Some ten years ago, when the software development industry blew up, every IT office had a common area with a ping pong table, a decked-out kitchen, and couches. Some even had pool tables. It was one of the most coveted jobs on the market, and companies knew that keeping developers happy would ultimately benefit them. However, these days, the industry struggling to find quality developers is realizing it is on the verge of a massive change. People need more than fancy lounge rooms and extra free time to play with toys in the office. Software developers want to love the experience of doing their jobs.
What is DevEx?
Developer experience or DevEx is a developer-first approach to improving processes software engineers encounter daily, from tools to practices and culture. Developing software is very hands-on, so software engineers are involved every step of the way. The organizational culture, efficiency of workflows, and the functionality of tools and methods all significantly impact how engineers perceive their roles within the company.
The best possible scenario for an outstanding developer experience involves intuitive tools that enable engineers to focus on what they do best. The statistics show that over 50% of organizations spend only 30 to 40% of an engineer’s time on feature development. That is why we see a considerable gap between development and operations. Software developers don’t want to be constantly sabotaged by inadequate procedures and technological hiccups when they should be focusing on problem-solving. A company that allows these practices to continue too long will never get the hang of advancing in the market.
The Global Demand for Developers: A 2024 Outlook
We can expect to reach 29 million developers on the job market worldwide in 2024, but we still need to catch up with the pace of the demand. Tech is everywhere, and the need for developers is skyrocketing. In the next ten years, we can expect software development jobs to increase by 25%, which doesn’t imply just the tech industry. The astronomical market acceleration in the last five years means digital goods and services are paramount in all industries. Therefore, everybody needs developers, not just tech companies.
And it’s not only the private sector. The public sector is shifting significantly towards fluid workforce models, so government departments are also in high demand for tech-savvy personnel. They are trying to emulate the practices of tech companies and stay ahead of the curve by attracting and retaining software engineers. However, even though experts in the market report tremendous pressure to train, hire, and search for qualified developers, not many companies have bulldozed these five DevEx obstacles.
Obstacles You Can Overcome by Investing in DevEx
The root cause of poor developer experiences is not looking at the developer as the customer. By taking the perspective of your developers into account, you should focus on fixing these five obstacles:
1. No Interface Automation
As mentioned above, statistics show that 30 to 40% of an average developer’s workday revolves around fixing bugs and determining other low-value tech issues. If you don’t allow your developers to automate processes and rely on intuitive tools, they won’t be sticking with you for too long.
2. The Tedious Hardware Hunt
In the early stages of new technology projects, hardware and infrastructure could be hard to come by. The hunt for these tools births long feedback cycles, inhibits iteration, and lowers the quality of the end product. According to the Harvard Business Review, engineers are 230% more motivated and 85% more likely to stay in the company longer than three years if they have the necessary technology. Developers who feel they can rely on their tools are eager to deploy code and innovate in ways that enable efficiency.
3. The Onboarding Hurdles
If the onboarding part of the process lasts too long, your code takes too long to enter production. If your developers fight tooth and nail to get licenses and permission, it will inevitably crush their motivation. Good DevEx cuts the onboarding time to get the new developer to start coding as soon as possible, while setting up a production date they will be happy with.
4. Hindered Cross-functionality
All the teams, from development to operations, should collaborate but not become codependent. Even though every hierarchical organization inevitably suffers from fragmentation, your DevEx efforts should go into organizing that fragmentation, avoiding the up-the-ladder, down-the-ladder passing of duplicate, meaningless, or simply overbearing information. This means your team should be able to own and integrate responsibilities across the entire product life cycle. Ideally, the developer experience should only include one process and pipeline for their workflow. But for now, most enterprises are not able to provide such conditions.
5. Decision Fatigue
Developers who don’t receive adequate assistance in utilizing APIs, libraries, or platforms are likely to experience decision-making fatigue. Just like micromanaging, the absence of guidance makes your team lose motivation while trying to decipher how to solve the problem. And burnt-out teams will cause delays and quality issues.
Reasons to Prioritize DevEx
DevEx acts as a supportive framework that attracts and retains great developers. You want your developers to focus on speeding up the interface by 26% rather than figuring out how to connect Lambda to API Gateway. No wonder it has become a central value engineers seek when searching for employment.
1. Increasing Productivity and Efficiency
When developers rely on the right tools, workflow, and culture, they will work more efficiently. AI can help automate coding by introducing low code development into your workflow. This means they will deploy codes more quickly and even fix those pesky bugs with quicker turnaround times.
2. Improving Output Quality
One company that achieved a high level of fluidity in the developer deployment experience is Uber. They have motivated their engineers to innovate, allowing them to develop a new route-finding algorithm in weeks instead of months. The results have them running circles around the competition. In summary, improving output quality and incentivizing experimentation fosters better quality products and opens doors to developing new exciting features.
3. Reducing Operational Costs
Exceptional DevEx leads to a more efficient use of resources. Because your developers aren’t spending 60% of their time debugging, they can follow Uber’s example to experiment with the new features and achieve potentially groundbreaking results.
4. Reimagining the Tech Workforce
It has been proven that flexible, skills-based organizations are more than 100% likely to assign projects to their workforce effectively and 98% more likely to retain that workforce. In 2021, 82% of American enterprises couldn’t pursue their goals due to a lack of skilled staff. And those numbers aren’t any better in 2024. Organizations that want to cultivate and retain their talent must be open to fluidity and transformation.
Since the number one incentive for software developers to accept a new job offer is the type of work they would do, it’s time to offer them flexible career paths. Mercedes-Benz has an exciting strategy where they have categorized their IT talent into skills-based departments to facilitate flexibility in switching staff between roles or projects. Technology leaders can implement this by organizing it into data science, customer success, or human skills to improve onboarding and maximize the capabilities of their hires.
Decoding Talent Retention with DevEx
Because managers cannot be sure why some engineers leave or why others are hard to attract, developer experience is a great tool to address these issues. Since the tech industry is one of the strongest, retaining talent is especially important.
We have all seen competitive pay is not always enough. An engineer can suddenly start packing after a year, but it’s rarely about money. Most of the time, it’s the little things. Are the problems interesting? Do managers trust the developer’s expertise? Are the testing tools working without glitching? Finally, how often do operational costs get out of hand? All of these are moving parts of your enterprise that are overlooked too often, yet they are the magma under your seemingly smooth-running operations.
Instead of constantly searching for software engineers and hiring them for maintenance, rather focus on creating a flexible culture and invest in Developer Experience (DevEx) to level up your operations. This will help you attract highly skilled professionals who can take your business to new heights.
