Developer shortage still the top challenge

Finding developers with the right skillset remains the top challenge for software developers and IT professionals in 2023, according to new data from Infragistics — even as the industry experiences mass redundancies across the globe.

A survey of over 2000 IT professionals found more than one-third (38%) of respondents are having trouble recruiting skilled developers, with DevOps Engineer, Data Analytics Developer and IT Security Engineer identified as the most difficult roles to fill.

While the vast majority (89%) of developers work with a designer or design team, nearly half of their time (43%) is spent on coding apps. The lack of skilled developers is being solved by the use of low-code/no-code tools in three-quarters (77%) of organisations.

“The industry continues to face a struggle in filling skilled software development positions as we race to digitise the business world,” said Casey McGuigan, Reveal and Slingshot Product Manager, Infragistics.

“Organisations are turning to new solutions like low-code/no-code tools that require little to no upfront hand-coding to address insufficient skills, solve problems and save money.”

Communication and collaboration difficulties

Other key pain points in 2023 are the communication and collaboration difficulties within remote and hybrid teams. Now that many organisations have moved to remote/hybrid teams and downsized their physical presence (only 19% of software developers and IT professionals are working fully onsite), difficulties communicating and collaborating with team members in the new digital environment have arisen.

More than half (58%) of respondents said they have more time to complete work projects due to reduced commuting time, four in 10 (42%) have trouble keeping track of projects and a third (32%) said they are less productive in the hybrid environment.

Just under a third (32%) of software developers incorporated new software for remote/hybrid workers in 2022, as they struggled to identify the best ways to ensure optimal productivity. More than half (54%) want to use one tool where everyone can collaborate and resolve issues. Another 48% would like to automate workflows and processes and 44% prefer to eliminate manual file sharing.

“The remote/hybrid workplace has resulted in myriad issues, as software developers installed new online collaboration tools and sought ways to improve productivity,” McGuigan said.

“This is where all-in-one digital workplace tools benefit organisations by eliminating time-consuming app switching, incorporating project and task management, content management, collaboration, data analytics and data catalogue capabilities, allowing teams to manage workloads more intelligently, stay on top of deadlines and make smarter business decisions that are backed up by hard facts.”

2023 software development challenges

Keeping pace with innovation in developer tools and managing workload, security threats and project management were also identified as pain points for 2023.

The survey found that software developers plan to better utilise their resources in 2023 by improving project management (30%), improving designer/developer collaboration (30%), using software that will work for citizen developers (27%), utilising remote staff (25%) and incorporating a data catalogue/analytics catalogue (25%).

Other major challenges in 2023 will be an inability to keep pace with innovation in developer tools (28%), difficulty with third-party integration (27%), struggles to manage workload (26%), security threats (26%), project management (26%) and client expectations too high (26%).

Embedded analytics is still on the rise

Embedded analytics and business intelligence continue to rise in popularity with eight in 10 software developers (80%) incorporating these analytics tools into their products in 2022, a 3% gain over 2021.

The demand for embedded analytics in apps developed for clients is also burgeoning, with almost half (48%) of developers embedding analytics into client apps in 2022, compared to 31% in 2021. Three-quarters (75%) of software developers expect their organisation’s focus on business intelligence to increase in 2023.

“Embedded analytics help end users uncover insights without the help of data analytics experts,” McGuigan said.

“More and more organisations will be embracing embedded analytics tools in 2023 because they are the key to improving productivity, increasing sales and revenue, understanding business problems and making better business decisions.”

Business took a downturn in 2022

The data shows that there has been a slight decrease in revenue growth with just 19% of respondents reporting an increase in revenue in 2022, compared with 25% in 2021. The percentage of developers who took on new projects dropped slightly in 2022 with 33% reporting new endeavours, compared to 36% in 2021. Just a quarter (25%) expanded into new markets, a drop of 8% over the previous year. Requests for proposals also declined in 2022, with a 12% decrease over 2021.

“Tech companies expanded rapidly during the pandemic and although some are restructuring and belt-tightening in the wake of overexpansion, digital transformation initiatives provide new opportunities for growth and revenue,” McGuigan said.

“During the slowdown, businesses will continue to invest in IT infrastructure, applications, customer experience and digital transformation initiatives.”

The full survey results can be found here.

Image credit: iStock.com/Dmitry Kovalchuk