State of Developer Experience 2024
How much time developers are losing due to inefficiencies, the top causes of time loss, and more.
This is the latest issue of my newsletter. Each week I cover the latest research and perspectives on developer productivity.
This week we released a new report from DX and Atlassian on the state of developer experience in 2024.
Engineering productivity is increasingly becoming a key driver of company performance, yet it’s often an area that organizations have the least visibility into. In partnering with Atlassian on this study, we aimed to uncover the biggest opportunities for organizations to improve engineering productivity.
Additionally, because we conducted a two-part study with developers and leaders, we were able to explore the differences in their perceptions on how to address these challenges.
Here are the key findings from the report:
Developers lose a full day per week due to inefficiencies
Leaders feel they’re prioritizing DevEx but developers feel it's underemphasized
DevEx is a key factor in whether developers stay at their current job
Leaders are optimistic about AI but developers see limited current benefits
Find the full report here or continue reading for my summary.
My summary of the report
To understand the perspectives of both engineering leaders and developers, we ran two global surveys: Atlassian worked with Wakefield Research to survey 1,250 engineering leaders in the US, Germany, France, and Australia. DX surveyed 900 developers around the world. Here’s what we found:
Developers lose a full day per week due to inefficiencies
69% of developers lose 8 or more hours each week to inefficiencies. For a company with 1,000 developers earning an average of $100,000, that's a staggering $18.5M lost each year.
Naturally the next question was to figure out where this time is going. What are the main culprits behind this time loss?
Technical debt emerged as the top offender, followed by insufficient documentation. Other significant causes of time loss involved build processes, lack of sufficient time for deep work, and lack of clear direction.
Addressing the first two, technical debt and documentation, can require a more substantial, long-term investment. However, improving build processes, creating more time for deep work, and clarifying direction may be opportunities for relatively quick wins that can reduce time loss. (As always, start by understanding which of these problems are most widespread in your team or organization.)
DevEx is a key factor in retention
We identified that problems like technical debt and poor build processes cause waste, but we wanted to understand how much developers care about these problems existing in their daily work.
63% of developers said developer experience is either important or very important when deciding whether to stay in their current job. And nearly two out of three developers consider leaving if they're dissatisfied with their developer experience.
Leaders appear to recognize this: 86% agreed that attracting and retaining top talent will be difficult without improving developer experience. Additionally, 76% of organizations plan to invest more in developer experience within the next year.
However, less than half of developers (44%) believe that leaders are aware of the issues impacting their daily work, and only 23% of developers are currently satisfied with current efforts to improve these problems. Despite this dissatisfaction, the planned investments indicate a commitment from leaders to bridge the gap.
Leaders are optimistic about AI, developers are underwhelmed
When asked which areas would boost both developer productivity and satisfaction, many leaders (38%) pointed to adopting AI.
Developers, on the other hand, are less impressed with the current productivity gains from AI tools. A significant 62% of developers reported that AI tools have little to no impact on their productivity today.
Developers are more optimistic about the future potential of AI. 35% are moderately convinced that AI will improve productivity in the next two years, and 26% are very or extremely convinced.
While this report may not perfectly reflect everyone team’s situation, it should offer some valuable insights into what's dragging down productivity, the severity of these issues, and the impact AI tools are currently having.
To read the full report, go here.
If you have questions about this report, let me know below in the comments or on LinkedIn. I’d love to hear from you.
Who’s hiring right now
Here is a roundup of Developer Productivity job openings. Find more open roles here.
Citi is hiring a Director - Engineering Excellence | Texas
DoorDash is hiring multiple Developer Platform roles | CA, WA, NY
Opendoor is hiring a Senior Software Engineer - DevEx | Canada
Netflix is hiring a Product Manager - Platform | California
REI is hiring an Senior Manager - Platform Engineering | US
Samsara is hiring a Staff Software Engineer - Infrastructure | London
Sentry is hiring an Engineering Manager - DevEx | California
That’s it for this week. If you know someone who might like this issue, consider sharing it with them:
-Abi