Humans all around the globe have been living in a state of perpetual fear ever since COVID-19 disease was declared a global pandemic. This pandemic has had a massive and unprecedented impact on the lives of millions across the globe, triggering feelings of isolation, confusion, frustration and hopelessness. This apprehension coupled with the economic meltdown is also because many people are experiencing severe symptoms of depression. The spread of COVID-19 is a significant threat to the society both as a result of the possibility that people may suffer from financial distress and due to its unknown mental stress. The pandemic is assumed to be this century’s most fatal world health calamity as well as the biggest obstacle being faced by the humanity since the Second World War [1]. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on January 31, 2020. This meant that the disease could result in significant harm to several countries and required an immediate, collaborative worldwide response [2]. Further to the announcement, the WHO confirmed the outbreak of COVID-19 as a “pandemic public health menace” on 11 March 2020. COVID-19 cases have grown alarmingly in several countries across the globe [3].

Premature findings demonstrate that marginalized people suffer significantly from the financial and health consequences of the COVID-19. The absence of face-to-face interactions and virtual confinement due to shutdowns has led to anxiety, depression, psychiatric illnesses, impacting the health of individuals as well as the social system as a whole [4]. The COVID-19 disease outbreak is much more than just a health emergency; at its core it affects the economy and the society. Although the effects of this pandemic may vary significantly from country to country, economic inequality and imbalances would most probably increase on a worldwide scale. The global spread of COVID-19 has also produced several privacy, data safety, and security concerns for the software industry [5–7].

The COVID-19 disease outbreak has affected the markets and different industries around the world. Software industry has registered a substantial rise in demand for software applications. This rise can be directly attributed to COVID-19 disease outbreak, and its industrial consequences have attracted considerable attention from the academicians and researchers. Every human being goes through wellness and illness throughout their lifespan [8]. While illnesses are personal, the infection starts affecting the patients and family members first and then the entire social group. Gradually, the struggle of many individuals from illnesses over a period of time along with the synchronous replication of illnesses by interpersonal social layers, the socio-cultural consciousness of the illnesses, and the imbalances encountered in accessing healthcare services become the major crisis areas. These issues call for a societal standpoint. More specifically, in case of a pandemic, since many individuals are infected by the same contagion, they impact populations differently as against the classical illnesses. Pandemics are seen as dreadful phenomena in social histories [8–10]. They are known to cause enormous panic among common people, compelling them to live in a state of fear and uncertainty. Pandemics disrupt life’s natural process, and everyone has a specific experience of the disease outbreak. Therefore, health information begins to emerge that is passed on from one generation to another.

Hence, this research attempts to implement a hybrid method that uses the integration of fuzzy and fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to calculate the effect of Coronavirus dispersion on numerous factors of software industry. Using the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach, we selected different software industry’s factors that were affected by COVID-19 pandemic on the basis of some specified criteria. MCDM is Operation Research’s most significant component through which people can take their daily decisions in a nuanced manner. Several researchers are modeling many of the MCDM instruments. All these MCDM ideas are built on decision-making behavioral issues. Individuals pick the best alternative options in the MCDM procedure with regard to certain factors. These MCDM techniques have also been used to solve different decision making issues due to COVID-19 pandemic [11–14]. Thus, to obtain accurate and conclusive results, the present study also employs the MCDM technique for the intended estimation.

The rest of this paper has been arranged as follows: Section 2 discusses the impact of novel COVID-19 on software industry. Section 3 deliberates upon the materials and methods used in this research study. Section 4 presents the empirical analysis and findings of the proposed study. The results’ sensitivity analysis and comparison with different approaches are detailed in Section 5. Section 6 discusses the findings of this research study. Finally, Section 7 presents the conclusion.

Pandemics have always damaging effect on industries at all levels. COVID-19 pandemic is not only a worldwide health emergency; it is also the biggest cause of economic upheavals across the globe now. As the world grapples with the crisis and works towards containing the spread of the virus, the policymakers should also plan for the next step. The next “natural” is not however. However, there is no definitive pattern or standard available to aid the decisions of the strategists. Moreover, the standard operating procedure in the case of preventive measures for Coronavirus like social distancing, wearing masks is not accessible to everyone. The modern reality is made of ambiguity, confusion and possibilities. Unfortunately, the pandemic has further underscored these debacles. In such a scenario, organizations have to be flexible and agile with robust mechanisms that can help them to adjust and survive. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the software industry, affecting the supply of resources, interrupting the production chain of the consumer products, besides triggering inflation risk in goods. In a positive way, the interruption led to acceleration in the phenomenon of working remotely, like work-from-home is the new norm in most of the organizations now. In this process, the end-to-end chain has been tested and made risk-free. Moreover, limited or no travel in the recent months implied less vehicular pollution. Thus, decrease in carbon emissions may contribute to a renewed emphasis on sustainable growth.

