DEVOPSdigest

Technical teams driving innovation forward are feeling overwhelmed. In a survey conducted by Couchbase of 650 senior IT decision makers, development teams said they are under-supported and under immense pressure as they champion their organizations' modernization efforts.

A majority of respondents (88%) are aware of the challenges faced by development teams. Their top issues include 42% feeling that deadlines and agility requirements were difficult to meet, 40% believing they were being asked to do too much in too little time, 24% finding that they did not have the skills required to complete the tasks asked of them and 23% not having access to the necessary technology.

Despite development teams' extensive contributions, IT decision makers have difficulty providing adequate support and resources to keep initiatives on track. "Organizations need to understand that when they are undertaking digital transformation, what they are actually doing is putting developers front and center," said Ravi Mayuram, CTO of Couchbase. "The modern business depends on the developer and development agility more than ever before. Development teams are not just assisting the business, they are leading it to new frontiers through digital transformation."

Where Is the Problem?

Most respondents (86%) reported obstacles in supporting development teams, citing the following key issues:

■ 32% found difficulty in redeploying development teams rapidly to work on new projects when needed.

■ 31% struggled in ensuring development teams always have the right technology.

■ 31% also struggled to identify or solve the problems their teams face.

■ 40% did not know whether their development teams were behind or ahead of schedule.

■ 27% found it challenging to follow the development team's progress to ensure they are meeting their goal.

Lack of communication across teams makes it difficult for an organization to track progress, and in turn, stagnates growth. Developer teams only grew by an average of 3% in the last year. With the current lack of investment in resources for development teams, it is challenging for developers to meet business demand for modernization.

It's Time to Empower Developers

With 30% reporting that the pandemic has taught them how to empower their teams (perhaps many realizing that remote/distributed work is more beneficial than they previously assumed), 24% still find it difficult to gauge whether development teams are engaged in and enthusiastic about their work. The solution: identify new ways to enable productive progress that aligns with developers' needs.

Further illustrating the direct impact developers have on the pace of innovation, 34% said pressure from developers to support agile development and innovation was "a driver for digital transformation" projects. Plus, 19% said development teams' inability to meet goals set for them had "prevented their organization from pursuing new digital transformation" projects in the last 12 months. To alleviate these burdens, 32% of IT leaders are investing in new tech to make developers' jobs easier. With these new solutions, developers should no longer be forced to only pick from a predefined list of "approved" tools, improving developer experience and enabling more flexibility.

How organizations handle obstacles on the road to modernization will continue to impact goals and team morale. The role developer teams play is abundantly clear, so the more willing leaders are to invest in their teams' needs, the easier it will be for developers to expand their contributions across the organization.