Software deployments are plagued by delays: Rampant skills shortages and underinvestment are slowing down processes – and it’s costing businesses big
UK software deployments are running an average of four months beyond schedule, new research shows, with delays affecting more than eight-in-ten businesses.
According to a new study by Gearset, deployments were 26% more likely to be delayed than delivered early, with these delays costing organizations an average of £107,000 per year.
The average organization doesn’t deploy all that often – once every 29 days on average – but delays hold this up by an average of 3.8 months, the report found.
When the UK’s performance is rated against industry standards from Google’s most recent DORA report, the 17-day average lead time for changes and five-day failed deployment recovery time also ranked as low-performing.
“If a developer spends more than 5% of their time on deployment, it’s often due to quality issues like slow or incomplete tests, poor code standards, unclear processes, or environment drift,” Kerry Proksel, senior director for engineering at National Debt Relief told the researchers.
A leading factor behind the UK’s poor national performance, the report found, was under-resourced development teams, cited by more than half of respondents.
Skills shortages are hitting 87% of IT teams, and more than two-fifths said this was causing problems with implementing and maintaining automation tools.
“IT teams in the UK are capable of performing at the elite level with the right people and tools, but misalignment and underinvestment is causing them to stall,” said Jack McCurdy, DevOps advocate at Gearset.
“Breaking the cycle of delays requires businesses to close the gap between leadership and IT teams, to ensure that deployments are considered as a core part of a business’ wider strategy.”
A deployment disconnect is emerging
There’s something of a disconnect between business leaders and IT departments when it comes to how they perceive the success of software deployments and the causes of delays.
When asked about the success of delivering deployments on time, business leaders reckoned that only one-in-ten was delayed and that 40% were delivered early. Team leaders, though, had a rather different view, reporting that 52% were delayed and just 2% early.
A lack of automation in software development pipelines was the second largest reason for delays, cited by three-in-ten team leaders. More than four-in-ten said they couldn’t push through automation due to skills shortages.
Business leaders, though, saw things differently, with 54% blaming the development of AI tools for delays.
“IT teams know what needs fixing: better automation and more skilled staff. But unless IT teams and leadership can bridge the gap to align with those priorities, delays will continue to cost time, money and competitiveness.”
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