How to Become a Master at Software Delivery
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How to Become a Master at Software Delivery
With quality software proving essential for positive customer experiences and digital transformations, organizations must overhaul their development practices. -
Customer Focus
47% of the business and IT executives surveyed said software development is essential in successfully delivering a better customer experience, up from 34% who said this in 2015. -
Market Assessment
46% said software development is essential in successfully driving growth and expanding within current markets, up from 30% who felt this way two years ago. -
Tools for Transition
45% of the executives surveyed said software development is essential for a successful digital transformation, up from 32% who said this in 2015. -
Business Improvement Priorities
Making security a more embedded part of software development: 44%, Designing apps and systems with better quality and consistency: 41%, Gaining greater insight into customer needs to improve app performance: 40% -
Room for Improvement
Only 28% of the executives surveyed rated their organization as "very effective" in the continuous delivery of software, and just 32% provided the same assessment of their ability to be productive via DevOps automation. -
Reactive Position
Just 24% "strongly agree" that their IT operation uses analytics to evolve from break-fix approaches to continuous improvement. -
The Best and the Rest: Outstanding Delivery
61% of executives at companies considered "masters" in software development and delivery said their firm understands what customers need and strives to deliver the best customer experiences. Just 22% of those at "mainstream" organizations agree. -
The Best and the Rest: Prime Product
53% of the executives surveyed at masters said their IT department is "very effective" at delivering apps with improved quality and consistency, but only 24% of those at mainstream companies said this. -
The Best and the Rest: Optimal Alignment
52% of those at masters said their IT department is "very effective" at prioritizing software development according to business goals, compared to just 15% of those at mainstream organizations who claimed this. -
The Best and the Rest: Worth the Wait
49% of executives at masters said their senior business management understands the importance of not compromising software quality or security for time-to-market, but only 15% of those at mainstream organizations said this was the case. -
The Best and the Rest: Teamwork
47% of executives at masters said their company's culture and practices support collaboration throughout development, operations and IT security, but just 17% of those at mainstream organizations claimed this.
While modern approaches to software development and delivery are emerging as make-or-break factors for achieving a competitive edge, few organizations excel in practicing continuous delivery, deploying DevOps-enabled automation or adopting other digital transformation-worthy tools and techniques, according to a recent survey from CA Technologies. The resulting report, "Don't Let an Outdated Software Strategy Hold You Back: Learn Best Practices from the Masters of the Modern Software Factory," categorizes companies as either "masters" of software development and delivery or "mainstream," with masters outperforming in areas such as agility, insights, automation and security. Master organizations are better at producing apps with improved quality and consistency, for example. They also do a superior job of prioritizing software development according to business goals, while encouraging a more collaborative culture. Given this, it may not come as a surprise that master organizations have seen profit growth of 17 percent over the last year, compared to 10 percent at mainstream businesses. Organizations must "adopt modern software development practices, such as embracing agile, increasing automation wherever possible, using machine learning and analytics to generate insights, and integrating security into the development process to do a better job of driving growth," said Otto Berkes, executive vice president and chief technology officer of CA Technologies. "If you don't have a modern approach to software … you will be left behind in a world where the masters are the winners." More than 1,275 global senior business and IT executives took part in the research, which was conducted by Freeform Dynamics.