Mobile first, tablets second for digital developers
- Summary:
- A new report from Forrester Research - Development Landscape: 2013 - paints an interesting picture of the role of developers, the corporate kingmakers who play a critical role in creating the engines that run the digital enterprises of today.
My old chum - and now one of the leading lights in the Shoreditch bearded digerati in London - James Governor of Redmonk has long argued the case for developers as the new kingmakers within enterprise organisations.
It's an idea I've always instinctively gone along with, but the developer community has typically been just on on the edge of my eye line over the years so I've never particularly engaged with it beyond listening to James in free-flow mode on the subject at various conferences.
I was interested though to cast an eye over a new report from Forrester Research - Development Landscape: 2013 - which paints an interesting picture of the role of these corporate kingmakers who obviously play such a critical role in creating the engines that run the digital enterprises of today.
Among other things, Forrester asked more than 1,600 software developers from North America and Europe about:
- the types of application they’re building
- the platforms and programming languages they use
- the developer practices they use to get things done
- careers aspirations
- how they learn new technologies.
There are some interesting top line conclusions to be drawn from the findings.
Mobile first?
All that emphasis CMOs place on mobile as a platform clearly suggests a need for good mobile developer skills.
But according to Forrester, those might well be at a premium. Only 30% of respondents say they have worked on mobile apps or mobile websites, compared to 63% of developers have worked on websites or web applications over the past two years.
The report observes that perceptions of mobile use and the reality back at base are different:
Read the trade press and you’d think that PCs and laptops have gone the way of the dodo, consigned to the dustbin of history by smartphones and tablets. Developers are certainly building more mobile apps than ever, but web applications and relational database applications are still a primary focus.
The study goes on to note:
Mobile is important, but it adds to the number of plates that developers must keep spinning.
Developers at small and medium-size businesses are leading the shift to mobile (34%) and NoSQL technology (15%).
Developers at large firms are more likely to work with established technologies; only one in four has recently worked with mobile technology.
HTML5 rising
Native mobile platforms face a stiff challenge thanks to HTML5, according to Forrester's conclusions with developers spending more time on HTML and JavaScript than any other programming language. This means:
While mobile web proponents face a tough battle against native platforms when it comes to user experience, it appears that the economic advantages of maintaining a common code base are a suitable tradeoff for many.
Forrester predicts:
Developers building consumer-facing apps will continue to choose a native platform approach, while those building enterprise applications and connected mobile apps will move toward web and hybrid deployments, trading ultimate experience for reduced cost and increased portability and maintainability of the code base in the process.
Keep taking the tablets
Those mobile developers who are out there are of course focusing on iOS and Android with the iPhone still the priority device for 35% of respondents compared to 27% who target Android phones first.
Supporting the iPad is almost as important to developers with 27% ranking it as their second priority device.
It is very much a case of mobile first, tablet second however:
Android tablets also get a lower priority than Android phones.
And while Windows phones come in a respectable fifth place on developers’ priority lists, there’s a significant drop-off for Windows RT tablets, BlackBerry, and all other devices.
I, developer
From a perception stand point, today's developers don't see themselves as software factory code crunchers, but as creative professionals who want to be part of the wider creative process. The report argues:
Modern software developers are creative, learn socially, and generally enjoy being developers. They’re creative professionals, not drones - and they’ll function better in co-located “feature teams” of three to five people in a development shop with high transparency and a full understanding of the value business sponsors need them to deliver.
Forrester urges that understanding the psyche of the 21st century developer is essential:
Most developers are intrinsically motivated. The way that developers view their craft adds fuel to the argument that writing software is more creative pursuit than algorithmic endeavor. We constantly speak with professionals who “are developers” — they don’t just “develop software.”
They identify with their craft: 71% of the developers we surveyed also write code on their own time, and one in three spends at least 5 hours a week on their own software-related side projects. Motivations vary, with self-improvement being the largest driver of personal programming.
Forrester argues that one measure of developers’ intrinsic motivation is how much of their own time they spend writing code:
Most developers (71%) spend at least some personal time each week programming; one in three spends at least five hours a week on personal projects.
The most popular reasons for personal programming involve learning about new technologies or keeping skills up to date (19% for each).
Another popular reason for personal programming includes using one’s skills as part of a hobby or pastime like home automation or 3D printing.
Verdict
There's a lot more good stuff in the report that bears your more detailed consideration.
But one of the author's Jeffrey Hammond sums up the overall mood of the piece when he states:
We’re winning some battles and losing others. Some of the results from this year’s data are heartening. Developers clearly care about building quality software, they are using testing tools — 28% are using a test-driven development approach — and quality is the top measure of success on development projects.
But we’re still not doing very well when it comes to flow and the downstream tasks associated with the regular delivery of code. And developers are spending more time on average dealing with email and attending meetings than they do working with business sponsors, writing test cases, or deploying code.
God save the king!