UK teams are struggling to keep pace with software deployment standards due to skills gaps, leading to inefficiencies and costly delays.
According to Salesforce DevOps platform Gearset, UK software deployments are 26 percent more likely to be delayed than delivered ahead of schedule.
These delays are not isolated incidents and impact 82 percent of UK businesses surveyed. The financial impact is considerable, costing organisations an average of £107,000 annually due to stalled software rollouts.
Analysing the performance data against benchmarks from Google’s most recent DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment) report, the study paints a concerning picture of UK capabilities. The average British organisation deploys new software just once every 29 days. When delays occur, they add an average of 3.8 months to project timelines.
Further metrics place UK performance firmly in the ‘low performing’ category according to DORA standards. The average lead time for changes stands at 17 days, and the time taken to recover from a failed deployment averages five days – both indicators of sluggish DevOps pipelines.
The primary reason cited for this UK underperformance is the strain on development teams from skills gaps. Over half (51%) of respondents pointed to under-resourced teams – lacking sufficient personnel or appropriate tools – as the main obstacle to more frequent and successful deployments. This creates a challenging cycle where stretched teams cannot implement solutions that could alleviate their workload.
Compounding this issue is the prevalent IT skills shortage, which has impacted 87 percent of teams surveyed. This dearth of expertise makes it harder to adopt and manage applications designed to support efficiency. Specifically, implementing and maintaining vital automation tools was highlighted by 43 percent as the top consequence of the skills gap—a key area that could improve deployment frequency and reliability.
Perhaps most worryingly, the Gearset study uncovered a significant disconnect between the perceptions of business leaders and their IT departments regarding deployment success and the root causes of delays.
Business leaders presented a far rosier picture, reporting only 10 percent of deployments were delayed versus 40 percent being early. This contrasts sharply with the view from the coalface, where team leaders stated 52 percent of deployments faced delays and just two percent arriving early.
This misalignment extends to identifying the causes of setbacks. Business leaders uniquely pointed towards the development of AI tools (54%) as a reason for delays. However, this perception appears at odds with findings that a lack of automation within software development pipelines is the second-largest overall contributor to delays, cited by 30 percent of all respondents.
“IT teams in the UK are capable of performing at the elite level with the right people and tools, but misalignment and underinvestment is causing them to stall,” commented Jack McCurdy, DevOps Advocate at Gearset.
The findings suggest that until UK businesses address skills gaps, foster better communication and strategic alignment between management and technical teams – alongside targeted investment in skills and automation – they will continue to lag behind global deployment standards, impacting their agility and bottom line.
“Breaking the cycle of delays requires businesses to close the gap between leadership and IT teams, to ensure that deployments are considered as a core part of a business’ wider strategy,” adds McCurdy.
“IT teams know what needs fixing: better automation and more skilled staff. But unless IT teams and leadership can bridge the gap to align with those priorities, delays will continue to cost time, money, and competitiveness.”
See also: Mozilla open-source tools help developers build ethical AI datasets
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