Application development industry faces major challenges

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Demand for application development is soaring, but the industry faces some major challenges according to a new report.

The study from OutSystems shows the number of applications slated for delivery in 2019 has increased by 60 percent, and 38 percent of respondents plan to deliver 25 or more apps this year.

But with this demand come problems, 46 percent of respondents say the average time to deliver a web or mobile application is five months or more. Not surprising then that 64 percent of IT professionals say they have an app dev backlog, and only 39 percent say their backlog has improved in the past year.

Skills shortages are an ongoing issue, 75 percent of respondents describe app dev talent as scarce, and only 36 percent of organizations have larger app dev teams than a year ago. The numbers appear to show that retention of app dev talent is as much a concern as recruitment.

Agile practices are still slow to mature, 60 percent of organizations have invested in agile tools and services in the past year. However, the average agile-maturity score is only 2.7 out of five, meaning most organizations are still in the process of defining agile processes.

"Our 2019 survey shows that many IT departments are facing a multitude of disruptive forces when it comes to digital transformation and application development," says Steve Rotter, CMO for OutSystems. "The threat of digital disruption and the need for digital transformation has been a driver of IT strategy for years. Add to that the current uncertain global economic outlook, and it becomes obvious why business leaders are so concerned about agility today."

Among other findings are that low-code techniques are fast becoming mainstream, 41 percent of respondents say their organization is already using a low-code application platform. A further 10 percent say they are about to start using one. Respondents are 26 percent more likely to describe their organization as satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the speed of application development when using low-code.

There's more information in the full report available from the OutSystems site.

Image Credit: Stokkete / Shutterstock

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