The results of a survey, run by Tasktop using their licensed Forrester Modern Application Assessment Tool, indicate that despite the ongoing adoption of agile, lean, DevOps and other "modern" approaches to software development, there is still a large gap between IT development priorities and the needs of customers and business people in many organisations.
The survey covers topics such as customer needs- application development and delivery objectives and strategies, business value, metrics, tools and more. The survey respondents were all IT professionals across a range of roles: developers, tech leads, project managers, chief technology officers and other titles.
The key findings indicate that, despite the widespread uptake of modern approaches to development, the gulf of understanding between business strategy, customer needs and IT delivery is still firmly entrenched.
- Only six percent strongly agreed that they could trace the contents of a software release back to business needs or customer satisfaction
- Just nine percent strongly agreed that their application development and delivery strategies were aligned with business strategies
- Only 15 percent strongly agreed that their work management tools assist in coordinating the work of the software delivery team satisfaction
Betty Zakheim VP, Industry Strategy at Tasktop Technologies, said of the survey results:
It seems that in spite of a strong industry drive toward being more responsive to the the needs of the business, there are still large gaps in how organizations realize the benefits of the tools they use to support these initiatives.
Any parties interested in taking the survey and receiving an assessment can do so here.