The data from a new study by Couchbase revealed that 88% of respondents are aware of the challenges faced by development teams in terms of executing digital transformation efforts. Couchbase ia a provider of a modern database for enterprise applications.

“Organizations need to understand that when they are undertaking digital transformation, what they are actually doing is putting developers front and center,” said Ravi Mayuram, chief technology officer of Couchbase. “The modern business depends on the developer and development agility more than ever before. Development teams are not assisting the business, they are leading it to new frontiers through digital transformation.

The Couchbase global survey of 650 senior IT decision-makers found that development teams are under pressure and under-supported. Among the the top issues developers have to contend with include the difficulty in meeting deadlines and agility requirements (42%); that they were being asked to do too much in too little time (40%); or that they did not have the skills (24%) or technology (23%) they needed.

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The survey found 86% of respondents report obstacles in supporting development teams: The key issues that these enterprises report include difficulty redeploying development teams rapidly to work on new projects when needed (32%); ensuring development teams always have the right technology (31%); and identifying and solving the problems their teams face (31%). Additionally, 40% of respondents did not know for certain whether their development teams were behind or ahead of schedule and 27% found it challenging to follow the development team’s progress to ensure they are meeting their goal.

Digital transformation

The growth of development teams has stagnated, while digital investment is rising. Despite enterprises planning to increase digital transformation spend by 46% in 2022, developer teams only grew by an average of 3%t in the last year. To bridge the gap, organizations will need to invest in growing their teams while making existing teams more efficient. This can explain why 32% of IT leaders are specifically investing in new technologies that make developers’ jobs easier.

Without the right support, development teams aren’t able to drive digital transformation as quickly as the business may need them to. 34% of respondents said pressure from developers to support agile development and innovation was a driver for digital transformation projects, showing developers’ direct impact on the speed that an organization can move. Yet 19% said development teams’ inability to meet goals set for them had prevented their organization from pursuing new digital transformation projects in the last 12 months.