Communications of the ACM
Report Highlights Impact of Covid-19 on Software Delivery
Credit: Accelerated Strategies
The shift to remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed organizations to shuffle their IT priorities by putting more emphasis on digital transformation, DevOps, and public cloud initiatives according to a report commissioned by CloudBees Inc. The report is based on responses from 347 technology professionals around the globe about the impact of the pandemic on software delivery. One finding identified in the report is that virtual work is helping software teams become more productive.
CloudBees engaged Accelerated Strategies Group to determine whether Covid-19 restrictions had forced organizations to change their use of tools for remote work as well as what kind of impact the pandemic was having on software delivery teams. The research included evenly distributed survey responses from small, medium, and large companies. Three-quarters of the responses came from North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, with the highest concentrations coming in equal numbers from individual contributors and managers.
The survey results are published in "The Future of Remote Work and Software Development."
"While Covid-19 has had a traumatic impact on the well-being and health of many respondents, the shift to remote work gives us some insights into how businesses may look as they continue to adapt and recover," says Mitchell Ashley, CEO and managing analyst of Accelerated Strategies Group. "Software teams and other business functions have seen demonstrable benefit from working remotely, though time will tell which changes are permanent and/or beneficial in the mid-to-long term."
The research by Accelerated Strategies revealed a shift in IT priorities due to the pandemic and its economic impact:
- Nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents said digital transformation objectives have somewhat or significantly increased in priority.
- Slightly more than half said their firms placed higher priorities on increasing their DevOps initiatives (52%) and contracting with public cloud service providers (52%) as a result of the pandemic restrictions.
- Other DevOps initiatives are advancing as well, with 56% saying their firms are now practicing daily standup meetings, 46% are using cross-functional teams, and 43% are automating tasks.
Remote work during the pandemic is also pushing teams to be more efficient:
- Well over half, or 59%, of survey respondents said their software teams have become somewhat or significantly more productive.
- 42% said they're finding it easier to complete work tasks in a timely fashion.
- The research also revealed some surprising results. Specifically, that the pandemic has actually reduced some of the burdens on software teams. For example, 61% of respondents found it easier to work across time zones, specifically indicating the newfound ease of working with staffers on different continents (39%).
"The responses underscore how IT organizations aren't sitting back during Covid-19 — businesses are asking IT to be more strategic and teams are taking steps to increase cross-company collaboration and become more efficient at software delivery," says Shawn Ahmed, senior vice president and general manager, Software Delivery Automation, CloudBees. "Software, DevOps, and CI/CD [continuous integration/continuous delivery] automation will play key roles in the post-pandemic recovery and organizations are putting a high priority on these areas right now."
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