Jellyfish, a provider of an engineering management platform (EMP), published this week’s study that analyzes the time 23,000 software engineers spent working in 2021 and finds cycle times have improved to 12.6 days on average, down from 13.2 days in 2020. The study, however, also demonstrates that commits fell 4% year over year
Software engineers are opting to commit less code in favor of resolving problems faster, according to the data. Overall, coding days per engineer have been reduced by 8% to fewer than 1.6 days each week in 2021, according to the report.
The Software Engineering Productivity Survey Says
In 2021, engineering teams will devote 35% of their time to development and innovation, up nearly 6 percentage points from 2020. 19% of the time was devoted to infrastructure work in 2021, up almost 6 percent from 2020.In 2021, the mean number of hours spent on support work decreased by 4% year over year. The percentage of time spent working without a plan fell to 22% in 2021, up 3% from last year. On average, unplanned tasks account for 22% of the time software engineers spend working in 2021, a 3 percent increase from 2016.
Manufacturing organizations that use EMPs, on the other hand, spend similar amounts of time keeping the lights on and assisting customers as non-EMP users but invest 29% more time in innovation work and 48% less time on unplanned activities. Furthermore, teams who devote 50 percent or more resources to growth and innovation projects develop software three times faster than those who spend less than half their time on such tasks.
“The data from this study provides empirical evidence that software engineering productivity gains can be achieved by using an EMP,” said the CEO of Jellyfish. “We believe the manufacturing sector will see similar results as they continue to adopt EMPs.”
The study analyzed data from 23,000 software engineers across 21 industries in 2021. The data was collected through the Jellyfish EMP platform, which enables engineering managers to track employee work patterns and project progress.
Chappell said the data shows that “software engineers are working harder and smarter.”
“They are able to achieve more with less code and they are planning and executing their work with greater precision,” he said. “As a result, they are able to deliver higher quality software faster.”
Overall, remote and hybrid work models have continued to be embraced by teams in the last year, according to the study. Overall, organizations that enable software engineers to work from home are more productive but it’s difficult to tell if managers have completely adapted to the reality of hybrid job. The survey also found that per engineer pull request reviews increased by 27% in the last year, which Jellyfish believes is a result of “emptying out offices and working from home.”
Meeting with Growing Demand of Software Engineers and System Integrators
As companies continue to invest in digital transformation, it’s critical that they also invest in the tools and processes that will enable their software engineering teams to be successful.
In addition to the report, Jellyfish conducted a survey of 128 engineering CEOs that found that more than 79% anticipate to expand their staff in 2022, with 57% expecting more than 10% headcount increase. Improving operations, tooling and procedures (36%) is the top priority for them in 2022, followed by recruiting and retaining talent (18%).
Despite the fact that most (76%) of executives believe productivity metrics are important or critical to track, only 27% of them currently monitor them. More than two-thirds (67%) view productivity statistics as being very essential or crucial to track, yet just 27% of leaders currently follow them. The poll discovered that more than half (53%) of respondents want to see their organizations invest more in software development productivity.
“As the demand for software products and services continues to increase, it’s imperative that companies focus on improving the productivity of their engineering teams.”
While software engineers’ productivity might vary depending on the company, it’s evident that application environments are starting to have an impact on how much time they can spend developing and releasing new applications.The issue, as you can see, is that demand for new applications in the era of digital transformation has never been higher, which partly explains why so many businesses are having difficulties finding and keeping software engineers.
