IT teams would love to innovate faster and deploy new software more frequently, but they are being held back by slow-moving quality assurance, a lack of skilled staff, insufficient funding and various other issues.
According to a new report from code improvement platform Rollbar, a faster-moving innovation cycle would boost the confidence of IT teams, leading to further innovation.
Polling 950 developers for the report, Rollbar found that a quarter of developers deploy code into production every month or two, with another quarter deploying every two weeks. Six percent deploy only twice yearly.
While the majority (36 percent) claim to be held back by slow-moving quality assurance, a significant portion (30 percent) said their team was too small. For some, budget limitations are their biggest obstacle, and for others it’s inaccurate project management. In some cases, it’s the lack of leadership and long-term vision that slows the innovation cycle down.
Almost all developers polled for the report (86 percent) said improvements on these fronts would boost their confidence and help them deploy faster. New capabilities would help them iterate more quickly, too.
Most of them (40 percent) want better error-fixing tools, but they would also love better project management, a bigger team and more funding.
“Developers want to have an idea, write it in code, and have the user experience that idea,” said Cory Virok, CTO and co-founder at Rollbar.
“But the reality is that the code that’s meant to deliver these experiences is often riddled with errors and bugs. In an effort to provide a stellar customer experience, developers are spending up to 40 percent of their time on testing and quality assurance. Yet software is never perfect, and the pursuit of perfection acts as a barrier to iteration and innovation.”
