Business leaders are dissatisfied with the pace of software development, according to a recent study.
A new study by Forrester Research has shed light on the key factors contributing to the gap between business leaders' expectations and IT departments' delivery times for strategic IT services or software products. The study, sponsored by development consultancy ThoughtWorks, surveyed 325 business and IT leaders from the US, UK, and Australia.
The key findings reveal a combination of communication issues, unmet value expectations, skill shortages, legacy technical constraints, strategic misalignment, and technology integration challenges. These factors lead to longer delivery times and dissatisfaction with IT’s performance in delivering strategic services and products.
Communication gaps are a significant concern, with business leaders placing high importance on clear communication from IT and service providers. However, satisfaction with communication is significantly lower, creating a disconnect that impacts perceived delivery effectiveness.
Another issue is the mismatch in value perception versus delivery. While stakeholders prioritize value over cost, many feel they are not receiving commensurate value from IT or agency partners, contributing to unmet expectations and frustration.
The study also highlights a notable gap between the evolving need for specialized technical skills in strategic IT initiatives and the current supply within IT departments. This shortage limits their ability to meet business demands quickly and effectively.
Many organizations still operate using fragmented, outdated, or minimally integrated IT systems, which slows down delivery and hinders rapid, cohesive deployment of strategic IT and software products. This legacy technical debt is another major concern.
Investments in digital transformation often suffer because of poor alignment with operational excellence, lack of comprehensive strategic planning, and insufficient adoption — all of which delay delivery and reduce impact.
Over-reliance on standalone or siloed tools without proper integration or automation causes inefficiencies and delivery slowdowns in IT security and development, further affecting timelines for strategic deliverables.
The study also found that just 41% of IT leaders give developers access to self-provisioned resources, and only 44% of IT leaders consistently automate software deployment. The practice of rolling out large software upgrades intermittently, rather than small ones regularly, also slows down the development process.
Moreover, the majority of companies surveyed have a low level of maturity in continuous delivery. Forrester identifies a lack of slack time for process improvement as a factor slowing down the development process.
The findings are concerning, with over four out of ten (42%) business leaders seeing the software development function as "order takers". Over half (51%) of business leaders want "strategic IT services or software products" to be delivered within six months. However, when IT leaders were asked how quickly they could deliver such a product or service, only 30% said it would be within that time frame. Forrester described the finding that more than 41% would take over a year to deliver as "worrying".
However, Forrester argues that agile and lean development practices, continuous integration, and dev-ops techniques can reduce the time it takes to release new software. Many forward-looking development shops have adopted these principles and lean start-up practices to enable continuous delivery. The study mentions that these practices can help bridge the gap between business expectations and IT delivery times.
- The study reveals that technology integration challenges, such as the over-reliance on standalone tools and the lack of automation in software deployment, are contributing factors to the gap between business leaders' expectations and IT departments' delivery times for strategic IT services or software products.
- To address the gap between business expectations and IT delivery times, the study suggests the adoption of agile and lean development practices, continuous integration, and dev-ops techniques, which have proven effective in enabling continuous delivery and reducing the time it takes to release new software.
