Reveal Survey Finds ‘Skilled Developer Shortage’

The biggest business challenge this year will be recruiting developers with the right skills, according to more than half (53 percent) of the software developers and IT professionals responding to the new Reveal “Top Software Development Challenges for 2022” survey released by Infragistics today.

Reveal’s annual survey examined the pain points, challenges and growth areas for developers and IT professionals in the future.

Other major difficulties identified in the Reveal survey include struggles maintaining current talent (46 percent) and not enough time to get work done (31 percent). More than a third (40 percent) of software industry professionals are facing increased customer demands and 39 percent are working with limited resources (lack of budget, unable to maintain software).

The Reveal survey findings are supported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which says that Software Developer is one of the top four in-demand professions over the next 10 years with almost 200,000 difficult to replace openings every year. Retirement, exiting the workforce and moving to different occupations is highlighting this projected shortage of developers.

Not only are there not enough developers to meet demand – but those who are available may lack the necessary software development skills for popular frameworks.

Respondents to the Reveal survey identified Blazor as the platform that most (64 percent) managers are looking to recruit skilled developers for, followed by .NET (48 percent), Angular (40 percent) and React (37 percent).

About half of the survey respondents plan to address developer shortages by using low-code/no-code (app builder) tools, design-to-code platforms and other software that will work for citizen developers.

“In today’s tight job market, where demand for experienced employees outstrips supply, organizations are turning to new solutions that can address insufficient skills, solve problems and save money,” explained Jason Beres, SVP Developer Tools, Infragistics. “There is a growing need for innovations that can help meet the demand for building applications faster and with fewer resources.”

The most successful companies are embracing remote work and developing strategies that enhance collaboration and productivity. Organizations are gravitating toward platforms that streamline their apps into a digital workplace that combines multiple capabilities — for instance, data dashboards, chat, content and task management — in one place.

This move toward new solutions that embrace remote and hybrid work is evidenced by the 54 percent of survey respondents who plan to save money in 2022 by incorporating a digital workplace platform. In addition, nearly half of respondents plan to use remote staff and downsize their physical office space.

“The pandemic and the transition to remote work accelerated the need for digital workplace platforms that can help organize workflow, files, communication, and even manage and analyze data from a single app,” noted Beres. “In this new digital workplace, the less time people spend app-switching, the more time they’ll spend being productive.”

To download the Reveal 2022 survey report, click here.