The Coronavirus outbreak has pointed to revamped tech expenditure growth estimates in 2020. A survey’s findings published on Statista Portal demonstrate the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the consumer spending trend from May 2020. Though most customers foresee no adjustments in their tech spending, the majority of the respondents reported a decrease in spending than a rise in spending. This trend of decline in spending covers nearly all the industries [5]. The graphical representation of this study can be seen in Fig. 1. Most software developers do have action plans; however, these plans do not completely resolve the rapidly evolving uncontrollable factors of an emergency such as COVID-19. Standard safety measures are structured to ensure operating efficiency following, among many other items, natural disasters, cyber-attacks and power failures. Normally, they do not take into consideration the common quarantines, prolonged university shutdowns and additional travel bans in the emergency situation for healthcare systems. Hence, the impact of the pandemic on the software industry has been detrimental in more ways than one.

The impact of COVID-19 on different software industry factors evaluated with the help of fuzzy-ANP-TOPSIS method. This process includes Eqs. (1)–(20), and is detailed below:

The authors in this article produced some statistical findings with the help of uniform Saaty scale shown in the Tab. 2 along with the use of Eqs. (1)–(9), converted the textual words into numeric measurable representation. The triangular fuzzy numeric (TFN) values were then combined. Eqs. (3)–(6) were used to turn correct numerical values into fuzzy TFN values. In addition, the Level-1 variable comparative matrix is calculated in the pairs. Afterward, Eqs. (10)–(20) were used for evaluating both the accuracy metrics and the random index (RI) of the formulas. A matrix for pair-wise comparisons has a random index of below 0.1, which implies that the matrix is pair-wise (Tabs. 3–8).

According to the findings of this research study as presented in Tab. 8 and Fig. 4, the Closeness Coefficient (Ci) of different alternatives is estimated as- 0.31215, 0.32425, 0.21245, 0.27859, 0.27854, 0.28457 and 0.25658 for SA1, SA2, SA3, SA4, SA5, SA6 and SA7, respectively. The findings show that SA2 software industry factor is highly affected by the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.

In order to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, all regional and federal governments worldwide suspended both the international and domestic travel. Besides this, most of the countries adopted temporary phases of shutdowns/lockdowns as a means to break the chain of transmission and reduce the Coronavirus cases. Numerous religious, educational, cultural, professional, sports and mass political conventions such as the conferences, festivals, Olympic games, etc., were cancelled. These countermeasures have undoubtedly been successful in containing the spread of the pandemic. As per the findings of this study, the software industry did not respond to the pandemic with increased responsiveness. Notably, as per the experts, ambivalence is not appropriate for the industry structure amidst the looming threat of the pandemic and the alerts about hand-washing and cleanliness, social separation and staying home need to be adhered to. Respondents also noted that perhaps the software industry does have a remarkable ability to follow the rules. Moreover, the respondents have faith in the government, the healthcare system and medical facilities and the consistency of the nation’s decisions in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the respondents were also mindful of the information being disseminated by the media platforms about the accurate implementation of strategies to contain COVID-19. The findings show that the Government administration based software application is the worst affected factor due to the pandemic. This is software application or the administration constraints that the people are now facing due to COVID-19 pandemic. The other Software application categories that have been influenced can be ranked in the following descending order as per their ranking: Non-profit, IT & Security, Education, Insurance, Financial and Healthcare.

The battle against COVID-19 is a prolonged one and is likely to affect different spectrums of software industry. Moreover, given the magnitude of disruption and upheaval that this pandemic has unleashed, some of the consequences could be far reaching and may be tabulated at a much later date. In such an unpredictable scenario, individuals require perseverance and strength to preserve positive communication and also to satisfy their essential necessities without any problems. Our study has been carried out in the early stages. It is very important that individuals who are stranded in different places or facing isolation due to quarantine impositions remain perseverant so as to thrive in the prevalent social construct at this tragic time. Most pertinently perhaps, information should be given or action needs to be taken to improve the service trust associated with economic initiatives.

In summary, COVID-19 is a worldwide concern which calls for workable and prompt solutions from not only each country’s governments but citizens and communities as well. Government agencies must provide the public with exact information that would help them to cope up with this serious infection. Citizens in turn must religiously follow the guidelines laid down by their respective State governments. Continuous medical research and dedicated management initiatives to restrict the spread of the COVID-19 are mandatory. Any further damage likely to be done by COVID-19 pandemic can be controlled through sustained preventive mechanisms that will be successful only with societal participation. The COVID-19 disease outbreak has had a number of different impacts on the whole planet. Every individual has been hit in one form or another; some have gone bankrupt, others have lost their loved ones. The Software industry has not been and is not likely to be debilitated by COVID-19 in the near future, but, like every other industry, due to the worldwide pandemic it has certainly seen some adjustments. The Software industry has already dealt with negative issues and has emerged more resilient than before. Coronavirus tends to intensify the introduction of technology in the workplaces and the increase is likely to persist even after the COVID-19 disease outbreak. Implementing robots and AI has the potential to keep companies running in the phases of social distancing as well as significantly reduce security related risks to the users. Hence the overall impact of the pandemic on the software industry has not been voluminous. Moreover, should the industry invest in more AI mechanisms, better outcomes can be accomplished.