sebastian Baltes, Chris Brown, Rafael Prikladnicki, Gema Rodriguez-Perez, Alexander Serebrenik, Jocelyn Simmonds, Bianca Trinkenreich, Yi Wang, and Grischa Liebel. 2025. Making Software Development More Diverse and Inclusive: Key Themes, Challenges, and Future Directions. ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol. 34, 5, Article 134 (May 2025), 23 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711904https://hdl.handle.net/10217/242031Introduction: Digital products increasingly reshape industries, influencing human behavior and decision-making. However, the software development teams developing these systems often lack diversity, which may lead to designs that overlook the needs, equal treatment or safety of diverse user groups. These risks highlight the need for fostering diversity and inclusion in software development to create safer, more equitable technology. Method: This research is based on insights from an academic meeting in June 2023 involving 23 software engineering researchers and practitioners. We used the collaborative discussion method 1-2-4-ALL as a systematic research approach and identified six themes around the theme "challenges and opportunities to improve Software Developer Diversity and Inclusion (SDDI)." We identified benefits, harms, and future research directions for the four main themes. Then, we discuss the remaining two themes, AI & SDDI and AI & Computer Science education, which have a cross-cutting effect on the other themes. Results: This research explores the key challenges and research opportunities for promoting SDDI, providing a roadmap to guide both researchers and practitioners. We underline that research around SDDI requires a constant focus on maximizing benefits while minimizing harms, especially to vulnerable groups. As a research community, we must strike this balance in a responsible way.born digitalarticleseng©Sonja M. Hyrynsalmi, et al. ACM 2025. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in TOSEM, 2025, https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3711904.diversity and inclusionmetricsmethodologiesintersectionalitysocioeconomicsknowledge transferTexthttps://doi.org/10.1145/3711904