We’re proud to unveil our first-ever State of Software Quality report. This research report's goal was to uncover challenges and trends that affect modern software development companies in their quest to produce high-quality, secure software.
Along with valuable insights garnered from our research—surveying more than 400 software development professionals—we also offer recommendations that can help teams improve the quality of software they’re shipping in today’s rapidly evolving development environment.
Challenges Are Diverse
Ensuring code and software quality is difficult for various reasons. According to our survey, the most common challenge development teams face is time constraints. Other challenges mentioned include keeping up with the changing face of technology, team collaboration, and not having the proper tools.
Our main takeaway? Many interconnected factors make producing quality code challenging. Certainly, the rapid pace of development and the pressure to ship code faster weigh heavy on developers, who are struggling with time constraints.
The solution, then, must also be multifaceted and demands a holistic approach that includes improving processes, upskilling, enhancing collaboration, and making sure that teams have the tools they need to produce better software at an accelerated pace.
Teams Recognize the Importance of Code Reviews
Despite the pressure to deploy as quickly as possible, a majority of developers recognize that code reviews continue to play a crucial role in ensuring the quality and maintainability of code.
More than half (53%) of the developers we surveyed consider code reviews a mandatory part of their workflow.
Once again, time constraints are the biggest obstacle.
To tackle this problem, 32% of developers surveyed have dedicated time slots specific to conducting code reviews, with another 32% integrating code reviews into their daily routine.
Having clear code review guidelines in place acts as a roadmap for developers and reviewers, ensuring consistent, high-quality code across your team. Our survey results reinforce this—56% of respondents use standardized checklists or guidelines for code reviews.
Developers Have Fully Embraced AI Tools
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer just a buzzword. AI-assisted code creation and code review tools are transforming how software developers work.
Our survey found that 64% of developers have integrated AI into their code production workflows, either extensively or for certain aspects like smart autocomplete and boilerplate code generation.
Also, 28% of developers extensively use AI in their code review processes, while 33% use it for specific code review tasks.
Automated Tools Remain Underutilized
Our survey found that most teams still favor the manual approach across all types of testing. Over 40% of teams still conduct unit and frontend testing manually. Despite the advantages that automated testing offers, the low adoption level is easy to understand.
Implementing automated tests requires investment in tools, training, and skilled personnel. Initial setup and script development for automation can also appear daunting, and teams already accustomed to manual testing are often resistant to change.
Adoption Rates Are Increasing for Cloud-Based Development Environments (CDEs)
With geographically distributed teams becoming the norm, CDEs are becoming more popular. For decades, software development relied on local development environments. But code that functions perfectly on one developer's machine might not work on another. This can lead to a bottleneck in productivity and, by extension, negatively affect the quality of the software being developed.
The software industry is witnessing a pivot towards CDEs, with 50% of respondents considering the adoption of CDEs and 14% already using them for software development.
Cloud-based IDEs (like Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IDEs) seamlessly integrate with other cloud-hosted development tools, such as automated code review tools, code repositories, and CI/CD tools. This integration ensures consistency across development environments and better collaboration, ultimately enhancing developer productivity.
Challenges Exist in Advocating for Investment in Software Quality Initiatives
Convincing budget holders to increase technology investment is no easy task, but it can be done. In our study, we examined what actually works in organizations across a range of roles and industries.
Our data indicates that simplifying complex concepts and illustrating how investment in code quality aligns with overarching business goals are the primary challenges professionals face in getting buy-in from upper management.
To demonstrate value, 25% of our respondents create real-time dashboards to illustrate the impact of code quality on business performance.
Software Security Remains a Priority
According to IBM research, the average cost of a data breach is estimated at $4.45 million. How are teams keeping their data and resources safe with the prevalence and costliness of data breaches and cyber threats rising?
Our research shows that 84% of development teams conduct regular security audits, and 88% have a dedicated security team or person.
42% of respondents utilize static analysis security tools (SAST), while 45% employ dynamic application security testing tools (DAST). These tools help teams identify and mitigate security vulnerabilities in code and applications by analyzing code for potential weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and compliance violations.
Navigating the Future of Software Quality
At Codacy, we are dedicated to providing the insights and tools necessary for organizations to thrive in this new era of software development. Our code review platform provides everything from static code analysis for code quality and application security to AI-powered code assistance, supporting over 40 programming languages to help ship secure and high-quality software faster.
Access the full State of Software Quality 2024 report to gain a deeper understanding of the insights and recommendations.
